E-Courses, Templates, and Sections

Using MU Online, you will create a template for the online class you will ultimately teach. You can add interactive tools and course content to the template—pretty much anything EXCEPT student data. Student data is added later to the section you actually teach.

Section is the word MU Online uses for the course you teach. When you are ready at the start of the semester, you assign the template to your section.

The assigned template is now linked to the section, and any changes you may make in the template are passed on to the section. A huge advantage of a template is that once you have it set up with the content, tools, and the way you want it to look, you can continue to assign it to as many sections in the future as you want.

Vista has three main components: course | template | section

COURSE	This is a permanent "house" for your TEMPLATES that you design/build/edit for a particular class; you can have many different templates in a COURSE----for summer, fall, spring, etc. (What you actually teach is the "section.")
	Example: link to a COURSE on your MyMU Online page when you login to Vista: HST333
*TEMPLATE*	The template is the "blueprint" for your course into which you place all of your course content, (syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, quizzes, exams, etc.), as well as the tools (mail, discussions, grades, etc.), you want to have available to students. You can create as many templates as you need. A TEMPLATE never contains students or student data. Templates are associated to your COURSE; you then choose from the associated templates in your COURSE the one you wish to assign to your SECTION (below).
	Example: link to a TEMPLATE inside a COURSE on your My MU Online page when you login to Vista: HST333_Hamilton_040105 (the numbers reflect the date the template was created)
*SECTION*	The SECTION is the "live" course--what you teach. Shortly before each new semester begins a blank SECTION is created for each course you are using for online instruction--whether it is an e-course, a t-course, a course supplement, or e-reserves. When you click on the SECTION, if there is more than one template associated to it, you are prompted to select the TEMPLATE you want to assign to the SECTION. If there is only one available, it will automatically be assigned to your section. On the Friday before the term starts your student data will be loaded automatically into the SECTION and will automatically update as students add/drop.
	Example: link to a SECTION on your MyWebCT page when you login to Vista: HST333 - HST-333-201

A brief word about TEMPLATES:

Once you assign a TEMPLATE to a SECTION, if you make changes to the TEMPLATE (changes to files you placed there such as syllabi, lecture notes, etc.), those changes will be passed down from the TEMPLATE to the SECTION.
Once a COURSE is created for you, you can create different TEMPLATES for that COURSE. Just be sure to give each one a unique name (and the date of creation is also useful), that you can recognize if at some future time you want to assign that TEMPLATE to a SECTION to teach.