Importing the Start Here module into your MUOnline course
powered by Blackboard, current version Vista 8.0.1

1. Log into MUOnline and open the desired template or section.
2. Under the Build tab, Designer Tools, click Manage Course
3. Click Import
4. In the new window, click Repository
5. Click Marshall University
6. Click the down arrow to the right of start_here_read_me_first, scroll to and click Preview
7. Review this inforamtion and print if desired. Once finished close this window.
8. Back a the Repository, Marshall University, click the radio button beside starthere801.zip
9. Click OK
10. Click Return

The Start Here module is now loaded into your course.

The following is also include in the Read Me First page

You will be back in the Build section for your course

To add the MUOnline Start Here icon

1. Click Add Content Link, scroll to and click Learning Module
2. Click Start Here
3. Click Add Selected

The Start Here module is now installed in your course section.

To add the MUOnline Start Here icon

1. On the Course Content, Home Page, click the down arrow beside the Start Here module scroll to and click Customize Link
2. Under Custom Icon for this Link click the Replace Icon button
3. In the new window, click Repository, Marshall University, Course Icons ( the window will take a minute to load the available files)
4. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click the radio beside starthereicon.jpg
5. Click OK (if you are asked to Subscribe, click Subscribe)
6. This will take you back to your Link Settings page, click Save

This module includes activities in the following tools:
Assessment
Assignment *see note below*
Discussion
Mail

If you do not plan to use one of these tools, remove that activity from the Orientation page (page 1 in the Table of Contents). If you need assistance with this, contact the Center for Instructional Technology at

• 304-696-3235
• 304-696-3237
• 304-696-3260
• 304-696-3272

*For the Assignment tool, you will need to go to the Start Here Assignment, click the down arrow, scroll to and click Edit Properities, and set the Due Date and Cutoff Date.

updated 11/21/08 KJS

Start Here Module for MUOnline (version 8.0.1)

To import the Start Here module into your MUOnline Course

1. Log into your desired section
2. Click on the Build tab
3. Under Designer Tools, click Manage Course
4. Click Import
5. Next window, click on Repository
6. Click Marshall University
7. Select Start Here801.zip file by clicking the radio button to the left of the file name
8. Click OK

You will get a message “Content Import in Progress”

Click on Return button

You will be back in the Build section for your course

To add the MUOnline Start Here icon

1. Click Add Content Link, scroll to and click Learning Module
2. Click Start Here
3. Click Add Selected

The Start Here module is now installed in your course section.

To add the MUOnline Start Here icon

1. On the Course Content, Home Page, click the down arrow beside the Start Here module scroll to and click Customize Link
2. Under Custom Icon for this Link click the Replace Icon button
3. In the new window, click Repository, Marshall University, Course Icons ( the window will take a minute to load the available files)
4. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click the radio beside starthereicon.jpg
5. Click OK (if you are asked to Subscribe, click Subscribe)
6. This will take you back to your Link Settings page, click Save

If you do not plan to use one of these tools, remove that activity from the Orientation page (page 1 in the Table of Contents). If you need assistance with this, contact the Center for Instructional Technology at

• 304-696-3235
• 304-696-3237
• 304-696-3260
• 304-696-3272

*For the Assignment tool, you will need to go to the Start Here Assignment, click the down arrow, scroll to and click Edit Properities, and set the Due Date and Cutoff Date.

updated 11/17/08 KJS

Marshall University defines plagiarism as a form of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism and its consequences is defined in theMarshall University Student Handbook.

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service as well as an online resource for faculty and students. Turnitin scans submitted students papers for similarity to material that may have been copied from the web, academic journals, and essays and assignments previously submitted to the Turnitin database. The scan produces an “originality report” for course instructors to review.

Turnitin uses a sophisticated method to detect an identical string of words as short as eight words. However, detection of these strings does not mean the work is plagiarized; these strings might be appropriately referenced or cited. The final decision as to whether plagiarism has occurred or not is made by the instructor.

All submitted papers become source documents in the Turnitin.com database and are used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism in papers submitted in the future. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Turnitin.com is very easy to use and will save you many hours of time you would otherwise use to check the originality of student papers. You will first need to set up an account. For account setup information, please contact Sabrina Thomas.

If you are new to Turnitin, you can also take a quick look:
(1) go to Turnitin.com
(2) click New to Turnitin?
(3) click sample.

Please make a note in your syllabus that you are using turnitin.com. Here is an example:

“In this course, students will submit papers to me through this Vista course and also to Turnitin.com. This a a plagiarism-detection service which is designed to protect everyone’s original work. Students agree that by taking this course their required assignments must also be submitted to Turnitin.com for review.”

Also include instructions for your students on how to submit papers to turnitin.com (for example….)

Go to this site: www.turnitin.com

• set up a student user profile
• enter the classID (xxxxxxx) and enrollment password (xxxxx)
• enter your email address
• enter a password
• enter your personal info
• agree to the terms of the site

Once you have set up your profile you will see that it is very easy to submit an assignment.

Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson, “Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” (American Association of Higher Education, 1987) has become a classic resource in the development of effective online courses. These seven principles, updated over time, are based on many years of research on good teaching principles. They apply to teaching and learning in the classroom or online.

(1) Encourage interaction between students and faculty.

Use the Discussion Board, Mail, Chat & Whiteboard to interact with your students. Also considering using our Wimba Voice tools or Pronto, an instant messaging service that includes a whiteboard. Join in with your students on the Discussion Boards!

(2) Encourage interaction and collaboration between students.

Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s ideas and responding to others improves thinking and deepens understanding. Encourage students to ask each other questions or react to each other’s work (via the Discussion Board, in Mail, or Chat, for example). Set up collaboration groups (you can assign private Discussion Topic areas to specific groups of students, assign Chat rooms, and set up a public Student Presentation area where each group can share their group work).

(3) Use active learning techniques.

Use the Self-Test tool for active review of materials. The Discussion board is a good place to have students comment publicly on issues & respond to each other’s reflections.

(4) Give prompt feedback.

Let students know what type of feedback to expect from you and how often. Be clear as to what type of feedback you’d like from them. Note that the Quiz & the Self-Test tools are a good ways of providing instant feedback.

(5) Emphasize time on task.

Use the Calendar tool as one way to keep students on-task. Timed quizzes emphasize time-on-task, as well.

(6) Communicate high expectations.

Provide students examples of “A”-quality work. Release statistics along with grades, so that students can see how they are doing in comparison to the rest of the class (stats can give the mean grade and/or the frequencies). Use the “Selective Release” feature to release course info only as students achieve a certain level of success on a test.

(7) Respect different talents, experience, and ways of learning.

**Modified from “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever” by Chickering and Ehrmann: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/webct/facultymanual/AfacCommun.html**

Here are 8 standards for good practice in course design for online instruction. We recommend that you check your own course against these standards.

#1 – COMMON HOME PAGE

Instructional Designers at Marshall University Online strive to design pages for all courses that have a similar look and similar navigational strategies. Our student instructional designers will create your course pages for you, and will give you any assistance you may need.

If you need course design help, please contact our instructional designers at x7117

#2 – COURSE SYLLABUS

Your course syllabus for your online class or classes must include the same syllabi items you would include for the traditional classes you would teach at Marshall. The online course syllabus must contain additional information related to online course instruction and delivery. Click here for a generic syllabus with all the required items.

#3 – STUDENT COURSE ORIENTATION

Information must be included on your online course homepage to orient the students as to (1) how your course is structured and (2) how online tools are used in the course. We suggest building in a clearly labeled set of course orientation instructions such as a page called “orientation” or “start here.” Our student instructional designers will create the orientation instructions for you and will give you any assistance you may need.

If you need course design help, please contact our instructional designers at x7117

#4 – STUDENT INTERACTION

Where applicable, we strongly recommend that you build into your course a means for students to interact with each other and with you. Online discussion and chat are two methods of doing this. Your role in online discussions can take various forms: you can set the initial question and provide prompts, intervene when necessary, or just turn the students loose.

PLEASE NOTE: For courses taught completely online, mandatory face-to-face activities and meetings should not be scheduled.

#5 – STUDENT DEADLINES AND INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK

We highly recommend that you set up regular deadlines for assignment submission and exams, much like the deadlines you may use in a traditional class. This helps students maintain a consistent pace for completing course work. It is especially important to require a very early assignment or a message from the student to the instructor. The sooner students start their work, the more likely they are to finish.

Online students expect quick response. Please be sure to be very clear on when students may expect feedback. Please maintain frequent and regular communication online with students throughout the semester, and alert them if you will be temporarily unavailable.

#6 – USE APPROPRIATE ONLINE MATERIALS

We encourage faculty to take advantage of all electronic media that is available and appropriate for your course content. Since web pages often change, faculty need to monitor the links you use regularly. All the links that you use for instruction must be in good working order.

As you plan the content for an online course, please consider:

1. Are the file sizes appropriate (not too large) and download times worth the wait?
2. Are audio clips and video clips supported by text for the disabled?

Copyright issues are extremely important. As the course instructor, it is your legal responsibility to identify copyrighted materials used in your courses and to cite it appropriately or obtain written permission to use it–before the beginning of the course. The course must be in compliance with the TEACH act. Visit our Copyright Basics page for detailed information.

#7 – COURSE EQUIVALENCE

An online course is equivalent to a traditional class except in the delivery format. Courses offered at Marshall University Online are the same as traditional courses, with equivalent objectives and outcomes. We recommend that you encourage your students to spend an equivalent amount of time preparing for and participating in an online course as they would spend in a traditional class.

#8 – HIGH QUALITY COURSE

Posting material to the Internet is a form of publication that reflects not only your own work but that of Marshall University. Our goal is that every course offered on MUOnLine meet the highest professional publishing standards of each faculty member’s discipline. In closing, please be sure that your course materials are professional in appearance and error-free.

All course materials online are protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States (Title 17 U.S. Code) governing the making of photocopies of copyrighted material. Under the terms of the TEACH Act, 2002, (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization) faculty can be named in copyright litigation. This law also clarifies how faculty can limit their liability in the use of copyrighted material.

NEED HELP WITH COPYRIGHT ISSUES?
Contact MU’s DMCA Representative: Dr. Monica Brooks,  Assistant Vice President for Information Technology: Online Learning and Libraries, x6474

2009-10 Copyright Training Schedule:

All faculty, staff, TA/GA students, are invited to attend any of the following copyright seminars designed to keep us abreast of Title 17 copyright law and the application of fair use guidelines to the higher education environment. If you are using any kind of A/V and electronic curriculum support materials in a traditional or online classroom, we can help provide some tools to aid you in making informed copyright use decisions. No RSVP is needed; just join us!

Location: Drinko Library Presentation Room 402 or MUGC 134

2010

• September 22, Wednesday, 10-11am
• October 19, Tuesday, 1:30-2:30pm
• November 11, Thursday, 10-11am

2011

• February 8, Tuesday, 10-11am
• April 12, Tuesday, 1:30-2:30pm

HOW DOES COPYRIGHT LAW AFFECT ME?

Faculty need to take copyright law very seriously when designing online or traditional courses at Marshall University. It used to be that a faculty member could claim ignorance and avoid being fined despite a copyright violation. That is no longer true. When it comes to copyright law, faculty and staff may be personally liable for fines or criminal charges.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you don’t know that you are infringing, you still will be liable for damages – only the amount of the award will be affected.

Copyright owners have the right to sue for damages for information or intellectual property of theirs that is used without their permission. The penalties for infringement are very harsh; the court can award up to $150,000 for each separate act of willful infringement. (Willful infringement means that you knew you were infringing and you did it anyway.)

Please note that the individual who takes an allegedly infringing action is not necessarily protected from a lawsuit if Marshall University is sued under the Copyright Law.

More On Copyright Issues

There is one special provision of the law that allows a court to withhold damages even if the copying at issue was not a fair use. It is called the good faith fair use defense [17 USC 504(c)(2)]. This defense applies if the person who copied material reasonably believed that what he or she did was a fair use – as would likely be the case if you followed the guidelines below. If you qualify for this defense, it makes you a very poor prospect for a lawsuit.

If you disregard the sound advice about fair use specified here, a court would be free to award the highest level of damages available.

Fair Use Rules of Thumb
Limit reserve or online course materials to:

• Single articles or chapters; several charts, graphs or illustrations; or other small parts of a work
• A small part of the materials required for the course
• Copies of materials that you or the library already possesses legally
  (i.e., by purchase, license, interlibrary loan, etc.)

Include:

• Any copyright notice on the original
• Appropriate citations and attributions to the source
• A Section 108(f)(1) notice.

Time Limit:
Limit access to students enrolled in the class. Terminate access at the end of the class term. Please note that this means you may use copyrighted material for a class one time.

Permissions:
Get permission for materials that you will use repeatedly for the same class. If you send out a legitimate request for permission and do not receive a response, you can use the material in question without violating copyright law. Just be sure that you can document you made the request.

Below is a list of very helpful sites which offer useful and relevant information on copyright law.

Copyright@Marshall University
A complete depository of information related to copyright law and how it applies at Marshall University.

Fair Use Basics
How to use copyrighted material appropriately and legally in teaching-from Kansas State U.

Copyright Ownership Tutorial
From the University of Texas

Common Questions. Direct Answers
Common sense answers to copyright questions on software, video, the Internet, and on infringements.

TEACH Act
Enacted by Congress in Fall 2002, this new law fully revises Section 110(2) of the U.S. Copyright Act governing the lawful uses of existing copyrighted materials in distance education. The law specifies the terms under which instructors can clip pieces of text, images, sound, and other works and include them in distance education.

TEACH Act Copyright Crash Course
Helpful information on how to understand the TEACH Act and apply it.

What is new in the TEACH Act?
A common sense explanation from the University of Washington.

LockDown Browser is a secured browser for online testing in MUOnline.
Instructors can choose to use LockDown Browser for certain or all assessments in their courses.
LockDown Browser requires a one-time download of the software package to your local computer.
For more information on LockDown Browser and the links to download it to your Windows or Mac computer please review

http://www.respondus.com/lockdown/installinfo.pl?ID=323615594

Instructors

To as the option of LockDown Browser to a specific assessment, go to the specific assessment, click the down arrow and select Edit Properities.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Security Properties
Click the square box beside Browser Restriction.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.

Each e-course includes a footer to important MU resources.

The first link is to the department or college web site where the course resides. Instructions for adjusting the first link in the footer are available.

For instructions on how to copy the desired code into the footer of your MUOnline course click here.

Use the code in the boxes below for the desired bookstore
[Huntington/MOVC or South Charleston/Beckley]:

There are several items requested to be included in an online course syllabus. This items include:

• Course title
• Department and College
• Instructor name
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Office location
• How students should communicate with instructor (MUOnline Mail or MU Email) and response time
• Instructor Biography
• Course Start and End Dates
• Drop dates, Reference to Academic Calendar
• Course Descripton
• Course Objectives
• Credit Hours
• Prerequisites
• Texts and course materials
• Cost of texts and materials
• Hardward/software requirements
• Grading
• Exam procedures
• Deadlines – exams, assignments,etc
• Time expectations to complete the course
• T-Course – Day/time/location of required face-to-face meetings

In an effort to assist in creating a course syllabus we have create a sample syllabus in Microsoft Word. You may click the link below and download the file to your local computer. (Watch out for your “pop-up blocker”.)

Click Here to download and save a copy of the Sample Syllabus to your local computer.

Once you have added the course information please save the word file then save the file as a .pdf and load the .pdf file into the MUOnline course. See below for instructions.

To save a word file as a .pdf file

1. Open the Word version of the syllabus file
2. Click the Windows icon in the upper left corner of the window
3. Scroll to Save As, then to Adobe PDF and click
4. In the new window, select appropriate file name, then click Save.

To load and link the PDF file to the Syllabus tool in MUOnline

1. Log into the MUOnline course
2. From the Build tab, click Syllabus in the menu
3. Select Use File, then Browse
4. In the new window, click the My Computer icon
5. Locate the file from your local computer, click on the file name, and click Open.

The PDF file is now linked to the Syllabus tool and is saved in the File Manager of the course.

As you teach online, we’ll be available to answer your questions, explain policies and procedures, and address your concerns as they may arise. We’ll help you navigate through the academic/development/technical issues and, when necessary, refer you to our very capable online instructional/technical staff.

Please take some time to review the information in this section. Then, if you have any additional questions about any aspect of online instruction, please contact us.

What do you need to know?

Is this your first online teaching endeavor? Get started here!
More Information

All about teaching online, intellectual property issues, and compensation.
More Information

What is the process for proposing and developing a new online course?
More Information

Are you are ready to begin a new online course project? Please use the Application for the Development of a New Online Course Form.

MUOnLine Notice:  The MUOnLine e-course faculty development stipend program ended on June 30, 2012.  Outstanding stipends will be honored through June 30, 2013 for e-courses that are completed and FDCOMI approved on or before this date.  — Dr. Monica Brooks, brooks@marshall.edu