Preparing for a New Semester

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Preparing for a New Semester

 

Vista Shells

Bb Vista course shells are created automatically based on the information in the Schedule of Classes. If you are listed as the Instructor of Record for a class, you should have access to the Bb Vista section already; please check at http://vista.nau.edu. If you do not see the Vista sections you expect, please check that you are listed in the Schedule of Classes as an instructor of the course; if you are not, please contact your department to have your scheduler add you. If you are listed in the Schedule of Classes but still do not see your section in Vista, please check your hidden course list. Instructions for hiding and un-hiding sections may be found here.

Enrollment

Instructor/Designer/Teaching Assistant enrollment is based on the information in the Schedule of Classes (SOC) -- the Extended Campuses and Peoplesoft (LOUIE) information systems. This is how instructor roles in the SOC map to roles in Bb Vista:

  • A Primary Instructor in the SOC is enrolled as a Designer and Instructor in Bb Vista
  • A Secondary Instructor in the SOC is enrolled as an Instructor in Bb Vista
  • A Teaching Assistant in the SOC is enrolled as a Teaching Assistant in Bb Vista
  • A Grader in the SOC is not enrolled in Bb Vista
  • A Student in the SOC is enrolled as a Student in Bb Vista
  • An Auditor in the SOC is enrolled as an Auditor in Bb Vista

The roles assigned to the faculty in the Schedule of Classes must reflect their actual teaching responsibilities. The roles are important for departmental course load reporting and university reporting. Please note:

  • If the instructor role in the Schedule of Classes does not reflect the role required in Vista, the department may email e-Learning Center at elc-help@nau.edu to request the desired Vista shell access. Example: Department requests that a Teaching Assistant have Designer Access along with the Primary Instructor. A person should not be assigned the Primary Instructor role simply to obtain Designer access in Bb Vista.
  • Departments should keep work load reporting in mind when making these decisions.
  • Departments are responsible for making sure anyone with access to the Grade Book or Roster has passed FERPA. FERPA training is available here: http://www.nau.edu/ferpa/

Please work with your department's class scheduler to assign the proper roles in the Schedule of Classes.

Copying Content

You may copy content from a previous course into your new Bb Vista sections. If you have taught a course in Bb Vista before, you will probably want to copy the course content from a previous course (e.g., Fall 2008) into your upcoming Bb Vista course. A walkthrough of this process, "Setting Up a Bb Vista Class", is available from the e-Learning Center website tutorials.

You may copy another instructor's Bb Vista content with the consent of that instructor or your Chair. If another instructor has taught the course you will be teaching, and you wish to use that instructor's content, the e-Learning Center must obtain written permission (email will suffice) before copying the content for you. Please have the instructor who taught the content or your department chair send a request to elc-help@nau.edu. Be sure the request includes the specific Bb Vista section to copy content from, and the specific section to copy content to. For example: "Please copy the content from John Doe's ACC-255, 1097-1234 into Jane Smith's ACC-255, 1101-9870."

Combining Sections

You may be able to combine multiple Bb Vista sections into one. For example, if you teach three different sections of an in-person course, and you deliver readings and other materials for the course in Bb Vista, it might be easier for you to combine the three sections into a single Bb Vista section for easier maintenance. All of the instructor and student enrollment from the various sections in LOUIE will combine into the single Bb Vista course section. In the Bb Vista course list, instructors will see one course section and students will see the section in which they are enrolled. NOTE: Combinations must be completed before the Start Date of your course! Please do not delay in requesting combinations... allow at least four weeks before the Start Date of your course, if possible. Last-minute requests may not be possible to fulfill.

There are three ways to create combined sections:

  • Primary Instructional Section (2 or more sections of a course with the same topic taught by the same instructor during the same term and session)
  • Cross-Listing (same course taught with different departmental prefixes)
  • Co-Convening (graduate and undergraduate courses of the same topic offered by the same instructor at the same time and place)

This is done by your department's class schedulers. Schedulers may contact Extended Campuses or the Academic Information Office as appropriate if they have questions about this process. Please allow at least four weeks before the start date to combine your Bb Vista classes to allow for changes to the Schedule of Classes, departmental approval, etc.

Student Access to Course

Students will have access to Bb Vista courses on the course start date as recorded in Peoplesoft. You may check the start date of your course in Peoplesoft.

Class Preview Page

All Bb Vista sections may have public pages (Class Preview Pages) that anyone can view in advance of the course start date at http://classes.nau.edu. These pages contain basic course information such as course number, course title, description, and instructor of record. At the instructor's discretion, a Class Preview page can be linked which includes information about textbook(s), readings, syllabus, and other relevant information for prospective students. A walkthrough of Class Preview Page setup is available from the e-Learning Center website tutorials.

Class Mailing Lists

Class Mailling Lists are available if you would like to send email to your students outside of Vista; you may even set up a message with textbook information, sample syllabus, etc. that will automatically be sent to students enrolled in your class before the Start Date (i.e., before the class is available to them in Bb Vista). To set up a Class Mailing List, visit this site: http://classlists.nau.edu/faculty.

SafeAssign Assignments

SafeAssign assignments must be re-created. Because SafeAssign assignments are tied directly to a specific Bb Vista section, simply copying content from one semester to another will not create a working SafeAssign assignment; instead, please re-create SafeAssign assignments within the new semester's Bb Vista section.

Online Course Evaluations

Online Course Evaluation announcements are now automated. If your course uses an online course evaluation, an announcement to students will automatically be posted in Bb Vista when the evaluation becomes available; it will include a link to the Online Course Evaluation site.

Clickers

If you are considering using clickers in your face-to-face classroom next semester, you must notify the NAU bookstore to pre-order them for your classes. e-Learning provides a convenient request form that you can fill out. This form also notifies e-Learning that you might need local clicker support and gives you the option to request a free test kit from eInstruction. Please read e-Learning's clicker information page and consider signing up for a short clicker orientation training. Our goal is to get you up and running as efficiently as possible.

Getting Help

e-Learning Center
Faculty Help Line: (928) 523-5554 or Toll Free: (866) 802-5256
(928) 523-1662 (fax)
elc-help@nau.edu

The e-Learning Center Faculty Help Line is available during NAU business hours. Additional hours may be offered during the winter holiday schedule.