University of Zimbabwe E-Learning Platform
Contents
What is E-learning? .......................................................................................................................4
E-Learning at the University of Zimbabwe ................................................................................4
University of Zimbabwe Claroline Platform...............................................................................4
Claroline Home Page .....................................................................................................................5
Self Registration .............................................................................................................................5
Creating Course Website ..............................................................................................................6
Course Information .......................................................................................................................8
Course Administration ..................................................................................................................9
Activate / Deactivate course components ..................................................................................10
Link to an External site ...............................................................................................................10
Managing portlet on your course home page ............................................................................11
Course Description ......................................................................................................................11
Agenda ..........................................................................................................................................12
Announcements ............................................................................................................................14
Documents ....................................................................................................................................15
Forums ..........................................................................................................................................17
Assignment ...................................................................................................................................19
Exercises .......................................................................................................................................20
Users ..............................................................................................................................................21
Groups ..........................................................................................................................................22
Wiki ...............................................................................................................................................23
Statistics ........................................................................................................................................24
What is E-learning?
ELearning is the use of computer technology to deliver, support and enhance teaching and
learning.
Although numerous alternative definitions of eLearning have been coined it is generally
accepted that a comprehensive definition has to encompass 3 scenarios as given below.
1. Learning in presence of a teacher whose delivery methods are supported by electronic
media materials.
2. Learning from a remote location through direct interaction with a teacher via electronic
media.
3. Independent learning via electronic medium with access to online support.
E-Learning at the University of Zimbabwe
The above definition of eLearning can be interpreted very broadly and so it has to be tailored to
the context within which it is to be implemented. With this view in mind it is envisaged that the
role of eLearning at the UZ will be to support and augment existing pedagogical structures.
Another goal of eLearning at UZ is to maximize usage of computer resources, namely computers
themselves, network connectivity and the internet.
University of Zimbabwe Claroline Platform
Claroline is a Web Based Course Management System. It allows teachers (professors,
lecturers...) to create and administer course websites through a browser (Internet Explorer,
Netscape...). You can
Publish documents in any format (Word, PDF, HTML, Video...)
Administer public or private discussion forums
Manage a list of links
Create student groups
Compose exercises
Structure an agenda with tasks and deadlines
Make announcements (also via email)
Have students submit papers
Technically speaking, you need only to be familiar with your preferred browser. You will be
asked to type text in forms, to click on 'OK' buttons and to prepare locally on your own computer
quality documents to be uploaded on your website.
Claroline Home Page
To find the Claroline home page, enter this address http://tsime.uz.ac.zw/ into your web browser
and press Enter
The Claroline platform is called TSIME (Towards Student- centred Interactive Multimedia
Education)
Self Registration
TSIME Platform allows self-registration. Once registered, every time you try to login, you will
need to enter username password for security purposes.
If you have an account already that allows you to create a course web site, enter you username
and password. (N.B The system is Case-sensitive) If you do not have an account, you can selfregister. To do this:
Select Create user account on the top right of the TSIME Home page
Enter your personal settings (password twice and valid email required)
For Administrative code, invent a numeric code for yourself. This can be left blank.(Its
an optional field)
Click OK.
Click Next.
Click Bak to my course list.
The according of course creator status has been centralised so as not to allow everyone to be a
course provider. So you will have the student view point. You need to be upgraded to a course
manager by the e -learning administrator.
How to request course creator status
a).Online
Click on my User Account
Click on 'Request course creation status'
In the comment form, outline the courses you teach etc..
- An email will be sent to the administrator.
- A response will be sent via email
b). Call the Computer Centre
c) Visit the Computer Centre
Creating Course Website
Click on Create a course site Link on the left side of your screen.
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Enter title, category, course code, the name of lecturer(s) delivering the course,
email for the Lecturer. All fields values are mandatory.
Select the language that you wish the site to appear in .
Select the course access
Allow enrolment with validation or enrolment key or deny enrolment
Enter lectures department and department URL if it exist.
Click Ok
Click on Continue to manage the courses you have created.
Click on your newly created course title
You should now see your course website Home Page.
valid
Course Information
This option allows you to modify course details, together with deleting the whole course and
controlling access to the course.
Alter the
Course code
Professor (Lecturers)
Course title
Faculty
Department
Email
Change the confidentiality of the course:
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Public access = anybody can visit your website without even registering or logging in.
And it is linked on your campus Home Page.
Private access, registration open (subscription allowed) visitors to website are supposed
to register and log in before entering your website, but anybody can register through our
campus self- registration system.
Private access, registration closed (subscription denied) = only people already registered
have access to course website.
Click 'Ok'
Follow the appropriate link
If you wish to delete the entire course
Click on the Delete the whole course website link
Course Administration
The course main page contains all the features visible to the students. You may select which
tools to be visible to students by clicking on Edit tool list button. This gives you a screen
where you can activate/deactivate a tool by checking check boxes.
Activate / Deactivate course components
Active course components appear in colour. Deactivated components appear in grey.
Activated components are seen by students
Deactivated components are invisible to students
Click on the eye icon corresponding to the tool you want to be visible to students.
Click on the eye icon corresponding to the tool you want to be invisible to students.
Click Ok.
It is up to individual lecturing staff to decide which course components are required for each
course.
Link to an External site
Click Edit tool list.
Enter the URL to the page that you wish to link to in the link box
Enter text for the link
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Click on Ok.
The link will appear on the course website main page.
To Edit Link
Click the pencil icon to modify.
Click the delete icon to delete.
Click on the eye icon to make it visible
Managing portlet on your course home page
A portlet is information that is placed within a region on a page. You can make Announcements,
put headlines (news) or places calendars using portlet
At the top of your course home page is the portlet tool
Click on Add a portlet to your course homepage
Select on the dropdown menu the portlet you want to add
Click Ok
Click on Manage and add the content of the portlet and click ok
Click on pencil icon to modify
Click on the delete icon to delete the whole portlet
Click on the eye to make it visible or invisible to your students
Edit/Add text, then click 'Ok' to update the introduction text
Course Description
With this tool you will find a synthetic presentation of course in terms of:
Qualifications and Goals
Course Content
Teaching-training activities
Supports
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Human and physical resources
Methods of evaluation
Other
Follow the course description link
Select the section you want to add
Click the Add button
Put the content and click OK
Pencil Icon is for editing text
Delete Icon is for deleting introductory text
Eye Icon is for visibility of course description
Agenda
This tool is similar to a course calendar where you give information as to when certain events of
the course would take place. You can add, modify and delete any agenda item.
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To add an agenda item
Follow the Agenda Link
Click of Add an event
Enter a title for the agenda item
Select the correct Day, Month, Year, Hour from the drop down menus
Enter a duration for the agenda item (optional)
Enter location and speakers for the Agenda(optional)
Enter details for the agenda item
Click on Ok
The new item will appear in the list of agenda items
To modify an agenda item
Click on the Modify link next to the agenda item to be changed.
Amend the details displayed as required.
Click on Ok to accept changes
To delete an agenda item
Click on the Delete link next to the agenda item to be removed
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Announcements
Just like the agenda tool, you can add, modify and delete any announcement. If you are
comfortable with working with agenda tool, we may skip this one.
To add an announcement
Follow the Announcement link
Click on Add Announcement
Enter title of the announcement
Enter details of the announcement
Check ' Send this announcement by email to registered students' box if needed
Click on 'Ok'
To Modify an existing announcement
Click on Modify immediately below the announcement you wish to change.
Correct the announcement text.
Click on 'Ok'.
To Delete an existing announcement
Click on 'Delete' immediately below the announcement you wish to delete.
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Documents
This tool provides a comprehensive mechanism for organising files that you would like to make
available to the students. It is possible to make many directories, and to have directories within
directories to enable grouping of files.
It is possible to delete, copy, rename, add a comment, or stop students seeing files. You can
also create links to other external web pages and create HTML pages if you are fluent with
HTML coding.
To create a directory
Click on the Create directory link.
Enter the name of the directory into the highlighted box
Click on Ok to create the directory
To upload files into a directory
Click on the Upload file link next to the directory that you wish to upload into.
Click on the Browse button.
Navigate to the local file that you wish to upload.
Click on the Upload button
Maximise file size 95.3MB
The upload procedure should complete, and you will be able to see the uploaded file.
N.B. The total amount of files in this are is not allowed to exceed 95.3 MB
To rename files
Click on the pencil icon in the Modify column that is in the same row as the file that you
wish to rename.
Edit the name in the box that appears
Click Ok to change the name
To add a comment
Click on the pencil item in the Modify column that is in the same row as the file to which
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you wish to add a comment
Add the comment to the box
Click Ok to add the comment
To hide the file from users of the system
Click on the open eye icon in the Visible/Invisible column that is in the same row as the
file you want to hide.
The icon should change to a closed eye icon (Invisible)
To show a hidden file to users of the system
Click on the closed eye icon in the Visible/Invisible column that is in the same row as the
file to hide
The icon should change to an open eye (Visible)
To copy a file
Click on the move icon in the Move column that is in the same row as the file that you
wish to move
In the dropdown menu that appears select the directory where you wish the selected file
to be moved to
To delete a file from the server
Click on the red X icon in the Delete column that is in the same row as the file that you
wish to delete.
Hyperlink
To add a link
Enter the name for the link (will be used to make the link)
Enter the URL for the link, e.g. http://www.google.com
Click on Ok
The visitors to your course website can only access this link if they navigate to the directory
containing the link.
Create Document
To use this tool you need to be conversant with HTML coding. If you are to paste text into the
text box area, the formatting is ignored. Formatting is done using HTML tags.
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Click on Create Document.
Type the document name
Type the contents using HTML tags for formatting.
When you are through, click OK.
Forums
This is a very active area of the site. Clicking on the forums link will display a list of the
available forms for the current course.
Click on the 'Forums' option
To admin forums (create, delete forums, or modify their name...), click on ' Forum
Administration'
To add a category
Enter a name for the category into the box
Click on the Add button
Your category WILL NOT APPEAR TO STUDENTS UNTIL YOU ADD FORUMS IN
IT!
To delete a category
Click on the Delete link
N.B. No confirmation required take care
To modify a category
Click on Modify
Change the name of the category
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Click on Ok
To Add/Edit/Delete individual forums within a category
Click on Create Forums
Enter the forum name
Enter description (optional)
Select the forum category
Click OK
The options work in exactly the same manner as those just described
To post a topic in a forum
Select the forum where you want to post a topic on the forum list
If you wish to start a discussion on a new topic, then click on New topic. Enter the
subject for discussion and the message into the appropriate boxes. Click on either
Submit/Ok to send your message to the forum OR Cancel post if you decide not to send
the message.
To delete the whole list
Check the Delete the whole list box
Click on Ok
Additionally you will be able to see when the last post was added to each forum, the
number of topics and the number of posts.
Click on a linked forum name to enter that forum. You will be presented with a list of
topics that have been discussed in the forum, you will be able to see the number of replies
that each topic has, information about who posted it, how many times it has been read,
when the last posting was made to the forum.
To read the postings in a topic, click on the linked name of that topic.
You should now see the contents of the topic that you selected. The postings are read
from top to bottom, i.e. the newest posting is at the bottom of the page. At this stage there
are a number of options. You may choose one of the forum hyperlinks to return to the
index of all of the forums for this course, or to the index of the forum that youre
currently in.
You may use the navigation bar hyperlinks to return to the course home page, or to a list
of all of your courses.
If you wish to take part in the discussion, then clicking quote will include the text of the
post that youre reading. Add your own comments to this. Clicking the Submit/Ok button
will post your message to the forum. You will be given the chance to return to the forum
index or the posts, but after a few seconds you are automatically taken back to the forum
topic where you posted from. If you wish to post a new message on the same topic
without including a quote from a previous message, click on the Answer link. Enter your
message into the box, click on either Submit/Ok to send your message to the forum OR
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Cancel post if you decide not to send the message
Assignment
The current version has an option to only allow the sender and the admin to see them, i.e. it
could be used for work submission (assignments). By default, all uploaded files are invisible to
students.
To Create an Assignment
Follow the Assignment link
Click Create New Assignment
Enter Assignment title
Enter the assignment description , the actual assignment question(s)
Choose submission type
Specify the assignment start date and end date
Choose weather you want late upload or no late upload
Select weather you want the assignment to be visible to students or not
Click OK
To modify the assignment
Click on Modify
Change the text in the box
Click on the Ok button immediately below the text box that youve just altered.
To delete the assignment
Click on Delete
Make an uploaded file visible to everyone
As the course as admin, you can choose which files that have been uploaded by students to be
visible to other students.
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Click on the closed eye icon to make a file visible.
You can also delete an uploaded file by clicking the corresponding red X icon.
Exercises
This is a quiz generator that allows the generation of multiple choice tests. To create an Exercise
Click on New Exercise
Enter a name for the exercise in the box
Click on Ok
Follow the link of the exercise you have created
Enter a subtitle if necessary
Enter the question that you wish to ask
Enter a description
Choose the answer type you want to use
Click OK
If you wish to have more possible answers then
Press +Answ for each additional answer you require
If you wish the reduce the amount of possible answers then
Press Answ for each answer to be removed
Place a tick in the checkbox for the correct answer.
In the answer column enter the possible answers to the questions.
In the comment column enter feedback that is given if a student selects that answer.
Enter the weight of each question.
Click OK.
After you are through entering your questions and responses, click on Exercises.
The default values should be adequate, but you can modify them, and then validate.
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The principle of this scoring table is to define proper weight to number of good answers by
question. For instance, if you have a question with 4 answers (possibly more than one right) and
the student has two wrong and two right, you can give him half of the points, but you can also
decide that this is not satisfactory and give, for instance, maximum points (20) if everything is
right and zero points in any other combination.
Users
This is the section where you can control who is registered on your course
You can add students (but it is easier for everybody to have them self-register otherwise you will
need to inform them one by one of their username/password and there is a risk of double
registration of the same person)
To add a student
Click Add student
Fill personal data with correct email so that the student receives their username and
password
Click Ok.
Unregister a student
To delete a student, click on 'Unregister'. The student will remain in your campus main database,
but he/she will not be associated with your course anymore.
Add Tutors to your Course
To insert Tutors in your course, the simplest is to ask your tutors to register as simple students
and then
Click on the username of the person you want to be a tutor to your course.
Click on Edit button.
Tick on the checkbox on the Tutor column.
Click OK.
Click on Back to users List
Being a tutor does not give admin rights on the course website but allows one to be member of
more than one group (where student can be member of only one group at a time). This will prove
useful once you compose your groups, especially when you use Manual Editing of groups to
associate tutors to groups.
Users tool is tightly connected to Groups tool for obvious reasons (groups are users groups).
You can create empty groups if your students are not registered yet. This way, you can organise
the structure of your course before beginning of it. See Groups.
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Groups
You can create groups of students. A group is a collection of students sharing the same forum
and/or the same documents upload area. To create groups:
Select Create New Group(s)
Enter values (maximum is not necessary and can be empty, but then you will not be able
to fill groups randomly as everybody will be registered in the first group whose size is
unlimited)
Click on Create to validate.
Then select Modify settings to determine.
-
whether students can self-register in groups or if you prefer manual or random filling
whether groups receive a forum, a documents upload area or both
whether forums are private (only fro group members) or public (any other student can
read and write)
Click OK
If needed and if your users list is not empty, you can now fill groups automatically by random or
edit every group one by one to enter users one by one. This manual editing can also be done after
automatic filling or self-registering to fine tune group composition, check who is where and so
on, move one specific student, etc.
To edit a group manually:
Click on the pencil icon beside the group name (groups must be created beforehand)
Modify Name
Attach a tutor (tutors must be allowed tutor right first through users list)
Write a description (a task, a list of activities, a problem, anything...)
Move students from right to left and/or left to right to modify group composition
Modify max seats (existing members will not be removed if there is more than new value
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you enter)
Click Ok.
As a lecturer, you are allowed to join every forum and group document area. Tutors will enter
any group too, but forums list will mention to them which groups they supervise.
Wiki
A wiki is a website whose users can add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a
simplified markup language . Wikis are often created collaboratively, by multiple users.
Wikis may serve many different purposes. Some permit control over different functions (levels
of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material.
Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed for
organizing content.
To Create a Wiki
Follow the wiki link
Click on Create Wiki
Enter the title of the wiki
Enter description of the wiki
Set access rights for users
Click Ok
You can see recent changes to the wiki, edit the wiki, and delete the wiki.
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Statistics
Only administrators/lecturers can see the statistics, clicking on this link allows you to see how
much usage the course has had, together with other information, e.g. Users access to course and
user access to tools.
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