1. Vista Course Requests
2. Roles in Vista
3. Student enrollments
4. Important first steps
5. MyVistaCourses page
6. Default template
7. Library Resource Tool
8. New in Vista
9. Handy Hints
10. Navigation in Vista
| Requesting a Vista site for a class | |||||||||||||
| Starting October 24, 2005, instructors will use PeopleSoft to request Vista sites for Spring 06 classes. | |||||||||||||
| NOTE: Only the primary instructor for a class - as listed in PeopleSoft - will be able to request a Vista site for that class. | |||||||||||||
| See this (webpage) (pdf) for directions | |||||||||||||
| Roles in Vista | |||||||||||||
| Members in classes with Vista sections can have one or more of the following roles: Instructor, Designer, Teaching Assistant, Student, and Auditing student. | |||||||||||||
| Instructors who request Vista class sites via PeopleSoft will be enrolled as both Instructor and Designer in their Vista sections. | |||||||||||||
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| Enrolling students in Vista | |||||||||||||
| Registered students are enrolled in Vista sections automatically and add/drop updates to a class list are processed automatically as well. In addition, Vista section Instructors can manually enroll members in their sections in the following roles: Student, Auditing student, shared Designer, and Teaching Assistant. The automatic student enrollment process for registered students will not affect students added manually by the Instructor. | |||||||||||||
| Although students are enrolled at the same time the Vista section is created, they do not have access to the site until the first day of classes. | |||||||||||||
After the semester
begins, the automatic drop/add process does not delete your students
from your section gradebook. Instead, the process denies dropped students
access to your section website. This status is indicated in the gradebook
by a red dot like this 
to the left of the student's name. Faculty may choose to remove
these students from their gradebook, but if these students have
accumulated grades they may wish to download
that information before deleting the student. |
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| Important first steps | |||||||||||||
| Specific browser configurations are needed for WebCT Vista to function properly. Links to Vista's built in browser checker can be found on the Vista login page and the MyVistaCourses page. | |||||||||||||
| Most important settings: | |||||||||||||
| ALL pop-up blockers must be disabled or set to allow pop-ups on vista.uconn.edu. View this web page for detailed instructions on how to disable the most common pop-up blockers. | |||||||||||||
| ONE recent version of Java must also be installed and enabled on your computer. Java 1.4.2_06 or later is recommended by WebCT. See this web page for more information. | |||||||||||||
| Test your browser settings by completing the tasks in the Practice Module in the Vista default template while in Student View. | |||||||||||||
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| MyVistaCourses page | |||||||||||||
| The MyVistaCourses page lists the courses in Vista that you have a role in. If you place your mouse curser over the title of a course in the list, it will display your role(s). | |||||||||||||
| SMALL icons will appear below the course title when there is new mail, new discussion posts, new assignments, new announcements, new quizzes or surveys, or for students, new grades. | |||||||||||||
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| For an explanation of the elements on the MyVistaCourses page and how to customize them, see this (Flash movie). | |||||||||||||
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| UConn default Vista template | |||||||||||||
| All newly requested Vista sections will have the default UConn template applied. This template contains links in the Toolbar to the following tools: Announcements, Discussion, MyGrades. To remove one of these tools from the Toolbar or to add others, see the detailed instructions (web page) (pdf) (Flash movie). | |||||||||||||
| The footers on the HomePage and the Course Materials page provide links to UConn's Vista help for both Instructors and Students. |
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| The default template also contains links to "Practice Module" and to the "Library Resource Tool" on the Course Materials page. To remove either of these links, see these instructions. To unhide the link to the Practice Module or to hide the link for the LRT link, follow these instructions. | |||||||||||||
| The Plagiarism Module is a very special addition to the default template. This module was created by the Instructional Design and Development (IDD) unit and can be made available to your students by following these directions (web page) (pdf) (Flash Movie) | |||||||||||||
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| LRT - Library Resource Tool | |||||||||||||
| Faculty used to working with Electronic Course Reserve (ECR) or library liasons, will find their access to library materials improved in Vista. Students can access these materials through the new Library Resource Tool, built exclusively for UConn. Access to this new tool is available on the Course Materials page in the default UConn Vista template. | |||||||||||||
| Instructors wishing to have materials delivered to their sections via the LRT should access the library's course reserve information page or contact their departmental library liason. | |||||||||||||
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| New in Vista | |||||||||||||
| The design interface in Vista is dramatically different from that in WebCT Campus Edition. Vista provides Build Tabs specific to the Design role and Teach Tabs specific to the Instructor role. In addition, there is a Tab for the true Student view. | |||||||||||||
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| For a breakdown of these different tabs and what can be done from each, view this (webpage) or (pdf). | |||||||||||||
| Another new feature in Vista is the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML page creator. This tool is a Java applet that provides a word processing like environment for creating pages inside of a Vista site. Students, Instructors and Designers have access to this tool in Mail, Discussion, the Assignment tool, and the Assessment tool. Designers are also able to use this tool to create HTML content pages within Vista. This eliminates the need to convert Word files to HTML outsite of WebCT and then upload them. | |||||||||||||
| For more detailed information on how the HTML creator works, view this (Flash movie). | |||||||||||||
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| Handy Hints | |||||||||||||
| To stop the page with the explanation of the tabs from showing each time you log into Vista site, check the box at the bottom of that page. | |||||||||||||
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| Navigation inside Vista | |||||||||||||
| For best results, use the navigation system built into Vista - not the back button on your browser. If you seem stuck on a screen, try clicking on a different Tab, a HomePage icon or link, or a Cancel button. See examples below. |
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