Preparing your NILE sites for the new academic year

As previously described in the blog posting on linking NILE to the Student Record System, new NILE sites have been created for the 12/13 academic year and are ready to be used.  You should now move content from your old sites to the newly coded areas. Please refer to the guidance or alternatively watch the DidiVid support video on our YouTube channel to assist you with the steps below:

1. Find the “Manage Your NILE Sites” box on your NILE homepage following the above guidance [NOTE: From Spring 2014 the ‘Manage your NILE Sites’ box moved to the ‘Sites & Organisations’ tab]. If you are unable to see this box then please mail LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk
2. Find the modules which you will be involved in during 12/13. Ensure you select the correct module which should have a course ID which describes the module, the session, and the year of activity (e.g. DRA1018-STD-1213). The name of the module will be prefixed with the year of activity (e.g. 12/13 Technologies for Performance)
3. Add yourself to the module using this guidance or alternatively watch the DidiVid support video on our YouTube channel.
4. Follow the guidance inside the module template to copy material from other sites as needed. The template should be used where possible to assist you to structure material and provide students with a consistent experience.
5. Create additional material and links within the new module as needed
6. Ensure that you remove the old / copied Turnitin links within the “Submit your work” areas and create new Turnitin areas.
7. When you are satisfied that all content is in place then make the site live to students
8. Students will be automatically added to the site as they are confirmed as enrolled (ENR status on the Student Record System – Provisional students are NOT automatically enrolled). If a student changes modules during the year then they will be added to the new site within 15 minutes of the change being made on QLS (Currently they will also remain on the old module until removed by the tutor).

Sites have also been created for courses/programmes in addition to the session specific modules, and you will see these when conducting the search in point 1 (above).  If you wish to use course sites you have the choice of using either those which are broken down by the session (in the same way as the modules. e.g. CBDDRAMA-1FT-1213). Alternatively you may wish to only have one course site for the whole year regardless of the session variation (e.g. CBADRAMA-1213). Both types have been created and regardless of the option you choose, students will still be automatically added but will only see the site you are using once you have made it available to them. For the dual coded sites these will normally only contain the students who enrolled in that year. Hence CBADRAMA-1112 will only have the students who were enrolled in 2011 [Note: from Spring 2014 a new ‘Quick Actions’ widget on the ‘Sites and organisations’ tab allows you to release sites to students without having to go to the site itself].

You should be aware that due to differences in coding on the Student Record System it is possible the enrollment of students onto the dual coded course sites may not cover 100% of those actually taking the course. The way in which the script works is as follows :

If there is is a whole cluster of students who were previously on a module which did not have a ‘1’ prefix (e.g. DLMD) then please mail LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk and we can investigate for you.

This work complements some of the other changes happening over the summer and into the autumn. For an update on changes and updates then here’s the link 

Frequently Asked Questions:

1) I seem to now have many variations of sites when I only had one last year – do I need all of these ?

NILE has now created one module site for each session which is stored on the Student Record system (QLS). Sessions have been used in many different ways on QLS – sometimes they signify different start dates and at other times they signify a module which runs in different locations or a different mode of delivery.

If you have sessions where the content AND assessment timescales are identical (perhaps where it is just the location which varies) then the Module Leader may opt to combine these on NILE by emailing LTSupport. They should remember that when combined – all communications will go to all of the students on the module unless otherwise specified.

If the session content is the same but the start dates / assessment timescales are different (e.g. Some students start in September and others start in February) then the sessions should be kept separate since the students will need different communications at different times and need separate assignment submission areas.  You can copy material between modules if it is important to share updated material – email LTSupport if you need assistance on this.

2) The new template which are provided on the Course and Module areas are restrictive – Can I add to these or change the wording ?

The wording which now appears on the left side of the module templates was agreed by the Learning and Teaching Committee prior to the PSR and then re validated by the University Student Experience Committee (SEC) more recently. It is based on a clear module layout and wording which students have been requesting on feedback to NSS and ISS. The material which is proposed on the template forms the minimum standards for a NILE module and this will be quality checked later in 2012. Some staff may already be exceeding the content and layout which has been proposed and we would wish this continue……and ideally form the basis of exemplary sites to showcase to other staff. Any reduction in module content or significant change of wording from the basic template should be agreed by the SEC prior to student delivery. Many of the menu items such as “Submit your work” or “Reading List” must remain due to consistency throughout NILE.

If you need to clarify any of the above points then please mail LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk