This guide will help faculty become acquainted with the Courses Tab and Course Studio, two tools available in myPSU.
You can customize myPSU to send students of your course(s) to three possible online destinations:
- To Blackboard, via direct login to the Blackboard system, landing the student in the Blackboard course page. This option is automatically selected and only viewable if the course is entered as a Blackboard course in Banner. Instructors do not need to make a modification to myPSU if the course is managed in Blackboard.
- To Course Studio, a simple course materials tool provided by myPSU. This option must be selected by the instructor to activate the Course Studio Homepage.
- To a remote Web Page, which can be changed by the instructor. The default page is http://www.pdx.edu/mypsu-ecourse-pending.
OAM Account
Banner Account
Supported Web Browser
How to customize your on-line course destination:
- Login to myPSU using your Odin ID & password. Click on the “Courses” tab to see the courses you are teaching. If you would like to view courses for a different term, click on the Course Schedule for: drop down box.
-
Click on the 
icon to set the course homepage:
Note: If the course was set up by the PSU registrar’s office as a Blackboard course, Blackboard will be selected. Otherwise, the default for all courses is a web page.
- Select myPSU Course Studio to manage the course using Course Studio. When this option is selected, students are sent to the Course Studio homepage when they click on this course.
- You may also overwrite the URL displayed next to the Web Page option with an alternate URL. When this option is selected, students are sent to the URL when they click on this course.
- Click [Save Changes]
-
You are now ready to modify your course home page using Course Studio, if you chose this option. If you chose to direct students to a remote web site, you are finished, but will need to complete this step each term.
Quick Start to Using Course Studio
For full documentation on how to add content and use course studio, navigate to the myPSU Help site, and click on the Group/Course Studio Workbook.
Contents
Creating a Consolidated Course
Consolidated courses will save your course materials to a "parent" course, making the materials available for similar courses in future terms. It also allows you to communicate electronically (emails and announcements) with multiple course sections. You are not required to use consolidated courses--it may be simpler to re-load your updated course materials each term, or use the Copy Course Content channel to transfer your content from course to course.
Note: to access course content for a consolidated course, students must select the consolidated course from their “Courses” tab.
To Create the Consolidated Course:
- From the Courses tab, click on My Consolidated Courses (middle right)
- Select which course(s) you wish to consolidate from the “Courses Available for Consolidation” list.
- Click on the Create Consolidated Course button.
- Enter a Consolidated Course Name and Consolidated Course Title. Using a slightly different consolidated course title/name from the section course name helps with file organization. Example, a course titled “Business Environments” could have a consolidated course title and name of “Business Environments-Master.” Click on the Create button.
Click on OK from the confirmation page.
To Add Content to the Consolidated Course:
- If you are not in the my Consolidated Courses view, click on the My Consolidated Courses link from the Courses tab.
- Click on the name of the consolidated course you wish to manage.
- You may add content as would to a course. Note that this content will also be available for courses in future terms.
Note: You may navigate directly to a course by clicking on the course title and section information posted in the right column. Similarly, when working in a course, you may navigate to the consolidated course by clicking on the Parent Course title listed in the Course Information column.
Uploading a course syllabus or other file:
- Click on Manage Files located under Content Tools (left column)
- Click on [Choose File] button.
- Locate and select your file on your desktop computer or linked network file.
- Click on [Add New File] button
You will get a confirmation message. Click Ok
Managing your Course Studio Applications
Course studio has the following applications which may be turned on or off by the course instructor or designated administrator:
• News Publishing
• Photo Publishing
• Link Publishing
• File Sharing
• Message Board
• Calendar
• Announcements
• E-mail
• Chat
To turn these tools on or off:
- Click on Applications under the "Configuration Tools" side menu column.
- Select or deselect the check box next to the application you wish to turn on/off.
- Click on the [Update Settings] button.
Adding a member to your course
As a course leader, you may add two types of members to your course: guests or graduate assistants. Adding either type of member does NOT update the Banner database. Guests or G.A.s will NOT be enrolled in the course (receive a bill or a grade, have the course on their transcript, etc.). Guests will simply have access to the materials stored in Course Studio. Graduate Assistants will also have this access, but will additionally be granted full course leadership privileges such as uploading files, news articles, or photos, membership management, etc.
- Within myPSU, select the "Courses" tab.
- Select the course name (or consolidated course) you wish to delegate.
- Click on Members under “Configuration Tools”
- Click on Add Members
- Search for members using login (Odin) ID, Last Name, or First name.
- Once the member is found, add them by selecting their name in the “Search Results” box, and click Add Members.
- Indicate member type by selecting Teaching Assistant or Guest.
- Teaching Assistants are granted full content management permissions (course leader) to the course.
- Guests are able to view content, but will not be officially enrolled in the course. They must enroll in Banner to get credit for the course.
- The system prompts you for an explanation to be sent to the new member’s email address. Click OK to finish.
Designating an alternative Course Administrator
Instructors may delegate the management of the Course Studio Homepage and it’s content to another myPSU user:
- Within myPSU, select the "Courses" tab.
- Select the course (or consolidated course) you wish to delegate.
- Add the delegated course administrator to your course (see Adding a member to your course, above.) Note: if you selected Grad Assistant as the member type, then you are done and do not have to complete steps 4-7.
- Scroll down, and click on Permissions in the left column.
- Click on the
icon next to “Course Leader.”
- Select a name under the “Current Members” list and click the Add button.
- Click the Done button.
More information on Course Studio, including managing hompages, uploading photos, posting news articls, sending emails & announcements can be found in the Group/Course Studio Workbook.
More help can be found at http://oit.pdx.edu/mypsu.
