Instructor S Guide s1

Getting Started with CompClass for The St. Martin’s Handbook, Sixth Edition Instructor’s Guide Getting Started with CompClass for The St. Martin’s Handbook, Sixth Edition Table of Contents Overview...... 1 Online Help...... 1 System Requirements...... 2 Adopting CompClass...... 2 Directing Your Students to Access CompClass...... 3 Logging in to the Course...... 4 The CompClass Home Page...... 5 Customizing Your Home Page and Course Environment...... 6 Adding a Course Description...... 6 Adding Contact Information, Syllabus and Profile...... 7 Customizing Your Home Page Layout...... 9 Setting the Time Zone...... 10 Quizzes and Assignments...... 11 Using the Calendar...... 13 Creating and Assigning Quizzes...... 14 Adding and Assigning Your Own Course Materials...... 16 Discussion Forums...... 17 Blogs...... 18 Instructor and Student Course Materials...... 19 The CompClass e-book...... 19 Customizing your e-book with notes...... 20 Rearranging Course Materials...... 21 Student and Instructor Course Materials...... 22 Gradebook...... 23 Gradebook Export...... 23 Course Mail...... 24

For Technical Support call 1-877-708-2899. For help purchasing, registering, logging in, or other matters related to your subscription, call 1-800-936-6899. For all other support questions, call 1-877-708-2899. 3

Overview

Welcome to CompClass for The St. Martins Handbook, Sixth Edition. CompClass combines an array of instructor and student content with numerous course management tools. In this guide, we have outlined steps you can use to set up your course and get started quickly.

This guide is designed to get you into the course software, introduce you to the main features, and leave you comfortable enough to begin working in CompClass on your own. After reading this guide, you will be able to:

 Add a course description and  Create a quiz assignment contact information  Create and assign additional course  Publish your syllabus materials

 Design your home page  Customize the e-book by adding notes, reordering chapters, and  Set your course time zone removing sections

 Assign a CompClass resource  Access CompClass instructor course materials  Create and assign discussion forums  Use the CompClass gradebook

 Post to you blog and access student  Manage course mail blogs

Online Help

For more details on using the many CompClass features and tools, click the Help (?) button in the lower-left corner of the CompClass window. (Note: this online help system is available after you’ve logged in to CompClass.)

Want live help and training? Visit us at bfwtraining.webex.com to sign up for a live, Web-based training session. Sessions take about an hour and a trainer walks you through all of the tools and options below.

System Requirements

The following Web browsers are formally supported and tested for use with CompClass:

 Windows: Internet Explorer 6 or 7 and Firefox 1.0.7+.

 Mac OS X: Firefox.

In addition, some CompClass course materials require Adobe Shockwave Player, Adobe Flash Player, Apple QuickTime (5.0 or above), Java, or Adobe Acrobat (version 6 or above). The latest versions of these plug-ins can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe, Sun, or Apple Web sites.

To see which plug-ins you have installed and to find installers, go to the online help system and select the System Check link from the System Requirements section or go directly to http://courses.bfwpub.com/syscheck/ .

Note: To view some features of CompClass, you may need to turn off your browser’s pop-up blocker(s).

Adopting CompClass

If you don’t yet have access to your own CompClass course, take the following steps to begin your course activation process:

1. Go to the CompClass login page at http://bedfordstmartins.com/compclass/smhandbook. 2. Click the ADOPT CompClass link. A form will pop up. Fill in all the requested information. 3. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen 4. Once you have completed these steps, the course will be delivered to you (via email) within 48 hours. You will receive all of the necessary information and instructions by email.

Directing Your Students to Access CompClass

Once you’ve set up your course, you will need to make sure your students know how to register and access your course. To get access to CompClass, your students have two options: 1. If you have ordered CompClass access cards, stand-alone or packaged with a book, your students can purchase them through the campus bookstore 2. They can purchase access to CompClass directly from our Web site.

We can provide you with an electronic handout/syllabus insert and PowerPoint slides to help explain the registration process to your students. We’ve also included the directions below for both options.

Option One: Registration with an Activation Code

1. Students should go to http://bedfordstmartins.com/compclass/smhandbook and select the REGISTER an Activation Code link. The following registration screen will appear. 2. Then, students must enter an Activation Code, name, and email address (the email address will serve as each student’s CompClass username). 3. Students then create a password and password hint. The password must be at least 4 characters long and should be something memorable. 4. Students register for a specific class by selecting their school location (state/province) from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen. Subsequent drop-down menus allow them to choose their institution and course/instructor. 5. Students then click NEXT at the bottom of the screen, confirm their information on the following screen, and click CREATE ACCOUNT to complete the registration process.

Option Two: Student Purchases Access Directly Via the Site

1. Students should go to http://bedfordstmartins.com/compclass/smhandbook and select PURCHASE access to CompClass and then select their state/province from the drop down menu. Student will then be prompted to select their institution and your course from additional drop-down menus. 2. Students must enter an email address and password, as described in the Activation Code instructions above. 3. Students must then enter payment information including their name (as it appears on the credit card); credit card number, expiration date, and billing address, and then click NEXT. After confirming their information, they should click on PLACE YOUR ORDER. 4. Once the system has confirmed payment, a thank you screen will display that confirms the student’s name, email address, username, and password. Students will also receive a confirmation email.

Note: Students won’t be able to change their email address once they’ve registered, so they must choose an address that will be valid for the duration of the course.

Students can go to http://bedfordstmartins.com/compclass/smhandbook once they have completed this process. There, they enter their email address and password, and click LOG IN (see below).

Logging in to the Course

Both you and your students should go to http://bedfordstmartins.com/compclass/smhandbook to login to the CompClass course. Enter your email address and password and click LOG IN.

If you or your students have trouble with a log-in id or password, contact technical support: 1-800-936-6899 or via email at [email protected]

The CompClass Home Page

Once you’ve logged in, you will arrive on the home page. From here, you can access all the information, tools, and course materials in CompClass. As the instructor, you can customize this home page to match the needs of your class, as described below. If you customize the home page and/or other aspects of CompClass, they will not exactly match the screenshots you see in this guide.

From the home page, you will be able to:

View your course Use tabs to go to Search from a student’s specific pages of CompClass for a perspective. CompClass. topic.

View info about you and your course. Add, edit, and view course announcements. View the course calendar.

Read or send course mail, update your course blog, or access other communication tools

Jump to the gradebook, course roster, and other course work related pages

Directly access Display online help. the e-book and other resources. Switch to a different section.

Switch to 508- Log out. Edit your user profile, compliant version. forward course mail and set system settings.

Note: If you or your students have a visual disability, click in the bottom-left corner to switch to a version of CompClass that’s compliant with the 508 amendment to the American Rehabilitation Act. This version is compatible with screen-reader software.

Many parts of CompClass look different to your students than they do to you as an instructor. To view your course from a student’s perspective, click the view as button in the upper-left corner of the window. To subsequently return to your normal instructor-eye view of the course, click the view as button again.

Customizing Your Home Page and Course Environment

CompClass offers a number of tools for customizing your course environment. For example, you can enter a course description to appear at the top of the home page, upload or link to your course syllabus, customize the “components” available on your home page (in addition, some components are themselves customizable), and set the time zone for your course. We’ll cover these customization options here. For more options, check the online help.

Adding a Course Description

To add a course description that will appear at the top of your home page: 1. From the home page, click Customize CompClass in the top-left corner of the window. 2. Click the link for Course description. 3. Enter your course description. You can use the toolbar to format text, add links, and add pictures.

4. Click Submit Description. Your new description will be displayed. If you see a mistake, follow the same steps outlined above to make edits.

Adding Contact Information, Syllabus and Profile

The Course Info component on your home page allows you to enter details about your course and to change the course’s name. Follow the steps below to set up your Course Info component. Note that if you remove the Course Info component, you will need to add it back to your home page to change the name of your course. Follow the steps below to set up your Course Info component. 1. From the home page, click the light grey Edit icon for the Course Info component (see image below). 2. Edit your course name, course/section code, your name, your contact information, and your office hours. You can enter as much or as little information as you wish. 3. If you’ve posted your syllabus on another website, you can enter a link to the syllabus in the Syllabus Link field or click the Upload button and follow the subsequent instructions to upload a syllabus document (e.g. a Word file) that your students can download. 4. Click the Update button back in the Course Info component when you’re done entering information. t

When finished, your Course Info component display will be similar to the one shown below.

You may also want to personalize your Profile. An instructor’s profile is available to students when they view the roster of course users.

Follow the steps below to set your user profile. 1. From your home page, click the Preferences button on the bottom left corner of your screen. 2. Select the link for Personal Information from the Preferences screen. 3. Supply your Nickname (if you have one), Internet home page (if you have one), your contact phone number and a descriptive About Me paragraph. You can also add a photo. 4. Click the Save button when finished.

Customizing Your Home Page Layout

You can customize the “components” available to you and your students on your course home page, depending on how you plan to use CompClass. Available home page components include:

 Course Info: This component contains information about your course, including your contact information and syllabus.  Calendar: This component provides access to assignments you've created by date. All assignments are automatically added to the calendar.  Communicate: This component includes links to the course mail tool and other communication tools (blogs, discussion forums, chat rooms, etc.) you plan to use in your course. To edit the links that show in your Communicate component, click the light gray Edit button in the upper-right corner of the component.  Course Work: This component includes links to access your course roster, manage students’ grades and record attendance, access the calendar, and other course work-related functions. Again, click the Edit button to change the available links.  Announcements: This component allows you to post class notices.  Course Materials: This component provides direct links to your e-book and CompClass resources.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary: This component provides direct dictionary access.  And many more: There are more than 20 available components. Try them out and see what you find useful for your course.

To add, delete, or change the arrangements of your home page components:

1. From your home page, select Customize CompClass In the upper-left corner of the screen. 2. Select Home page layout from the Customize CompClass page. 3. To add a component to your home page, select it in the list and click the Add Component button. The item’s position defaults to the bottom of Column 1. 4. Drag and drop component(s) to rearrange the display on the home page. The number of columns is controlled by your placement of the components. 5. To remove a component, click the small “X” to the right of the component name in the layout. 6. Click the Save button when you’ve made your desired changes.

Setting the Time Zone

The time zone function affects due dates, calendar dates, and other settings in CompClass. By default, CompClass courses are set to US Eastern Time. Follow the steps below to set the time zone for your course.

1. From your home page, select Customize CompClass. 2. Select Time zone settings from the Customize Comp Class page. 3. Use the radio buttons to indicate your time zone. 4. Click the Submit button to complete the setting.

Quizzes and Assignments

In CompClass, you have a wealth of activities, quizzes, and e-book content you can access to shape your course. You can also create assignments using your own content, which you can add to the course. Here, we’ll walk you through assigning an e-book chapter and creating a quiz. Note that anything in CompClass can be assigned, using the procedures outlined here.

1. Select the assignments tab at the top of the screen. This takes you to the CompClass Assignment Center. 2. From this page, you can set or reset due dates for quizzes and any other assignments you have specified. You can also click the Remove buttons on the right side of the window to remove assignments if you like. For now, click the Add an assignment button.

3. From the option to Assign an existing content item, select CompClass Course Materials from the content item drop-down. (We’ll cover creating new assignments below.)

4. From the subsequent list, click the plus (+) icon to expand The St. Martin’s e-Handbook. Use the checkbox to select Chapter 1. Expectations for College Writing. You can actually select more than one chapter to assign, or click the chapter name to burrow in and assign a specific section, but we’ll keep it simple for now. 5. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the screen. 6. When the Add Assignment screen displays, set your desired due date. If you are not sure, approximate the date – you can change it later. 7. Click Save when finished.

8. Check back on the Assignment Center and you will see that your assignment has been posted and will be visible to students.

Using the Calendar

One convenient feature of CompClass is that your assignments automatically appear on the Calendar:

1. From the Assignment Center, select the link in the upper-right corner of the window to Go to calendar. (There is also a link to the Calendar on the home page.) 2. Locate and click on the assignment you just posted (Chapter 1. Expectations for College Writing). Note that you (or your students) are then taken directly to the assignment. 3. Return to the Calendar. 4. Hover your mouse over the Chapter 1. Expectations for College Writing assignment. As the instructor, you can use the pop-up menu to edit the assignment. 5. Select Edit.

You will be directed into the settings for the selected assignment. There are many options available here. For example, you can send your students a reminder via Course Mail about the assignment 24 hours before it is due. Additional settings are described below; see the online help for complete information on item settings.

Important Note: You can also edit assignment settings by rolling over the assignment’s title in the Assignment Center and clicking the settings link that will appear there. Additionally, from the assigned content item itself, you can click the change settings link just under the item title.

Creating and Assigning Quizzes

You can create your own quizzes to use for homework assignments or online tests. When you create a quiz, you can pull questions from a bank of thousands of test questions that come with CompClass, or you can create your own questions. Let’s take a walk through the process of creating a quiz.

1. Go to your Assignment Center. Use the Create a new assignment dropdown to select a Quiz. You will be directed into the quiz settings page.

2. On the Content tab of the New Quiz settings supply a quiz name – e.g. Grammar Diagnostic. 3. Click the Assignment settings tab. Set the due date. Under the Gradebook settings, be sure to check Include item in Gradebook and set the Category to Quizzes using the drop-down. If the Quizzes category does not exist, use the Add New Category button to create it. 4. Click Save when finished.

5. From the Chapter 1 Quiz screen, click the link for add question.

6. While you could create your own questions (see the online help for how to do this), you may first want to see what questions are available to you from the test bank. Under step 2 of From the Testing Toolkit, use the drop-down to specify the Adjectives and Adverbs and click the go button. 7. You have a lot of question sets to choose from. Click the small blue triangles ( ) to preview the full questions and answers. Use the checkboxes to select some question sets and click the Add Selected Items button. Current questions will be listed on the right side of the screen.

Questions can be edited by clicking the pencil icons ( ) and deleted by clicking the ( ) icons.

8. Click the done adding questions link at the top of the screen when you have finished. 9. Go back to the Assignment Center to see your new quiz listed. From there you can edit the due date, gradebook settings, or other settings, and/or delete or unassign the quiz.

Adding and Assigning Your Own Course Materials

You may add your own content to several different sections of the CompClass, including the e- book, the Course Materials area, and the Assignment Center. This enables you to easily and quickly customize CompClass (and even the e-book) to match your course.

Follow the steps below to add your own content to CompClass. In this example, we will assign a website for students to visit.

1. Go to the Assignment Center (click the assignments tab). Use the Create a new assignment drop down to select CHOOSE FROM A MENU OF ALL ITEM TYPES. 2. Click Link to create a link to another Web site.

3. On the Content tab of the New Link settings supply a link name – Writer’s Link. At the bottom of the Content tab supply a Link URL.

4. Click the Assignment settings tab. Set a due date. 5. Click Save when finished. 6. Go back to the Assignments screen and/or the Calendar screen. You will see your newly created Web link within both areas.

To add content to the Course Materials area, click the course materials tab, then click the Add a new content item button. From the e-book section listing, or from any e-book section folder, you will see a link near the top of the window to “add content.” Clicking these buttons and links will bring you to the same menu of content items you just accessed from the Assignment Center. See the online help for descriptions of all the different types of content items you can add (e.g. discussion forums, drop boxes, and multi-part lessons).

Discussion Forums

A discussion forum is a space where you can set up class- or group-wide conversations about, for example, a reading, an assignment, or a model paper. Each forum member can post a message, and all members can respond to any message or to other responses. If you require class participation as part of your course, the forums are a useful tool for tracking how often individual students participate (and how much they say).

An initial message post and all subsequent responses to it (or to other responses) are tied together in what's called a thread. All forum content is organized by threads (with responses indented), so you can easily follow the flow of a conversation.

The Communicate and Course Work components on your home page provide a link to create a discussion forum and to access existing forums.

7. Click the Discussion Forums Link. 8. Click the add discussion forum link on the Discussion Forums page. 9. On the Content tab of the New Discussion Forum settings supply a forum name – e.g. Focusing your thesis for paper 1. 10. Click the Assignment settings tab. Set the due date. Under the Gradebook settings, be sure to check Include item in Gradebook and set the Category to Forums using the drop-down. If the Forums category does not exist, use the Add New Category button to create it. 11. Click Save when finished. 12. The new discussion forum will be listed on the Assignments page, the Discussion Forums page and on the Calendar.

13. Click the link for Focusing your thesis for paper 1. From the forum screen, click the Start New Thread button to post the initial message.

Blogs

When students register for CompClass, they are automatically given a blog to use as a public journal. Other students can post responses, but only the blog owner can make a new post. The most recent blog post appears at the top of the screen, with all others below it.

You can use an instructor blog to keep students up-to-date on class activities. The student blogs can be useful for getting students in the habit of daily writing and reflection.

The Communicate component on your home page provides links to your blog and student blogs.

1. Click the My Blog Link. 2. Click the link to Add a title for your blog and name your blog – e.g. Instructor CompClass Blog. 3. Click the New Post button. 4. Key in a post title and some text. 5. Click Submit when finished.

Instructor and Student Course Materials

Now let’s review the course materials available to you and your students in CompClass.

The CompClass e-book

The CompClass e-book is a complete online version of Andrea A. Lunsford’s The St. Martin’s Handbook, Sixth Edition. Links throughout the e-book connect to numerous study tools. Students can access tutorials, writing resources, The Bedford Research Room, design guides, i•cite visualizing sources and more – all designed to make the learning experience more effective and relevant.

To open the e-book’s table of contents, click the e-book tab at the top of the page. From there, select the chapter where you want to go.

Once you’re in the e-book, use the navigation pane (on the left) and the Previous and Next buttons to get around a section or to go to another section. Use the Search box in the upper-right corner of the window to jump to the e-book section corresponding to any given topic.

Type a term to search for, then click Go.

Use Previous and Next to cycle through the sections.

Use the Navigation Pane to jump to a chapter or section.

Click the e-book Tools link on each e-book page to access the e-book bookmarking, glossary, and note tools. Double-clicking any phrase in the e-book will highlight the phrase.

Click this…

…to open the e- book Tools menu.

Customizing your e-book with notes

Notes are one of the most powerful features of the e-book. Both you and your students can add notes to any e-book section. And best of all, you can set up notes for your students to see when they log in to CompClass. To add a note:

1. Navigate to any e-book section. 2. Click e-book Tools. From the resulting pop- up, click Add Note. 3. Type in your note. 4. If you want your students to see this note, choose Public from the drop- down menu above the note text. “Private” notes will not be visible by your students. 5. Click SAVE. If you designated the note as public, your students will automatically see the note on this section the next time they log in. (Students can also add their own notes to each section; their notes will show up right above yours in their “copy” of the e-book.)

Rearranging Course Materials

You can easily rearrange course materials including the chapters in the e-book to match the order in which you will cover topics in your course. To do so, follow these steps: 1. Click the e-book tab at the top of CompClass to see the e-book table of contents. 2. Click the rearrange link just under the e-book title. 3. Drag and drop the chapters in the subsequent screen to reorder them. 4. Click Save when finished.

To delete a chapter entirely, click the e-book tab again to view the table of contents, roll your mouse over the chapter you want to delete, and click the delete link that will appear under the chapter title. From the subsequent screen, choose the first link Delete This Folder and confirm that you really want to delete the specified item.

Note: it is difficult to get an eBook chapter back after it has been deleted. If you are not sure you want to permanently delete a chapter, you can use the “Do not allow users to view this item” setting (under Settings, Access) rather than deleting it.

You can use these same procedures to rearrange and/or delete individual sections within a chapter.

You can also add new content items (e.g. web links, uploaded documents, or pages you write from scratch right in CompClass) anywhere in the e-book or course materials. To do so, navigate to the folder where you want to add the item, click the add content link under the folder title, and follow the steps outlined in the “Adding and Assigning Your Own Course Materials” section above. New items will be placed at the bottom of the folder. Rearrange the items, as described above, to move them into place.

To move an already-existing content item into a folder, follow these steps:

1. Hover your mouse over the already-existing content item. 2. Click on the utilities option that appears just below the item’s name. 3. Select Move Item. 4. Choose the folder you want to move the item into.

Student and Instructor Course Materials

Resources such as tutorials, writing resources, The Bedford Research Room, i•cite visualizing sources and design guides are made available to instructors and students. These tools are available directly from the course materials tab. You (but not your students) can also access instructor-specific course materials, such as ancillaries and exercise handouts.

1. From anywhere in CompClass, select the tab for course materials. 2. Select and review several of the listed resources.

Gradebook

The CompClass Gradebook functions much like gradebooks in other learning management systems such as Blackboard, WebCT, and Angel. See below for an overview of the gradebook options; consult the online help for more information.

Access your course Additional function such as roster, groups, and gradebook setup, preferences, attendance manager import, and export are from these links. available from this menu.

Students are listed Click a column heading to Click this button in rows; get a menu of options for an for a printable assignments are assignment or assignment version of your listed in columns. category. gradebook.

Gradebook Export

Use the Gradebook Export option to backup your Gradebook and/or to create a file that can be used to populate a spreadsheet or the gradebook in another course management system. Follow the steps below to export your Gradebook to a CSV (comma separated value) file.

1. From the Gradebook, click the Other Gradebook functions menu at the top of the window and choose Export Grades. 2. Use radio buttons to select Comma Separated format for the export file. Optionally, include Averages, Course ID and select the Percentage or Points output format. 3. Click Export to finish. You will be prompted to save the file with the default file name gradebook.csv.

Course Mail

CompClass includes its own email system for communicating with your students and others in your course. To access your course mail, click Inbox in the Communicate component of your home page. (Or click Compose to jump directly into writing an email.)

As noted above, you can use the “Assignment Reminder” function to have CompClass automatically send an e-mail to all your students a certain number of hours before an assignment is due. This email will go to their course mail inbox. Posts to discussion forums can also be sent directly to students’ (and instructors’) course mail inbox.

Note: If you or your students have email accounts outside of CompClass that you check more frequently, you can have course mail forwarded to those addresses. Click the Preferences button in the sidebar on the left of your screen. Click System Settings, and enter the email address to forward your mail to at the bottom of the page. Select a forwarding mode, and click Save. When you reply to forwarded course mail, the reply is sent through the outside email associated with the sender, not through the course mail system. We recommend that you remind students of this important option since many students won’t think to check their CompClassemail box and could miss communications.

Your Course Mail inbox will look like this:

Filter emails shown in list.

Set email options.

Click to write an email to send.

Select a folder Enter text and to view. click Search Folder to find emails containing the given text. Delete selected emails.

Click to view email.

To send an email, click Compose (from either the Course Mail page or the home page). Click Add Recipients and add course members to the To, CC, or BCC lists, then click OK. Type the subject and email text, then click Send.

Your Compose Message screen will look like this:

Click here to select recipients from a course list.

Use the inline editor to format text, run the Click to send. spell-checker, or add links.

Click here to attach a file to the message.