Using Today's View

When you first enter your course, the Today's View tab displays. Today's View provides a single page where you can track, organize, and manage your assignments. Today's View includes two main areas:

1. Notifications: The Notifications area on the left includes five sections: Welcome Message, Announcements, To Do, Alerts, and Performance. They are described below.

2. Calendar: The Calendar area on the right allows and provides a quick snapshot of assignments, by date.

Notifications

The Notifications area at the right displays five sections -- Welcome Message, Announcements, To Do, Alerts, and Performance.

Welcome Message

The Welcome Message allows the course author or instructor to create a Welcome message that displays to students when they first log in. You can customize whether or not the Welcome message displays in Today's View -- and edit or create your own Welcome message.

To enable (or disable) the Welcome Message:

1. Click Customize on the top right of the Notifications section.

2. In the Customize Notifications window, select (or clear) Enable Welcome Message.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the Customize Notifications window and then click .

To customize the Welcome Message:

1. Click Customize on the top right of the Notifications section.

2. In the Customize Notifications window, select Edit Welcome Message.

3. Using the content editor, edit the existing content or enter new content.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the Customize Notifications window and then click .

If you want to set the Welcome Message to display as the default view on the Today's View page, select Welcome Message in the Default View list (by default, it is set to Announcements).

Announcements

The Announcements section is used to display any announcements posted by other instructors or the Program Administrator. The number of announcements currently posted appears in parentheses next to the Announcements link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

To view an Announcement, click the Announcements link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area. For each announcement, the following are displayed:

>From: Indicates the name of the instructor who has posted the announcement.

>Date: Indicates either the date the announcement was posted or the date range in which this announcement will appear.

>Subject: Displays the announcement subject, as posted by an instructor.

>Text: Displays the announcement message, as posted by an instructor.

To create a new announcement or make edits to existing announcements, click the Manage link to display the Announcements tool.

To Do

The To Do section is used to display notifications of any Instructor Grading, Unread Discussions or Unread Messages posted or sent by your instructor or other students.

Instructor Grading

This section displays activity submissions that require manual grading by instructors. For myitlab, Dropbox activities require manual review and grading, so these items would display in this area.

Unread Discussions

The Unread Discussions section displays a list of Discussion topics with unread posts. The number of Discussion topics with new posts appears in parentheses next to the Unread Discussions link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

To view more details for each unread post, click the Unread Discussions link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

>The discussion topic name and the number of unread posted messages is displayed.

>Each discussion topic is listed with an options menu that has two options: Open and Send Message. For more information on these options, click here.

>On the options menus, click Open to open the Discussion Topic window.

Unread Messages

The Unread Messages section displays a list of unread mail messages. The first 10 unread mails in your Inbox will be displayed here. The total number of unread mails in the Inbox appears in parentheses next to the Unread Messages link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

To view more details for each unread mail message, click the Unread Messages link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area. Unread Messages are displayed with three items:

>Name: Indicates the name of the sender.

>Subject: Displays the subject of the mail.

>Date: Indicates the date on which you have received the mail.

Clicking the message will open the Read Message window. You can also go to the Mail Inbox by clicking the Go to Mail link. For more information, see Mail.

Alerts

The Alerts section is used to display notifications of new grades and other student submissions.

Not Passed

The Not Passed section displays a list of activities for which students did not receive passing grades.

>For each activity in the list, the Activity name is displayed, along with the number of students who have not met the pass criteria for that activity (for example, the text "Not passed by 1 of 3 students who took activity" indicates that 1 of 3 students who took the activity did not pass it). Late Submissions are also displayed if the student has not obtained passing marks for an activity. The count is updated several times, daily.

>Click the Activity name to view the activity in the Gradebook window. For details, see Gradebook.

Several options are available on the options menu for each Activity:

1. View All Submissions: Click View All Submissions on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The View Submission window opens.

2. View in Course Content: Click View in Course Content on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. An expanded Course Content window opens, highlighting the selected activity.

3. Send Message: Click Send Message on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The New Message window opens.

New Grades

The New Grades section displays the newly posted grades for the activities. The number of activities for which new grades have been posted is displayed in parentheses next to the New Grades link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

>The activity name along with the number of new grades posted for each activity is displayed.

>Clicking an activity name will open the Gradebook and display that activity in the Grades window.

>You can also go the Grades window by clicking the Go to Grades link. For details on using the Gradebook, see Grades.

Several options are available on the options menu for each Activity:

1. View All Submissions: Click View All Submissions on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The View Submission window opens.

2. View in Course Content: Click View in Course Content on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. An expanded Course Content window opens, highlighting the selected activity.

3. Send Message: Click Send Message on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The New Message window opens.

Idle Students

The Idle Students section allows you to view the students who have not logged in to the course for a defined amount of time. The number of students who have not entered the course in the specified time is displayed in brackets next to the Idle Students link. [Note: you can set an alert to be displayed based on student’s inactivity in a course for the specified number of days, weeks or months; see Customization information below.]

>The name of each Idle Student appears in the list.

>To send a message to all students in the list, click the button.

Several options are available on the options menu for each student:

1. Deny Access: Click Deny Access on the options menu for the corresponding student name to deny the student access to the course. When prompted, click OK to confirm the action (or Cancel to cancel the Action). The student will be removed from the list.

2. Send Message: Click Send Message on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The New Message window opens.

3. View Roster: Click View Roster on the options menu for the corresponding student to open the view to the Gradebook Manage Roster tab.

Past Due: Submitted

The Past Due: Submitted section displays a list of any activities submitted after the scheduled due date. The total number of late submissions is displayed in brackets next to the Past Due: Submitted link. The count is updated hourly.

To view more details or to accept activities submitted after the scheduled due date:

1. Click Past Due: Submitted Depending on the option selected in the Today's View customization tool, you either see past due submissions listed by student name (default) or by activity name. To change the default view, click Customize and select the desired List Past due submissions option.

2. Click the student (or activity) name to view the details of each past due submission.

3. The alarm icon and the Total number of late submissions for the activities are displayed. Each of the activities has an options menu with options specific to that activity.

4. To accept late submissions, complete the following steps:

• To accept an individual student (or activity) submission, select Accept Late Submissions on the options menu. All of the submissions by that student (or for that activity) are accepted.

• To accept all late submissions for a particular student (or activity), click Accept All, and on the confirmation dialog, click OK to confirm you want to accept the submissions.

After the submissions have been accepted, the student (or activity) name is removed from the list.

Past Due: Not Submitted

The Past Due: Not Submitted section displays the number of students who have not submitted the activities within the specified due date. The number of activities that have not been submitted by due date is displayed in brackets next to the Past Due: Not Submitted link. The count is updated hourly.

>The names of students who have not submitted the activities within the specified due date are displayed.

>To send a message to all students in the list, click the button.

Several options are available on the options menu for each student:

1. View Roster: Click View Roster on the options menu for the corresponding student to open the view to the Gradebook Manage Roster tab.

2. Send Message: Click Send Message on the options menu for the corresponding activity name. The New Message window opens.

Performance

By default, the Performance settings for Today's View are not enabled in myitlab. If you want to enable it, click the Customize link at the top of the window and then follow the steps outlined in the Customize help topic.

Performance is a graphical interface that provides performance statistics for both the course and individual students; it is an at-a-glance view of how students are performing in your course. Performance is summarized and calculated for activities and study plans (pre- and post-tests) that you specify in the Grading section of the Preferences tool or in the Edit Calculated Settings window, which is linked from the Customize Notifications window.

If you enable the Performance option, the Course Performance and Student Performance notifications view appear in Today's view. Enabling this option gives you the options to:

• Add folder level calculated columns in Gradebook.

• Allows you to edit the folder level calculations (settings are updated to the Gradebook and Today's view every two hours).

• Set a folder level threshold score for students.

When enabled in a course, Performance displays the following types of notifications:

• Course Performance: Summarizes course performance at the folder (chapter) level and individual activity level. You can view overall course performance and determine where the class is under-performing.

• Student Performance: Displays performance report for individual (enrolled and active) students in the course.

To enable the Today's View Performance display:

1. Click Preferences and select Grading.

2. Select Enable folder level calculations for Gradebook and Today's View. Note that when you select this option you are also enabling folder level grade-to-date calculations to appear in the Gradebook.

3. Enter a value for the Folder Level Threshold Score. This value determines the overall passing threshold for the course and is applied at the folder level. It is used to make pass/fail determinations at the folder level for grades displayed in the Gradebook and in the Performance channel. Note that although the value set here can differ from the passing threshold value of individual activities in the course, it is recommended that you enter the passing threshold you set for your individual activities.

4. Click Save Preferences.

   When you return to Today's View the Course Performance and Student Performance options are available in the Notifications section.

Course Performance:

The Course Performance section allows you to view overall course performance and determine where the class is under-performing. Course Performance summarizes course performance at the folder level and at the individual activities and study plan level.

The calculations for the report are specified in the Customize window available from Today's View, Notifications window. For example, the Course Performance report displays Study Plans only if the Enable Study plan results check box is selected when settings are customized.

To view the Course Performance report, click the Course Performance link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.
 

The top row, Overall, displays the overall course performance for all students. The Overall section includes three columns:

• The Grade column displays the grade-to-date average for all students based on the calculation criteria specified in Customize settings.

• The Content Completed column displays the average of percentage of activities completed for all students based on the calculation criteria specified in the Customize settings.

• The Time on Task column displays the average time on task for all students for all content within a particular fold.

For each assignment, the following columns of information are displayed:

>Course Content: Depending on the folder calculation level specified in the Customize settings, displays the name of the first-level folders and activities/study plans. Select a folder to display the folder contents. Study plan names conclude with either Pre-test or Post-test. Note: The Course Performance report displays Study Plans only if the Enable Study plan results check box is selected in the Customize settings of Today's View.

>Grade: Displays the average cumulative grade-to-date for the particular folder or content within the folder. The average of all assigned activities is calculated unless another calculation is specified in Customize settings.

>Content Completed: Displays the percentage of content completed at the first-level folder or content within the folder. The percentage of assigned completed within each folder is calculated unless another calculation is specified in Customize settings.

>Time on Task (hh:mm:ss): Displays the total time taken for completion of the activities or study plans.

Each of the folders and activities/study plans has an options menu; you can click the menu arrow to display the options specific to the item and then click an option to complete that action.

Additionally, in the top-right of the Course Performance window, you can view the following details:

>Last updated: Displays the date and time the calculations were last updated.

>What's being calculated?: Click to display the calculation options used to obtain the Performance report. To change the options, click the Customize link and then click the Edit Calculation Setting link in the Performance area.

Student Performance:

The Student Performance section allows you to view performance for individual (enrolled and active) students in the course.

To view the Student Performance report, click the Student Performance link in the left navigation bar of the Notifications area.

The top row, Overall, displays the overall student performance for the particular course. The Overall section includes three columns:

• The Grade column displays the grade-to-date average for all students based on the calculation criteria specified in Customize settings.

• The Content Completed column displays the average of percentage of activities completed for all students based on the calculation criteria specified in the Customize settings.

• The Time on Task column displays the average time on task for all students for all content within a particular folder.

For each student, the following columns of information are displayed:

>Student Name: Displays the name (Last name, First name) of the students in the course. Depending on the folder calculation level specified in the Customize settings, when you click a student name it displays the name of the first-level folders and activities/study plans. Select a folder to display the folder contents. Study plan names conclude with either Pre-test or Post-test. Note: The Student Performance report displays Study Plans only if the Enable Study plan results check box is selected in the Customize settings of Today's View.

>Grade: Displays the average cumulative grade-to-date of an individual student for the particular folder or content within the folder. The average of all assigned activities is calculated, unless another calculation is specified in Customize settings.

>Content Completed: Displays the percentage of content completed at the first-level folder or content within the folder, by student. The percentage of assigned completed within each folder is calculated unless another calculation is specified in Customize settings.

>Time on Task (hh:mm:ss): Displays the total time taken for completion of the activities or study plans by an individual student.

Each of the folders and activities/study plans has an options menu; you can click the menu arrow to display the options specific to the item and then click an option to complete that action.

Additionally, in the top-right of the Course Performance window, you can view the following details:

>Last updated: Displays the date and time the calculations were last updated.

>What's being calculated?: Click to display the calculation options used to obtain the Performance report. To change the options, click the Customize link and then click the Edit Calculation Setting link in the Performance area.

Customizing Notifications

You can customize your Notifications to set the default view and determine when notifications are displayed. At the top of the Notifications window, click the Customize link. The Customize Notifications window displays. Select from the following options to set your notifications and then click to save the changes.

Welcome Message

• Edit Welcome Message: Select this check box to edit the any existing welcome message. The Content Editor will display; you can type the welcome message in the editor.

• Enable Welcome Message: Select this checkbox to enable the Welcome Message to be displayed in Today’s View. If the checkbox is de-selected, the welcome message is disabled and the welcome message is hidden.

Default View

• In the Default View list, select the notification you want to appear as the default view when you open Today’s View.

To Do

• Notify me when new submissions are available for manual grading: Select this check box to receive notifications when submissions are posted for manual grading.

• Notify me when new Discussion Board posts are available to read: Select this check box to receive notifications when Discussions are posted.

• Notify me when new Mail messages are available to read: Select this check box to receive notifications when new mail messages are posted.

Alerts

• Notify me of all students not passing an activity within the time frame selected below: Select this check box to receive notifications when students do not obtain passing marks for activities. You can select Show all (default) to view the alert for all students who have not passed an activity. If you specify a time frame (such as 1 week), alerts will display for any students who do not pass an activity within the time frame specified (1 week from the current date).

• Notify me when new activity submissions are ready for grading: Select this check box to receive notifications when new grades are posted.

• Notify me if a student has not entered the course in: Select this check box to receive notifications when students assigned to the course do not enter the course in the specified time (in days/weeks/months). If you select Show all (default) all students who are inactive in the course are displayed. If you select a time frame (such as 1 month), any student that has not entered the course within that time frame (1 month) are displayed.

• Notify me if a student submits an activity past the due date: Select this check box to receive notifications when students submit the activities after the specified due date or for late submissions. Select this check box to receive notifications when students submit the activities after the specified due date. You can select your choice of display to list the past due submissions by student or by activity.

• Notify me if a student has not submitted any activity by the due date: Select this check box to receive notifications when students do not submit the activities by the specified due date. You can select Show all (default) to view the alert for all students who have not submitted the activity. If you specify a time frame (such as 1 week), alerts will display for any students who do not submit the activity within the time frame specified (1 week from the current date).

Note: Notify me if a student submits an activity past the due date and Notify me if a student has not submitted an activity by the due date display only if Enable Calendar is selected in the General preferences of the Preferences tool.

Performance

• Edit Calculation Settings: Click the Edit Calculation Settings link to open the Edit Calculation settings window. For more information on editing calculation settings, click here.

• Enable Course Performance View: Select this check box to display Course Performance notifications in Today's View.

• Show "Time on Task" column: select this check box to display the Time on Task column for all levels in the Course Performance view (this shows the total time spent per activity and is displayed as hh:mm).

• Enable Student Performance View: Select this check box to display Student Performance notifications in Today's View.

• Show "Time on Task" column: select this check box to display the Time on Task column for all levels in the Student Performance view (this shows the total time spent by the student per activity and is displayed as hh:mm).

Editing Calculation Settings

You can use the Edit Calculation Settings window to set the criteria used to calculate grades and display folder-level statistics in the Gradebook and in the Performance notifications of Today's View. The settings you select here will calculate and display folder-level statistics in the Gradebook and on the Today's View > Course Performance page. To ensure system stability, this calculation will be updated at 2 hour intervals. Therefore, the data may not be updated immediately in the Gradebook or Course Performance page in Today's View.

In the Edit Calculation Settings window, you can set the following criteria:

Student Performance and Gradebook Calculation

In this section, you specify the type of calculation to perform and the activities that are included.

1. From Calculate the, select the operation. Options are: Average or Sum. The Average is calculated by averaging all activities below the folder (regardless of the folder structure) in order to determine the overall average. If an activity is duplicated within a course the activity will be counted twice. The Sum is calculated by summing the raw scores the student received on every activity and dividing by the total possible points for those activities. If the course is set to display raw score, the raw score will display as ”total required points / total possible points.”
   
   Activities are not included in the calculations if at least one of the following is true:

• The activity is marked for anonymous submittal.

•  The activity is not submitted and is not due.

Note that activities that are not submitted (or are submitted) after the due date are counted as zero (unless the instructor accepts the grade for the past due, submitted activity). If the activity is assigned without a due date it is considered to be due on the course end date and the previous rules apply.
 

2. Select the activity filter you want to apply. Options are: All, Assigned, and Unassigned

3. Choose an Activity type option:

• All Activity types to include all activities in the calculation

• Select activity types to include only selected activity types in the calculation. After selecting this option, click the check box for each of the desired activity types to add them to the calculation. Only the activity types selected are included in the calculation.
   

Levels to which the calculation will be shown and applied

In this section, you can specify the levels to which the above calculations are to be shown and applied in the Gradebook.

1. Folder Calculation Level:

2. Overall (Shown at first level): When selected, the calculation is applied to the whole course (it is selected by default). The column appears as the first column when you navigate to the top-level of the Gradebook.

3. Folder level (Shown inside folders): When selected, the calculation is applied at the folder level. All of the activities/study plans in the folder and any subfolders are included in the calculation. The column appears as the first column when you navigate to a content folder in the Gradebook.

2. Gradebook column prefix: Enter text that will be used as the column prefix in Gradebook. For the first level, this name precedes the course name. For the second and third level, this name precedes the folder name. Click Set to default to revert back to the default name for each level (Course Average or Folder Average).
    

Course Performance Settings

In this section, you can specific the settings to define how study plans are handled in calculated columns.

• Enable Study Plan results: When selected, Study Plan results are included in the calculation and displayed in the Course Performance view of Today's View.

• Display Pre-test results: Select this check box to display Pre-test results in Course Performance View. To include the pre-test results in the calculation, select the Include in calculation check box.

• Display Post-test results: Select this check box to display the Post-test results in Course Performance view. To include the post-test results in the calculation, select the Include in calculation check box.

Enable Course Performance View

In this section, click to display Course Performance notifications in Today's View. When enabled you can also view the Time on Task, which is the total time spent per activity in hours and minutes (hh:mm).

Enable Student Performance View

In this section, click to display Student Performance notifications in Today's View. When enabled you can also view the Time on Task, which is the total time spent by the student per activity in hours and minutes (hh:mm).

When you have made all desired changes, click Save and Close to save your changes.

Note: To remove Performance statistics from Today's View, clear the respective option for Course and/or Student Performance.

Manage Calendar

• Display calendar on Today's View for you and your students: Select this check box to display calendar in Today's View for both Instructors and students.

Note: The Manage Calendar option is available only if you select the Enable Calendar check box in General preferences in the Preferences tab.

Calendar

The Course Calendar allows you to easily locate the activities or items that have been assigned to you, with a due date. The due dates for the each activity or item to be submitted is highlighted on the calendar. By default current month and current day are displayed in the calendar. You can navigate forward and backward in the calendar by clicking button or  button.

You can assign Course Content for the student by clicking the Assign Content link in the top-right hand corner of the calendar. This link will navigate to Course Content Calendar view. For more information on assigning contents to the course, click here.

If you click a date in the calendar, the Course Content window opens to the Course Calendar, which lists any assignments for that day.

To go directly to Course Content, click the Course Content link. The Course Content tab will open to the View All Contents tab.

The calendar displays the following icons:

• Completed: The date on which a student completes an assignment and submit the activity are indicated with a checkmark icon.

• Items Due: When a due date is set for an activity, that date will be marked with icon. (This means that students have to submit the activity on or before the date specified for submitting a particular assignment.)

• Items Past Due: If students have not submitted an activity on or before the due date, that date will be marked with icon. If you choose accepts the submission of the activity that you have submitted after the due date, the icon is replaced with .

Note: Any note or information added for a date will be marked with icon.

• Submitted: The date on which a student submits a completed activity will be marked with icon.