1.4.1. Settings and Menu Entries of Your Home
Each OLAT user can adapt the Home area to a certain extent. On the one hand you can restructure the sections displayed according to your needs. On the other hand there are a number of personal settings you can set up in your Home.
Configuring Entries in Your Home
Sections in your Home consist of various shortcuts, e.g. to your courses, notifications, and groups. You can choose which sections should be displayed in an arrangement of your choice.
Let us assume that most of the time you have to deal with groups. Therefore you may want to position the section «My groups» more prominently: just click on «Configure page» on your top right. Then move the section «My groups» wherever you want to by means of the arrows provided.
You can further determine how many entries should be visible within a certain section. In order to do this just click on one of the following icons: «Sort manually» or «Sort automatically». If you choose «Sort manually» you will be able to determine the selection of entries as well as their sequence.
If you do not want to see certain sections in your Home you can deactivate these sections. Deactivated sections will be displayed at the bottom of the page when configuring your Home. You can reactivate them anytime.
After completing your configuration you should click on «End configuration» on your top right.
Settings
In the menu on the left just underneath the option «Settings» you can modify your personal data. This may be necessary if you want to forward OLAT e-mail messages to another mail address or if you want to create a visiting card.
Just indicate your data in your profile and save that information. By means of check boxes you can decide which data should appear on your visiting card, that is, what other users should be able to see. You can also upload a photo to be published on your visiting card. This photo will also be visible when publishing forum contributions or comments.
You can further adapt the font size and your system language in the tab «System».
By means of the feature «Instant Messaging» you can define your settings regarding the chat, e.g. your status after having logged in.
Calendar
In the calendar you can see your private events as well as events regarding calendars of groups and courses. In the list right underneath the active calendar day you can hide and unhide each calendar or determine which calendar should be displayed in a certain color.
Should your calendar remain empty or should certain events not appear, it could be that you forgot to select that calendar in the calendar list.
In order to add a new event to your calendar you have to click inside the appropriate calendar field. If you are a group member you have to first select from the pull-down menu to which calendar (personal calendar or group calendar) you want to add your new event. Events can be edited or deleted by clicking on their time specification.
Use the OLAT event search to find events already existing. By means of the link «Go to date» you can directly navigate to any past or future date.
By means of iCal (a standard to manage events) you can integrate various OLAT calendars into another calendar, e.g. the Google calendar. It is therefore also possible to integrate any other calendar into the OLAT calendar.
Notifications
Thanks to OLAT's notifications you are always up-to-date regarding your courses or groups: you will be informed about new documents in a folder, about answers to forum entries or modified Wiki pages. In many places you can select the option «Subscribe to notifications» to be kept informed. News will be displayed immediately in the tab «Home», section «Notifications»; OLAT will send you an appropriate e-mail once a day. If you don't want to receive such messages via e-mail you can adapt these settings in your Home, tab «Settings», section «Notifications».
If you don't want to be kept informed any longer via e-mail there is always the possibility to unsubscribe from your notifications. You can either do that within a course (same position as «Subscribe to notifications») or in your Home, section «Notifications», in the tab «Settings».
In your Home you will find all notifications regarding course modifications of the past 31 days in the tab «Notifications», section «Notifications».
Bookmarks
Bookmarks serve to get faster access to your learning resources. In the detailed view of your course you will find a link in the box «Learning resource» to be able to set bookmarks. In your Home you can then edit or delete these bookmarks.
Personal Folder
In your personal folder OLAT provides you with storage space. Here you can store presentations you want to use from another computer or cache a research paper, etc.
This personal folder contains two areas, the «Private» and the «Public» one. Only you will have access to your private area. In the subfolder «Public» you can store files you want to share with other OLAT users. By means of the link «Other users» you can search for other OLAT users and have access to those users' «Public» folder via the menu item «Folder».
In case the memory limit (Quota) is exceeded due to large files in your personal folder you can contact your support team to allocate more space.
Notes
You can take notes in each course. You can collect and edit your notes before even printing them.
Evidence of Achievement
An evidence of achievement is a certification of some assessment, e.g. tests, written examinations, or other tasks handed in to be reviewed. Course authors determine if OLAT should create assessments in their course. Course participants will see their evidences of achievement after taking a test, etc. that has been assessed.
Other Users
Search for other OLAT users! Have a look at their visiting card, at the «Public» area of their personal folder, at any released portfolio folders, or send them a message by means of a contact form.
In the footer you will find a link indicating all users logged on at that moment.
ePortfolio
An ePortfolio is used to document learning results as well as learning processes and is therefore meant to assist in reflecting on someone's process of development. The menu entry ePortfolio serves to create accumulative folders of portfolios before making those accessible to certain people (OLAT users as well as guests). You can also have a look at other users' folders or perform portfolio tasks of an OLAT course.
In order to create a portfolio folder or perform a portfolio task you have to create or assemble artefacts first. Artefacts are documents of your learning process as well as your work performed. Artefacts can be e.g. texts, files, posts in a forum or blog, or evidences of achievement.
You can assemble the following artefacts:
- Posts in forums
- Files in folders
- Wiki pages
- Evidences of achievement
- Posts in blogs
First you have to select the ePortfolio icon (e.g. in a post of yours) before following the steps of your accumulative artefact tool. You can indicate the title as well as the description of your artefact; you can provide it with key words (commonly known as tags) to facilitate your search later on or you can write a text as memory aid to justify the selection of your artefact. If you have already created an accumulative folder you will be able to link your artefacts to that folder.
You can create artefacts by clicking on «Add artefact» within the menu item «My artefacts». Just select the required artefact type before creating your text,file or blog artefact. Similar to the accumulative artefact tool you just have to follow the directions of the artefact creation tool. You can write a text, upload a file, or create a learning journal. A learning journal is a blog to document your learning progress. Afterwards you have to indicate a title and a description before deciding on key words for your artefact. Then you confirm that you are the author of that artefact and indicate your reflections before selecting an accumulative folder.
After creating or assembling artefacts you can also search for artefacts by means of the menu item «My artefacts» in order to e.g. edit artefacts or delete ones from your list. There are two possibilities to search for artefacts. The tag browser will help you to browse for key words of your artefact (tags). Then you can use the artefact search feature to additionally search for the type, the creation date, the title or the description of an artefact. Furthermore you can save your queries to avoid having to indicate your search criterion anew. These queries can be adapted or deleted as required.
You can have a look at your artefacts in the detailed view or the table view. This table view presents an overview of your artefacts and provides a possibility to sort columns alphabetically. In the detailed view you can edit or delete your artefacts.
You can configure your display settings by selecting only a certain amount of artefact attributes in the detailed view.
Within the menu item «My accumulative folders» you can create folders or allocate artefacts. Such a folder can be structured according to your needs by inserting pages or other structural elements. In the editing mode you can adapt your folder as required, e.g. by determining your display settings or moving structural elements and artefacts via «Drag&Drop». Additionally you can comment on folder entries or assess them.
When copying accumulative folders you can choose between adopting only their structure or also their artefacts. You can release your accumulative folder as follows:
- for one or more distinctive OLAT users
- for all OLAT users
- for one or more OLAT groups
- for one or more persons not registered in OLAT
Please use the release invitation for the latter option; people will then get an e-mail containing a link to their accumulative folder. It is also possible to limit the access to accumulative folders if necessary.
Within the menu item «My portfolio tasks» you will find portfolio tasks of OLAT courses. You can perform those tasks (i.e. link required artefacts to that folder) before submitting them. In case you have already performed those tasks you can still have a look at them.
If a course author restricts portfolio tasks you will have to abide by these rules.
Within the menu item «Released accumulative folders» you can see any folders you have access to. By changing your view you will also be able to browse through folders released for all OLAT users.