Chapter 6: Organization of the Distance Education site (also known as the CATE site)

Introduction Table of contents Chapters 1. Hardware and OS 2. Basic software 3. The Internet 4. Online learning 5. Starting the class 6. The DE/CATE site 7. Checking in 8 Class sites 9. Message lists 10. Quizzes, tests, exams 11. Gradebooks 12. Documents 13. Chat rooms and blogs 14. Class search engines 15. Student configurations Appendices 1. Basic skills checklist 2. CATE skills checklist 3. Moodle and WebCT 4. SRJC classes 5. Email accounts 6. A day in the life 7. Check your browser 8. Blog tools 9. I forgot my password 10. Current CATE news

Note: CATE (formerly the acronym for the "Center for Advanced Technology in Eduction") was the original name of what is now the Distance Education office at SRJC. CATE (now the acronym for "Computer-Assisted Teaching Environment") continues to be the name of one of the courseware management systems supported by the Distance Ed office at SRJC. Most online classes at SRJC and Web-based components of face-to-face classes (plus supporting materials such as this Handbook) use the CATE system and/or the Moodle system, both of which are hosted on the Distance Ed webserver at online.santarosa.edu. Of course, there are plenty of other servers at the JC, including www.santarosa.edu, student.santarosa.edu, autobahn.santarosa.edu, etc. However, this chapter only covers the organization of material on the Distance Ed server. Topics on this page A. Finding class homepages B. Finding faculty homepages C. Finding department homepages D. Information for students E. Information for faculty F. Site index G. About DE H. The DE server I. More resources J. Self-assessment A. Finding class homepages From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Class homepages" leads to a page providing a variety of approaches to finding class websites at SRJC. Among the options available to you, ranging from the most narrowly focused to the broadest: If you know your SRJC student ID and PIN, see an overview of all your classes with links and info If you know the section number, go directly to class website If you know the course number, go to list of class websites for that course If you know the name of the instructor, go to list of class websites for that instructor Browse list of class websites by Department or Discipline/Program Browse list of class websites for courses approved for online delivery Browse list of class websites for all courses Browse list of all sections being taught online for a specified semester Browse list of all sections, with or without websites B. Finding faculty homepages From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Faculty & Staff homepages" leads to a page with an alphabetical listing of SRJC employees. This represents all JC faculty and staff who have created and activated a personal homepage in the CATE system. Locating an individual on the list and clicking the name will lead you to his or her homepage which provides further information plus links to that person's class homepages. C. Finding department homepages From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Department homepages" leads to a page with an alphabetical listing of academic departments at SRJC. (Note that other departments, such as Human Resources, campus Police, and Facilities are not included on the list.) Clicking on the name of a department leads to its homepage, which in turn will provide a wealth of information about the department plus further links. D. Information for students From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Information for students" leads to a page with links to additional information and resources for students at SRJC. For example, most students reach this Handbook via that page. E. Information for faculty From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Information for faculty" leads to a page with information for faculty who are using the CATE and/or Moodle courseware packages to create online classes and Web-based materials for face-to-face classes. These pages contain no information required by students, so you can safely ignore them. F. Site index From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "Site index" leads to a page with a complete index for all the generic Distance Ed pages on the online.santarosa.edu server. The index also includes a few of the key pages found on the www.santarosa.edu server. However, the index does NOT include class materials created by faculty and stored on the DE server. G. About DE From the DE homepage and other pages with the same navigational interface, clicking the tab labeled "About DE" leads to a page containing further information about the Distance Education office at Santa Rosa Junior College. H. The DE server The Distanced Education site and most SRJC online classes (and Web-based components of face-to-face classes) are hosted on the DE server at online.santarosa.edu, often referred to as the CATE server. The server and all its contents—including all CATE-based classes—will be unavailable at various times due to backups and maintenance. The exact times of those backups and the system maintenance window are subject to change. Refer to the "Server Down Time" section of the DE homepage for the latest information. Under some circumstances, red warning messages will also appear on various CATE pages when the system is going down for scheduled maintenance. Please plan your online work accordingly. For example, it's not a good idea to try to submit a test when the system is unavailable! I. More resources The Distance Education homepage J. Self-assessment Take the self-assessment quiz to ensure you're comfortable with all the concepts and skills in this chapter. The quiz will open in a new browser window, and after submitting the quiz you'll immediately see your score. Practice exercise: Tour the Distance Ed site and familiarize yourself with what's available there and how it's organized.

 

Distance Education office Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA USA Last Modified: Friday, 25-Jan-2013 09:33:22 PST	Email to CATE Webmaster