Flinders Learning Online (FLO), Flinders University's web-based learning and teaching platform, facilitates the creation of online educational environments by non-technical users. FLO can be used to create entire online topics and courses or to provide
interactive tools that supplement or complement existing topics and courses. All topics at Flinders have a FLO site. FLO is a 'suite' of technologies. The core of FLO is Moodle, but it also includes related educational technologies.
Anyone with a Flinders FAN can log into FLO. Each topic has a FLO site automatically created. Staff may request other sites (eg for courses, collaborative projects, committees) by contacting the eLearning support team in their college.
A link to the FLO login page is provided in the Quicklinks menu in the top banner of the University website or via OKTA. Otherwise, type https://flo.flinders.edu.au/ into your browser address bar; this
link will redirect you to OKTA to sign in. Once signed in you will be redirected to FLO.
When you first log into FLO, you will see the My FLO homepage. The My FLO page lists every topic you have a role in. Your topics are arranged in a Card layout under My Topics.
You can also see the items and topics that you have most recently accessed.
1. Layout
The standard layout of the FLO homepage (My FLO) consists of blocks right of the screen, with the content on the left. A block is
a widget that can provide a link to a feature, or can aggregate content from different areas of the site. Blocks available from My FLO can link you to upcoming assessments and latest announcements.
In your topics, the blocks have moved to the banner in the top-right corner of the page.
The blocks panel is divided into three columns. Column 1 has the Topic links, Clock and Activities blocks. Column 2 has the Teaching team block and Column 3 has Lecture recordings and Recent activity blocks.
To control which topics appear on your dashboard, you can star or remove them:
Under the topic click on the three dots
Choose Remove from view to hide the topic
Choose Star this topic to add it to your Starred list. You can access the starred list from the filter in the top-left corner of the My Topics block (FLO remembers the last filter you chose each time you come to this page).
Profile customisations (includes photo)
Every user in FLO has a profile page that is displayed to other users. To edit your profile click the picture next to your name and select Profile from the drop-down list, then the Edit profile link in the user details box.
You can edit your location, time zone and add a description about yourself. Your name and email address will be automatically added.
You can also add a picture of yourself or something you want to be identified by. You can by scrolling down to the User picture section do this by clicking the add button
or drag and dropping a picture into the box with the dotted lines. You can also provide a description for the picture. Adding a picture gives you a 'social presence' in FLO and will show in some FLO activities (eg forum posts) and the Teaching Team
block.
Click the Update profile button
to save your changes.
Preferences
Preferences, available through the profile menu, allow you to control settings that primarily control how you receive information from FLO. The following settings are available:
Tools for managing learning (such as the Gradebook) can be used to record and monitor student progress In the Flinders My Topics area – this is a listing of all the topics you have access to and you can decide how you would like to view your topics –
in progress, past, future or starred topics.
The standard layout for each topic consists of content (modules/weeks) in the centre, navigation menu on the left, and topic blocks in the banner image.
The top module can be used for resources that are needed throughout the semester and do not sit specifically into a weekly module, or one of the modules included in the starter site.
Note: If you are using a Collapsed topic format, the user cannot collapse the top module, and so consideration should
be given to the number of resources in the top module to avoid a long scrolling experience.
Edit content in a topic
The editing aspects of the topic are located at the top of the screen. The Topic Management, Navigation menu and Quicklinks appear at the top of your screen in every topic, along with the Turn editing on button. To edit or add content
to your topic, select the
Turn editing on button.
Edit week/modules and activities/resources
With editing on, next to each activity you will see an Edit drop-down menu. This menu will allow you to move, hide, duplicate or delete the activity.
A week/module or activity/resource can be quickly renamed using the pencil icon and moved easily using the move icon.
Note: If you using a weekly format and change the default module titles by renaming them, remember to check that date-specific resources like lecture recordings appear in the correct location before teaching begins.
Add a block
There are various blocks you can add to a topic. See the list in Add a block located at the top of the page in Topic Blocks:
When you have finished editing, ensure that you Turn editing off.
Add/delete a module
Scroll to the end of the FLO topic homepage, and select either the add or delete option.
If adding, change the module name using the pen icon, and move to the position you want it (eg below Module 0) using the icon at the left of the module name
Customise the My Topics block (My FLO)
The My Topics block has filters to help you find your FLO sites. The following filters are available:
All– All your FLO sites, (except for any you have hidden)
In progress– All sites currently running (e.g. the topics you are currently teaching in)
Future– Topics you will be teaching in the future. Topics will move to In progress at the start of the semester
Past– Topics where teaching has finished
Starred – Topics you have marked for easy access (see below)
Removed from view– Topics you have removed from the All filter.
Whenever you log in to FLO, you are taken back to the filter you last chose. If you find that you are suddenly missing a topic, this can probably be fixed by checking which filter is selected.
Create starred topics for quick access (My FLO)
To access frequently used topics, you can 'star' a topic, which makes it easier to filter when you log in to FLO.
First, click on My Topics list in the navigation menu:
Scroll down and find the topic you would like to star
Click on the three dots
Click on Star this topic
Your topic will now appear in Starred, when you filter the list under My Topics.
4. Logout
Once you have finished in FLO remember to log out.
Click on your profile menu
Click on Log out
FLO's browser compatibility
FLO is compatible with any standards-compliant web browser. We regularly test FLO with the following most up-to-date browsers:
Desktop:
Chrome
Firefox
Mobile:
Safari
Chrome
For the best experience and optimum security, we recommend that you keep your browser up to date.