Topic administration - main entry

The topic administration section describes how you administer your topic in FLO.

1. How sites are created  |  2. Topic settings  |  3. Editing your topic  |  4. User management  |  5. Reports  ||  Support 

Good practice guides and tip sheets

Good practice guides and tip sheets have been developed to support quality in both curriculum design and teaching practice. Good practice guides provide a pedagogical overview and tip sheets provide you with practical strategies and ideas for implementation. Links to assignment-related resources are provided below.

Structuring your FLO site | Culturally responsive digital learning |  Teaching first year | Supporting students to successfully engage with the topic

Once you have built, adjusted the settings, and edited your topic in preparation for student access, you can preview it as a student to see what it looks like from a user perspective (rather than as an administrator).



1. How sites are created

Topics are automatically created in FLO using data from Student Two. If your topic does not appear, contact your local eLearning support team for assistance. Staff have access to topics 77 days prior to the teaching start date, with students getting access 7 days before the start of teaching. See:

Both staff and students have access for 730 days after teaching finishes, except when a student withdraws or a staff member is removed from the teaching team in Student Management.

Shared topics

A shared topic combines several cohorts (topic availabilities) into one FLO site.  View more information and guidelines

Course sites

Depending on its purpose, a course site may be set up to support students across topics/programs and/or staff. View more information and how to set up

Short courses

It is possible to create a non-award (short) course in FLO using existing infrastructure, though some processes are less automated than what is possible for award topics. View more information



2. Topic settings

You can do many things under the Topic management menu.

Topic coordinator/teacher role options

The Topic management panel can be opened by clicking the button (cog icon) on the main menu. As a teacher, you will see more options than a student. It gives you access to activities, the question bank, badges and user links. If you are on your topic's home page, you will also be able to access topic administration features (through the Actions menu actions menu).

Cog icon main menu

Topic management window 

Change your topic format

You can use different formats to change the organisation and structure of your topic.

  1. On the homepage of your topic, open the Topic management window and click the Actions menu cog
    Topic management window
    Topic management window and Actions menu cog

  2. Select Edit settings in the drop-down list
    Edit settings

  3. Under Topic format, change Format to either Grid format or Collapsed modules. See examples of topic formats (Example FLO sites)
    Topic format menu 
    Collapsed modules – shows your topic in a format where modules can be toggled/collapsed (recommended).
    Grid format – shows your topic in a visual grid format (alternative format, requires images and may have additional rollover tasks each semester).

  4. Select the number of modules you require
    Number of modules setting

  5. In the Hidden modules section, select your preference ( Hidden modules are completely invisible is recommended)
    Hidden modules settings

Upload a banner to your topic

A banner is designed to give a face to your site and make it recognisable to your students. The banner is visible on top of the site, as well as on the topic 'card' on the MyFLO page.

Change the maximum upload file size available in your topic

This is managed in the Files and uploads section. By default, topics are set at 40MB but can be changed to accept files up to 2GB. If you need to upload video/audio, please follow the Kaltura (My Media) process.

Maximum upload size setting

Turn on completion tracking in your topic

This setting controls completion tracking topic wide. By default, completion tracking is not enabled.

Completion tracking settings

Manage groups in your topic

A group or grouping can be used on two levels — topic level and activity level. When the group mode is switched on at the topic level this is the default for all activities in the topic (including filtering in the gradebook and in participants/enrolled users pages). To enable group mode in a topic, follow the steps below.

  1. In the Groups section, select either Visible groups or Separate groups

    Separate groups – Each group can only see their own group, others are invisible.
    Visible groups – Each group works in their own group, but can also see other groups. (The other groups' work is read-only.)
    Groups settings

  2. If Force group mode is set to Yes, the Group mode setting is applied to every activity in the topic. Group mode settings in each activity are then ignored.

  3. Assign a default grouping (if required)

    Note:
    Students can see the membership of any group, so don't name groups based on extensions, grades, language proficiency or medical conditions.



3. Editing your topic

In this section, we go through the editing within the topic using an activity, resource or block.

  1. To begin editing your topic, click the Turn Edit On button
    turn editing on 

  2. To add a new activity or resource, click the Add an activity or resource link that will now be available at the bottom right corner of each module 
    Add an activity or resource button 

  3. The activity chooser window will open – it has tabs for different views:

    Starred – any activity or resource you (the teacher) 'star' as a favourite or frequently used activity
    All – all  Activities and Resources together
    Activities – only Activities
    Resources – only Resources
    Activity chooser

  4. To edit existing activities and resources, select an option from the Edit menu that appears as a drop-down list alongside each item and click Edit settings
    edit a resource or activity

  5. To change the name of an activity or resource, you can also click the Edit title button. Press Enter on your keyboard to save the new title
    Edit title icon

  6. To move activities and resources up and down the page, hover over the Move resource icon and then click and drag the item to its preferred location. Activities and resources can be moved both within and between modules
    Move icon

    Blocks can be moved in a similar fashion. Click the Topic Blocks button to view existing blocks. Blocks can be positioned in Column A, Column B or Column C by clicking and dragging using the Move block icon. A block can also be moved up and down within the same column.


    Blocks layout



4. User management

In the User management section, you can do a variety of tasks relating to users in your topic.

View a list of participants

You can view a list of all users in your topic on the Participants screen.

  1. Open the Participants screen via the Participants link in the Navigation menu (left of your screen)
    Participants from navigation menu

    Or open the Topic management window and select Participants in the User Links section
    topic management cog
    finding the participants link

  2. A list of participants will show

  3. You can use the search filter to find participants in the FLO site based on:
    • Name
    • Student ID or FAN
    • Role (e.g. student, tutor)
    • Group name
    • Who currently has access (active)
    • How long they have been inactive

    Participants filter

Contact a student (messaging tool)

You can contact a student via FLO by sending a message.

  1. Open the Participants screen via the Participants link in the Navigation menu (left of your screen)
    Participants in navigation menu

    Or open the Topic management window and select Participants in the User Links section
    Topic management cog
    Navigate to Participants

  2. A list of participants will show

  3. Use the search filter to search for people with a particular role, inactivity, or membership to a group. At a minimum, it is recommended to at least add a status filter to select active students (otherwise you'll message students who have withdrawn from the topic).
    Participants filter

  4. Select individual students by clicking in the box by their name 
    Student list 

    or tick the Select all box at the top of the list

  5. At the bottom of the page, click the With selected users menu and select Send a message. A message box will appear – type your message in the box and click send
    Send a message

Download a list of student list FANs (for emailing)

You may wish to export a list of students to aid the import groups process or extract a list of FANs.

  1. Open the Participants screen via the Participants link in the Navigation menu (left of your screen)
    Participants in navigation menu

    Open the Topic management window and select Participants in the User Links section
    Topic management cog
    Navigate to Participants

  2. A list of participants will show

  3. Use the search filter to find participants with a particular role, inactivity, or membership to a group
      Participants filter

  4. Select individual students by clicking in the box alongside their name 
    Select students 

    or tick the Select all box at the top of the list

  5. Select the required format from the With selected users... drop-down list
    Export participant list 
    The .csv or .xlsx file can be opened in Excel.



5. Reports

You can view a wide variety of reports in your topic. Available reports:

  • Competency breakdown – allows teachers to view the competencies of each student in their topic, along with their ratings
  • Dates – allows you to filter by activity and change the dates for multiple activities all on the one screen
  • Engagement analytics – provides information about student progress against a range of indicators
  • Logs – provides logs for the topic activity for users, these can be generated by selecting any combination of group, student, date, activity, actions and level
  • Live logs – provides live logs for the topic including time, user name, topic, component, event name, description, origin and IP address
  • Activity logs – shows the number of views for each activity and resource
  • Topic participation – a report for a particular activity can generate a list of who has participated in a given activity, and how many times. This can be filtered by role, group, and action (view or post).
  • Resource activity – this report details a list of activities showing the number of views, students, not accessed and last accessed
  • Statistics – generates graphs and tables of user activity

View Reports - main entry for more information. You can also contact your local eLearning support team.



Training and support

Troubleshooting

Training

Contact your local eLearning support team

Support

eLearning support teams

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