As an instructor, the Course Manager will be your number one tool for pushing out class content to your students, monitoring student activity, grading student submissions, and organizing your students into separate sections and courses.
Accessing the Course Manager
You can find the Course Manager by clicking the triple-dot menu on the top right, selecting Utilities, and then clicking Course Manager. After you create a course, you can click the Course Manager shortcut icon,
which will appear in the top-right of the screen.
A new tab will open, and you will be brought to the LabArchives Welcome Page. Click Create Your New Course Now to get started.
Click any option in the top-right corner any time you would like to save your progress in creating your course.
Connecting Your Course to Canvas
You will have the option to connect your LabArchives course to Canvas if your institution has enabled LabArchives as an external tool.
If you would like to link your LabArchives course to Canvas, click Yes, then click Next. If you click No or I want more information before I decide, you can connect your course to Canvas later.
Setting Up Your Course
- Title your course. Ensure the course’s name is the same in Canvas.
- Course Description is an optional field for your internal use only.
- Select the notebook on which you want to base your students’ notebook. We refer to this as your Instructor Notebook. Click here for more information about how to set up your Course Notebook.
- Be sure to name assignments in your notebook the same as their corresponding assignments in Canvas.
- There are five additional fields in the Course Information area. You are free to turn any of these items on or off any time in the duration of your course:
- Allow students to share their notebooks with other students. This is on by default. This is great for collaboration if students are working in groups, and if you want them to be able to work in each other’s notebooks.
- Allow students to sign pages in their notebooks. This is off by default. This option freezes the page and will not allow anyone, including the instructor, to edit the page any further. Most instructors prefer to use the assignment page locking option.
- Allow teaching assistants to add or delete sections. This is off by default. The instructor can permit teaching assistants to add or delete sections of a course.
- Restrict teaching assistants’ access to their section(s) only. This is on by default. This option limits each teaching assistant to access student information and grades for only their section. If this option is turned on and sections are used, be sure to assign students and teaching assistants to the correct section.
- Lock assignment page when the assignment is submitted. This is on by default. When students submit an assignment, the page will lock. After which, they will no longer be able to edit any entries on the page until the page is graded or unlocked by the instructor or teaching assistant.
- Show comments automatically for Students and Teaching Assistants. This is on by default. When an Instructor or Teaching Assistant comments on a student’s notebook, it will be shown automatically when the student returns to that page.
- Important Note: We recommend having one assignment entry per page. If locking is enabled and you add more than one assignment entry, your students will no longer be able to submit any further assignments on that page.
2. Set up Speedgrader or Grade in LabArchives
You can grade student work in LabArchives or in Canvas using Speedgrader. Click here to learn more about these options.
3. Creating Sections
To add sections to your course, add a section name, an optional description, and then click Add. After creating one section, you can add additional sections, edit current section names and descriptions, and delete sections.
Section information in LabArchives is not carried over in Canvas or vice versa.
4. Adding Teaching Assistants
You can manually add TAs or co-instructors to the course. If your TA is already listed in Canvas, you do not need re-add them here. TA’s will be added once they have clicked through an assignment in Canvas.
To add a Teaching Assistant manually, fill in the emails separated by commas, enters, or semi-colons in the field, then click Add. Test will confirm if the email(s) are valid and if the user already exists in your course. Your teaching assistants will receive an email with an activation link.
You can assign your TA to a specific section of the course. You can always add additional TAs, change their assigned section, or remove them.
5. Adding Students to your Course
Your students will automatically be added to The LabArchives Course Manager once they have clicked through an assignment in Canvas.
After your students have been added, you can change their assigned section.
Once you are done adding information to your course, click Save Course and Exit.
Create or Access other Courses
If you would like to create another course, you can click +Add New Course in the top-right corner. To access another course, click the course name and a drop-down menu will appear with other courses.