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Subject Coordinators

Information for Subject Coordinators regarding subject site management:

Subject life-cycle issues
 Site participant issues
Tool issues
Permissions issues
Merge issues
Copyright issues

Subject life-cycle issues

When does a subject site become available for a new session, and how long does it last after a session ends?

Subject sites are created 60 days before a session starts, and will be open to the Subject Coordinator for 18 months after the end of the session. Sites will be archived at this time. For more information see the Interact session start and end summary pdf. (back to top)

How do I import material from another site e.g. from a site used in a previous session?

For information on this issue, please see this link

 

Site participant issues

How do I add or remove subject site participants?
How are changes to student enrolments handled in my subject site?

An automated process will check for changes to enrolments on a nightly basis and add or remove students from your subject site as necessary. Subject Coordinators should not need to add or remove CSU students to or from a subject site, other than in the case of Grade Pending students (see below).

How can a non-CSU participant be added to my subject site?
How can a participant’s role (ie level of site membership) be changed?
Grade pending students: how is their access to a subject site maintained?

An automated process will remove all student access 70 days post the end of session – however, if a student requires their access to continue due to a grade pending, you will need to manually add that student into the ‘Student' role using the Site Info ‘Add Participant' function. You are required to enter the student's username during this process. By manually adding the student, their automated access will be overridden, hence their access will not be removed 70 days post end of session.

To remove the student's access once the grade pending has been finalised, find the student in the Site Info Participant List and select ‘Inactive' from the Status dropdown box. Please note that the student's access will continue until the subject site is archived or until their access is made ‘Inactive'.

The Subject Coordinator is not available, e.g. on leave – how can an alternative Subject Coordinator be added to the site?

Your Head of School is required to lodge a Service Desk Request which includes the username of the staff member who requires ‘Subject Coordinator' access to the subject site while the Subject Coordinator is not available. The Subject Coordinator will then need to manage that staff member's access as necessary upon their return, i.e. make their access ‘Inactive' or change their role to ‘Other Staff' or ‘Read Only', etc.

How do I manage the information provided in the Contact tool?
When can participants who have been added as "Other staff " see a subject site?

The ‘Subject Coordinator' role is the only role which is able to access a subject site prior to its ‘publication', i.e. subject sites are auto-published to all site members 28 days before session or when the first tool is made available to ‘All' site members by the Subject Coordinator (see How can I make the subject site available to students before the default publication date? for further information).

If a Subject Coordinator requires another staff member to access a subject site prior to its publication to all site members, they must be added to the site in the Subject Coordinator role. Once the site has been published to all site members, you may then change that staff members role to ‘Other Staff' or ‘Read Only' if necessary. (back to top)

Tool issues

What tools does my site contain before the start of a session?

Earlier than 28 days before the start of session subject sites will only display the Help, Home and Site info tools. Academics can, however, use Edit Tools to turn tools on. Otherwise, tools will be turned on automatically as follows:

How do I turn tools on?

Using the Site Info ‘Edit Tools' function, a Subject Coordinator is able to make tools available to all site members. Subject sites offer further flexibility in that it is also possible to make tools available to the ‘Subject Coordinator' role only (please note that this added functionality excludes CSU tools, i.e. Forum, Subject Outline, OASIS, Evaluation and EASTS).

Once you have navigated to Edit Tools (Subject Site > Site Info > Edit Tools), select the access you require using the radio buttons for each tool:

To save your selections you then need to click ‘Continue' then confirm your selection/s by clicking ‘Finish' on the tool confirmation screen. Please note that if you have selected the Web Content and/or News tools you will encounter an interim screen which requires you customise the tool/s. See also Turning tools on or off in a subject site.


What is the meaning of “Coord” and “All” in the tool list?

Can I turn tools off?

Subject Coordinators are able to change the access for a tool from ‘Coord' to ‘None'. Please note that any content will not be available if the tool is made available subsequently.

It is important to note that once a tool has been made available to ‘All', Subject Coordinators are unable to deactivate the tool automatically (this does not apply for Web Content and News tools - see below). If the Head of School considers the circumstances extenuating, they must log a Service Desk Request to have the tool made unavailable. See also Turning tools on or off in a subject site.

Note: Web Content and News tools are different from other CSU Interact tools in that they are able to be removed by anybody with a Subject Coordinator role.

How can I make the subject site available to students before the default publication date?

The Subject Coordinator is able to publish a subject site prior to the default publication date by using the Site Info ‘Edit Tools' to make any tool available to ‘All' site members.

If you wish to make the tool/s available to yourself and others in the Subject Coordinator role, you should select ‘Coord' instead of ‘All' – this will not publish the site but will allow you to access the tool prior to making it available to all site members. Please note that the ‘Coord' option is not available for CSU tools, i.e. Forum, Subject Outline, OASIS, Evaluation and EASTS.

See Turning tools on or off in a subject site for more information about turning tools on before the default dates. (back to top)

Permissions issues

How can I change permissions settings for students for a particular tool?

Merge issues

The Merge Cohorts tool is now operational. See Merge Cohorts for further information, including merging of Forums.

Copyright issues

The Subject Coordinator is responsible for the material on their CSU Interact subject sites.  Care must be exercised in using the copyright material of others where permission has not been gained.  For more information on what material can be used on CSU Interact see “CSU Interact – Copyright information for CSU staff”.