Getting started guide for Admins

Getting started guide

For Administrators

Simple, Powerful E-learning Platform March 2014

1
 Table of contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Signing up for EDU 2.0 ......................................................................................................................... 5
Home page and Navigation ................................................................................................................. 6
Top bar ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Top right bar ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Right bar .......................................................................................................................................... 10
News feed ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Help Center .......................................................................................................................................... 12
Portal Customization.......................................................................................................................... 13
URL ............................................................................................................................................... 15
Color scheme .............................................................................................................................. 15
Logo .............................................................................................................................................. 16
Home tabs ................................................................................................................................... 17
Left bar ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Footers ......................................................................................................................................... 18
Terminology ................................................................................................................................. 19
Creating accounts .............................................................................................................................. 20
Add accounts using a form ....................................................................................................... 23
Email invitations.......................................................................................................................... 23
Configure self-registration ......................................................................................................... 24
Import accounts from a file ....................................................................................................... 25
Setting up policies .............................................................................................................................. 28
Configuring the class catalog ........................................................................................................... 29
Setting up canned messages ............................................................................................................ 33
Configuring the Grade map ............................................................................................................... 34
Upgrading to a premium plan .......................................................................................................... 35
Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 35

2
 Getting started guide for Admins

Introduction
EDU 2.0 is a beautiful, modern, easy-to-use LMS that makes it simple to deliver
online education. Our e-learning platform is cloud-hosted so there is nothing to
download or install, and has many features that would typically require several
products to be purchased and integrated.
Our user interface is elegant and intuitive, which keeps users happy and
engaged, and makes the whole experience of using the site more productive and
enjoyable. Beyond all these aspects, the main advantage of EDU 2.0 is that we
provide a reliable, secure, and comprehensive LMS at a cost that’s typically 50% of
our closest competitors.

EDU 2.0 is comprised of two companies: EDU 2.0 for School

(www.edu20.org), which targets schools and accredited universities, and EDU 2.0 for
Business (www.edu20.com), which focuses on businesses that want to deliver online
training and/or generate revenue by selling their courses.

3
 Getting started guide for Admins

We want users to get the best results when using our site, especially when
they are just starting out, and that is why we created three getting started guides for
the main types of users on EDU 2.0: administrators, teachers, and students.

 Getting started guide for Administrators (this guide) explains topics such as:
how to navigate in EDU 2.0, using the Help Center, creating accounts,
configuring the class catalog, setting up policies, customizing the canned
messages, and more.

 Getting started guide for Teachers explains topics such as: how to navigate
in EDU 2.0, using the Help Center, how to create and configure a class, how
to enroll students, how to create assignments, how to use the gradebook,
and more.

 Getting started guide for Students explains topics such as: how to navigate
in EDU 2.0, using the Help Center, how to enroll in a course, how to submit
assignments, how to view grades, how to communicate with teachers, and
more.

In the following pages we will go into detail about the most common options
for administrators when they start using EDU 2.0. Please consult the table of contents
if you want to find a specific topic.

If you have additional questions please browse our Help Center, support forum,
or send us an email at support@edu20.org .

4
 Getting started guide for Admins

Signing up for EDU 2.0

To create your EDU 2.0 site, go to the sign up page on our website
(www.edu20.org/info/signup), fill in the information required, and then click the
sign up button. You should pick a simple URL, that is not long or complicated, so that
it’s easier for your users to find and remember your site.

At this point you have created your EDU 2.0 site and you’re ready to start
setting it up. We will be covering some basic options in the next sections.

5
 Getting started guide for Admins

Home page and Navigation

The home page is the first page you see when you log into your account. To
jump to your home page from any page in the site, click your site’s name in the top
left.

Depending on your site configuration, you might see a welcome box pop-up
when you first log in. To minimize it and prevent it from popping up again, unselect its
"Pop up this box every time I log in" option before closing it.

6
Home Page and Navigation Getting started guide for Admins

Top bar

The top of each page displays tabs that allow you to quickly navigate to the
main areas of the site, such as Classes, People, Groups, Resources, Reports, and
Admin.

The top part of the page never scrolls, allowing access to these tabs regardless
of where you are in a page. If you hover over a tab, a dropdown menu will appear with
the most important options for that area.

7
Home Page and Navigation Getting started guide for Admins

Top right bar

The top right bar displays icons which you can click to access your messages,
notifications, calendar, trash can, help center, search, and your profile.

Left bar

The left bar displays tabs for the current area of the site that you’re in. For
example, the left bar on the home page shows tabs for the dashboard, news,
welcome box, messages, and notifications. Most areas on the left hand side will
automatically display an arrow on the bottom if there are more than 5 items. To show
the remaining items, click on the arrow.

8
Home Page and Navigation Getting started guide for Admins

When you visit a class, the left bar shows tabs for news, lessons, calendar,
assignments, gradebook, and more.

9
Home Page and Navigation Getting started guide for Admins

Right bar
In the right bar you can find listed the following: to do list, announcements for
the last 7 days, upcoming items in the next 7 days, and a list of any minimized
windows. To see more details, just click on an item.

10
Home Page and Navigation Getting started guide for Admins

News feed

The home page news feed aggregates news items from your friends, classes,
groups, and school. By default, a news feed only shows the latest items. If you scroll
the page down, it automatically shows more news items. When the end of the feed is
reached, the message 'no more news' is displayed.

11
 Getting started guide for Admins

Help Center
We don’t want you to encounter difficulty when you are first setting up your
site, so to access our Help Center, click the question mark icon in the top right bar.

A pop-up box opens with options for choosing the searchable online help,
support forum (the premium one only shows up if you are on a premium plan),
suggestions, and roadmap. If the page that you're on has help content, a "Help for this
page" option will also appear.

The searchable online help has topics organized by account type, and includes
detailed instructions with screenshots for most of them.

12
 Getting started guide for Admins

Portal Customization
Many aspects of your portal can be customized, including the URL, color
scheme, logo, portal pictures, terminology, and many more. Click Admin/Portal in
order to start setting up your options.

The portal admin page is split into separate categories so that it’s easier to
customize certain aspects of the site:

 General – in this section you can set up your URL, color scheme, logo, and
language;

13
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

 Visitor view - in this section you can configure how your portal will look for the
site visitors, with options for portal type, title, logo, pages, pictures, menu, and
footers;

 User view - In this section you can configure how your portal will look for
logged-in users, with options for avatar display, menu bar decoration, home left
bar picture, home tabs, left bar, welcome pop up, shortcuts, and footers;

 Terminology - you can customize the terminology of your site by adding one or
more substitutions;

 SEO - you can choose if you want your site to be indexed, set up a
meta-description, and keywords;

 Social media - you can set up which icons you want to show up on your portal,
in both the visitor and user view;

 Custom CSS - you can use custom CSS in order to give your site a more
personalized look;

 Other - this section allows you to configure options for session timeout, log in
widget, favicon, google analytics, URL mappings, and bottom HTML.

Now we will go over the most important options from this tabs that administrators
need to know in the first phase of customizing the portal.

14
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

URL

This section displays the current URL of your portal. To visit your portal, click
on the URL. To change the URL for your portal, click 'Edit EDU 2.0 URL', and select a
new subdomain. A subdomain can only be a mix of letters and digits. We also provide
a way to use your own URL, although this is beyond the scope of this guide.

Color scheme

To change the color scheme for your portal, select the new scheme from the
'Color scheme' section.

15
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

To create/edit your own custom color scheme, select the 'Custom' option from
the list of color schemes. Then select the color values for each graphic element using
either the color picker or by directly entering the hex values into the input boxes.

Logo

You can add a large logo that appears at the top of the left bar. To upload a
logo, select a picture from your computer, and click Save. We recommend that the
image has a transparent background so that it blends in well with any background.

16
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

Once you have uploaded a logo, you can select if it's shown in the home left
bar by clicking the appropriate check box in User View.

Home tabs

This area allows you to enable/disable the tabs in the Home menu. By default,
the Dashboard, News, Messages, and Calendar tabs are enabled. You can also select
your landing page by checking the appropriate box.

17
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

Left bar

To display a list of current classes in the left bar in addition to the Class
dropdown list, enable "Display my classes". To display a list of current groups in the
left bar in addition to the Groups dropdown list, enable "Display by groups". Both
options are disabled by default.

Footers

You can customize the footer area that is displayed at the bottom of each
page when a user is logged in. To add a new footer, click Add, enter its name, URL,
and whether or not a new window should be displayed when the footer is clicked, then
click Save.

To enable/disable a footer, click its Enable? checkbox. To edit a footer, click

its edit icon. You cannot edit the default footer links.

18
Portal Customization Getting started guide for Admins

Terminology

You can customize the terminology of your site by adding one or more
substitutions. These substitutions are applied to all the built-in text which appears on
tabs, buttons, headings, instructions, and tips.

To add substitutions, click Add, then enter the approximate number of

substitutions to add, and click Continue. After that enter the original text and its
replacement. You should only enter the lowercase singular version of the text; the
capitalized and plural versions are handled automatically.

19
 Getting started guide for Admins

Creating accounts
Everyone who wants to use your site must have an account. The type of
accounts that can be created in EDU 2.0 are:

 Student – can enroll in classes, communicate with teachers and friends, use
collaboration tools, etc.

 Teacher – can create and teach classes, create and grade assignments,
communicate with students, etc.

 Administrator – has full privileges on the site, can customize the site, set
policies, create accounts, etc.

 Teaching assistant – can help teachers to run courses but cannot change
class content or delete a class;

 Parent - can access the site as well as track their children's progress;

 Partial administrator – can administer only certain aspects of the site;

 Monitor - are read-only administrators that can access most pages of a site
but cannot change anything.

20
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

To see a summary of all the accounts on your site, click People/Catalog. To see
a list of all the accounts of a particular type, click People/Students, People/Teachers,
etc.

Adding accounts

To add accounts, click Admin/Accounts. Then select one of the choices:

21
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

Add accounts using a form

This option allows you to quickly add accounts using a form. Select the initial
type of accounts you want to create, whether you want to send login instructions,
whether you require the users to change their passwords when they first log in, and
the approximate number of accounts you want to add.

Then click Continue and enter the fields for each account. Every field except
for the first and last name is optional. Then click Save to create the accounts.

22
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

Email invitations

This option allows you to send invitations by email. Select the initial type and
approximate number of accounts you want to create, then click Continue.

Enter the email addresses that the invitations should be sent to. You can
optionally indicate the user's first and last name. Then click Send.

An account is immediately created for each user that doesn't already exist with
the specified email address. If a user already has a particular email address, their
account is updated with the selected account type.

23
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

Configure self-registration

This option allows you to create access codes that allow users to make
accounts at your site. It's useful if you want to avoid creating accounts manually and
want to allow people to create their own accounts.

If you choose to use the self-registration option without an access code,

students can sign up for an account just by clicking the "Sign up" button, and then
entering their account details.

If you use the self-registration with access codes, you can set them up from
the Access Codes tab.

24
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

Click the edit button, enter your access code for each account type, and select
if you want the access code to be active all the time or just for a limited duration.
Then click Save.

If you give an access code to someone, they can join your site by going to your
portal, clicking the "Sign up" box, entering the access code, and clicking "Continue",
then entering their desired account information.

Import accounts from a file

This option allows you to quickly create or update accounts by importing the
information from a comma-separated value (CSV) file.

25
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

You can create CSV files from any spreadsheet. In addition, most systems that
maintain account records are able to export CSV files for import into this site.

Select the initial type of the accounts you want to create, whether you want to
send login instructions, whether you require the users to change their passwords
when they first log in, and click Continue.

Then choose the file from your computer that contains the CVS rows and
indicate which value is in which column.

26
Creating accounts Getting started guide for Admins

Every field except for the first and last name is optional. If you omit a user id
and/or password, they are given unique values automatically. Then click Continue.
You will receive a message when the upload is completed.

A list of all the accounts is then displayed. If an account with a matching

user id and/or password, student ID, instructor ID, or name/birthdate is found, it’s
assumed that its information is to be updated instead of creating a new account.

27
 Getting started guide for Admins

Setting up policies

There are many policies that you can set for your site, such as the features
that students, teachers, and administrators can access. Setting these policies is one
of the most important things for an admin to do. This section allows you to set
features that apply to everyone in your site. Click Admin/Policies in order to start
setting up your options.

Here are some notes on some of the most common options under the General
tab. There are also many options available under the Administrators, Teachers,
Students, Parents, and Miscellaneous tabs

28
Setting up policies Getting started guide for Admins

Family
If enabled, you can create parent accounts that can access the site as well as
track their children's progress.

Teaching assistants

If enabled, you can create teaching assistant accounts. Teaching assistants

can help teachers to run classes but cannot change class content or delete a class.

Monitors

If enabled, you can create monitor accounts. Monitors are read-only

administrators that can access most pages of a site but cannot change anything.

Portfolios

If enabled, each student has an e-portfolio that they can use to store copies of
their best work.

Certificates

If enabled, teachers have the option of awarding certificates to students when

they complete a class as well as specifying prerequisite certificates that a student
must have in order to enroll in a class.

Prevent simultaneous logins

If this feature is enabled, a student can only be logged on via a single session.
When they start a new session, any of their previous sessions are automatically
terminated.

29
 Getting started guide for Admins

Configuring the class catalog

The class catalog lists all the classes that you wish to offer to students. If you
have e-commerce enabled, classes may be purchased directly from the catalog. To
browse the catalog, click Classes/Catalog.

By default, classes are organized graphically by category. A class is published

to the catalog by default and its category is set to the subject of the Class (Science,
Math, etc.). The catalog settings for a class can be edited via the 'Catalog' section
under its Admin/Configure tab.

30
Configuring the class catalog Getting started guide for Admins

To configure the class catalog settings, click Admin/Catalog, then visit the
Settings area. The settings are as follows:

 Format - choose between Flat, Hierarchical, or Graphic;

 Category ordering - choose between Alphabetical or Custom. If you choose

Custom, you can reorder the categories using drag and drop;

 Class ordering - choose between Alphabetical or Custom. If you choose

Custom, you can reorder the classes using drag and drop;

 Allow catalog visitors to create accounts - if enabled, visitors who browse your
class catalog via your portal have the option to create a new student account;

 Hide old classes - if enabled, hide classes that have started over a week ago;

 Show time zone - if enabled, include the class time zone in the listings.

31
Configuring the class catalog Getting started guide for Admins

Categories

All of the currently used categories are listed in the "Categories" section. To
change the name, short description, and long description of a category, click edit, then
make the changes and click Save. To change the picture associated with a category,
click its picture icon. To delete categories, select them and click Delete.

Browsing the catalog from your portal

To allow visitors to your portal to browse the catalog, visit the 'Portal areas'
section under Admin/Portal and enable the 'Class catalog' box. The class catalog will
appear in your portal.

32
 Getting started guide for Admins

Setting up canned messages

Many actions such as enrollment, unenrollment, and deactivation have
associated messages that are sent to the parties involved. The content of these
"canned messages" can be customized via Admin/Canned messages.

To change the canned message associated with a particular action, click its
Edit option, then enter the new subject and content. Each action has variables
associated with it that can be inserted into the canned message using the "@" syntax.

33
 Getting started guide for Admins

Configuring the Grade map

You can set the default grade map that every class is initialized with. The
default grade map for a school is A+ => 95%, ..., D- => 40%, F => 0%, and every class
starts with a copy of this grade map. To change the default grade map, click
Admin/Grade map, then click edit, change the map, then click Save.

If your assignments are pass/fail, you can change the grade map to have only
two grades, "P" and "F". Grades don't have to be letters, they can be words like "Good"
and "Poor".

34
 Getting started guide for Admins

Upgrading to a premium plan

To see a list of our plans and how they compare,
visit https://www.edu20.org/info/plans. To purchase a premium plan, log into your
administrator account and click Admin/Plans. If you don’t upgrade to a premium plan
by the end of the 30 day trial of our Enterprise plan, you will be reverted by default to
the non-expiring Free plan.

Summary

The Getting started guide for Administrators provided the basic information
that admins need when they first start using EDU 2.0. The topics we covered were:
how to navigate in EDU 2.0, using the Help Center, how to customize your site,
creating accounts, setting up policies, configuring the class catalog, customizing the
canned messages, configuring the grade map, and upgrading to a premium plan.
If you have any additional questions or need any help please contact us at
support@edu20.org, browse our Help Center, or visit the support forum. You can also
find us here:

www.edu20.org

35