IBT_2020 Vula user guide

Vula user guide

1. What is Vula?
2. Claim your Vula guest account
2.1. Activate your Vula guest account
2.2. Log in with your guest account
2.3. Reset your password for your Vula account
3. How to access and submit an assignment
4. ‘Questions and Discussion Forum’ tab
4.1. How to ask a question or start a discussion
4.2. How to respond to a question
5. Tell us what you think via the ‘Polls’ tab
6. Access and submit an assessment via the ‘Tests and Quizzes’ tab

Please note:

• Vula has recently updated its interface so the images that you see in this guide
might not reflect exactly what is seen when navigating through the webpage.
However, the processes (as described in this guide) are still valid and hopefully
helpful.
• in addition to this step-by-step guide, Vula has created some helpful ‘how to’
videos and tutorials, which you can access via
http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/vulahelp

1. What is Vula? from the help@vula.uct.ac.za welcome letter:

Vula is the University of Cape Town’s web-based content management system. It is home to
many course sites, as well as a host of other sites including those used for administration,
research and project groups, libraries and student societies. As a guest user, you have been
invited to join a Vula site. On the site you will have rights to read content but you also may
be able to create and/or edit content (depending on your assigned role).

2. Claim your Vula account

2.1. Activate your guest Vula account

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM5iDPWZ1cI

OR
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Follow the instructions below (from https://www.acu.ac.uk/focus-areas/early-

careers/structured-training-for-african-researchers/vula-guest-account-activation ):

Firstly, you will need to activate/claim your guest account. Go to the email client (e.g. Gmail)
for your account username. Search for an email titled “Welcome to Vula”.

If you cannot find this email:

 Go to Reset Password on the Vula home page (http://vula.uct.ac.za), enter your
username (e.g. youremailaddress@gmail.com) and click Send Password.

 Check your spam / junk mail folder in your email

In the “Welcome to Vula” email, click Accept this invitation, as in the screenshot below.

The link will take you to the following page where you can fill your details in and set your
password:
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Once you have completed your details, click Activate your account and login and you will be
logged into Vula.

2.2. Log in with your guest account

To login into Vula next time, go to http://vula.uct.ac.za and click on Guest Login – see
screenshot below:

Once you have clicked on Guest Login, your page will look like this:

Enter your username and password, then click on Login.

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You should now be logged in and then you can access a site by clicking the site name (tab)
next to My Workspace.

2.3. Reset your password for your guest account

In future, if you have forgotten your password and need to reset it:

2.3.1. Go to Reset Password on the Vula home page (http://vula.uct.ac.za).

2.3.2 Enter your username (e.g. youremailaddress@gmail.com) and click Send Password.

2.3.3. Go to the email client (e.g. Gmail) where you will have received an email titled New
Password Request, which includes a link (similar
tohttps://vula.uct.ac.za/accountvalidator/faces/validate?tokenId=xxxx, where xxxx is a long
number) and your username. (Check your spam / junk mail folder if you cannot find this
email.)

2.3.4. Following the link takes you to a page in your browser that allows you to enter (and
confirm) a new password and then logs you into Vula. If, your browser asks you to update
your saved password for Vula – say ‘No’.

2.3.5. After logging out: to get back into Vula, go to http://vula.uct.ac.za and click on
the Guest Login button on the Vula home page. Enter your username and the password you
created in Step 2.3.4. If the password field is auto-completing (i.e. ****** appears in the
password field), please ignore that and enter your password as created in Step 2.3.4. If your
browser asks you if you want to update your saved password for Vula – say ‘Yes’.

3. How to access and submit an assignment

For each practical component of the course, there will be a practical assignment that must
be submitted via Vula.
3.1. Practical assignments can be accessed via the IBT_2020 Vula site ‘Assignments’ tab
(a.k.a. ‘Practical Assignments’)
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3.2. Once inside the ‘Assignments’ tab, navigate to the relevant assignment

3.3. Take note of any instructions and click on the attachment to download the assignment

Due date

Additional instructions

Practical assignment document

3.4. Complete the tasks in the attached document i.e. fill in your answers in the space
allocated for ‘participants answer’ e.g.

3.5. Submit the completed assignment by clicking on ‘Choose file’ to upload your document
and then ‘Submit’
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For more information on how to submit an assignment, please watch the following Vula
help video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5z4RtV5FBk

3.6. Please take note of the due date – late hand-ins will not be accepted!

4. ‘Questions and Discussion Forum’ tab

4.1. How to ask a question or start a discussion

4.1.1. Navigate to the ‘Questions and Discussion Forum’ tab

4.1.2. Once inside this tab, click on the topic of interest

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4.1.3. Then click on ‘Start a New Conversation’

4.1.4. Add a title to your conversation (e.g. the question you would like to ask or the
discussion topic you would like to pose)
4.1.5. Optional: You can add additional explanations to the ‘message’ section
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4.1.6. Optional: If relevant, add an attachment

4.1.7. Click ‘post’ to publish the question/discussion topic on the Vula site

4.2. How to respond to a question

4.2.1. Click on the conversation that you would like to reply to

4.2.2. Click on ‘reply to initial message’

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4.2.3 Add your response in the ‘message’ window and click on ‘post’ to publish the response
to the site

5. Tell us what you think via the ‘Polls’ tab

Polls will be used to obtain quick feedback on how you feel that the course is going. All votes
are anonymous. Please vote in these polls (take note of the closing date) so that we know
how to improve the course for you 

To vote in a Poll:

5.1. Navigate to the ‘Polls’ tab on the Vula IT_23016 site

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5.2. Click on the poll that you would like to vote in

5.3. Click on your selection and then click ‘vote’

6. Access and submit assessments via the ‘Tests and Quizzes’ tab (aka
Assessments)

6.1. Navigate to the ‘Tests and Quizzes’ tab (a.k.a. ‘Assessments’)

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6.2. Once inside this tab, click on the relevant test (NB: take note of the due date and time!
Late submissions WILL NOT be accepted)

6.3. Take note of the instructions and when you have read them carefully, click on ‘Begin
Assessment’ to start the test

6.4. Answer each question by selecting the most correct answer. When you are happy with
your selection, click ‘save’ and then click ‘next’. To reset your selection, click ‘Reset
selection’. Please note: for questions will circles next to the answer options, there is only
one correct answer; for questions with squares next to the answer options, there may be
more than one correct answer and you may select more than one answer.
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6.5. In some cases: some questions might refer to an attachment, which you must click on to
download

6.6. When you have completed the final question, click on ‘submit for grading’

6.7. You will receive a warning indicating that you are about to submit. If you are sure that
you want to submit, click on ‘Submit for Grading’

Please note: in addition to this step-by-step guide, Vula has created some helpful ‘how to’
videos and tutorials, which you can access via http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/vulahelp