Center for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning

Course Web Site Development : Step 3 (Online Instructor Suite Setup)

The Online Instructor Suite

The Online Instructor Suite, or OIS, is a set of applications designed to help instructors maintain dynamic course web pages on the Internet. The software allows instructors to add online testing, gradebook, access control, threaded discussions and calendar components to an existing course web site. It also allows you to create a course web site entirely from scratch by offering you templates to choose from.

Students will interact with OIS through special programs that run on the servers. A typical scenario would look like this:

The instructor…	Students can…
…uses the Manager to define a course and its students.	…enter their user id and password in order to access the course web site.
…uses GradeA to create/open a gradebook, adding or modifying grades for individual students.	…click on a button or link to access the gradebook and check grades and comments.
…uses UTest to create/open a test, adding or modifying questions and other test properties.	…click on a button or link to access the list of tests made available by the instructor, then take one or more exams online.
…uses Forum to create a new discussion, or to read current posts in a discussion.	…click on a button or link to access Forum and read messages by peers and by the instructor, post messages and check for feedback on questions.
…uses Calendar to create/open a course calendar, adding or modifying appointments, announcements and other items.	…click on a button or link to access the course calendar and check for upcoming appointments, tests, homework or important announcements.

Downloading OIS

In order to install the Online Instructor Suite on your machine, you will need to download it first from the CSTL web site.

Click here to go to the OIS web page and download OIS.

Once you are on the OIS web page, click on the proper link to download the program into your computer. If you are using Internet Explorer, you might be prompted for an action once you click on the download link. Click on the save button to save the file to your computer.

To make things easier, save the file to your desktop area so we can find it easier later.

After downloading the program, minimize all windows (hold down the windows key on your keyboard and press "D" in order to see the desktop area. You should see the oissetup.exe program icon there. Go ahead and double-click on that icon to start the installation of OIS.

Once started, the program will display the license agreement and require that you accept it. Keep pressing next until you finish the installation.

After the files have been copied, you will enter the configuration wizard that will allow you to configure OIS to access your web site on the CSTL servers.

In the server configuration screen (above) enter your web site information that you received from the CSTL. Make sure you enter your web page address, and not a course web page address.

Once you have completed the configuration, you should see the screen displayed above. If you get an error message, then click on the back button and check your address, username and password for correctness (you may have to type in your password again). If the problem persists, please contact us.

After a successful installation, you should see the OIS icons on your desktop as displayed below:

Go on to step 4.