Let’s start by letting OIS build a web site “skeleton” for us. 

On the main menu, click on File | New | Class | From Template.  This will launch the course web page builder within the Manager.

You will be asked for your username and password again, so just type them in and hit OK to continue.

The course web page builder will open in the “Browser” tab of the Manager.  This is a form that you will need to fill in about yourself and about the course we are creating the site for.

Some fields have been automatically filled by the Manager with information entered before during the installation process.  The fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.

The first section is named “Information about the Instructor” and will collect information about your telephone number, email address, office time, etc.

The second section is named “Where is your Web?” and will collect information about your web and the folder name to be used for the course we are creating.

The “class folder” field must have the name of the folder that will be created automatically by OIS inside your web site.  Use a short, meaningful name made of letters and numbers only (avoid special characters and space, because this name will be part of the web address).

The third section, “Information about the Course” has fields for the course data, including a brief description of the course.

The fourth and last section is named “Preferences” and is optional.  If you check any of the boxes by course information, syllabus, or course materials, the program will allow you to enter that information as text during the initial setup of the course.

If you skip any of those items, you can later add the information using an HTML editor.

Four our demonstration, we chose to enter all three pieces of information during this initial course setup.

Review all the information entered and click the “Next Step” button to continue.

Since we chose to enter the course information, syllabus and course materials texts in the previous step, we are now presented with text boxes so we can paste in the information we have from other sources (Word, Excel, etc.).  Again, this information can be edited later using any HTML editor, such as FrontPage.

The field “information about your course” collects information that will be presented to prospective students when they visit your page.  This information is placed on a non-protected area (although you can move it to a password-protected area if needed).  This text should be written like an ad for your class, giving information about what the course covers, how it is presented, etc.

The field “contents of your syllabus” allows you to write or paste in the official syllabus of this course.  This is a more detailed description of the course and states the methods, assessment, grading, and objectives of the class.  Like the previous field, this information is usually not password-protected.

The last field, “contents of your course materials” is a list of items that will be studied in this course, along with links, scheduled dates, exams, units of the book, etc.  This information will likely be edited many times during the semester, so you don’t have to be too specific at this point.

Review all the information entered and click the “Next” button to continue.

The next step will allow you to pick a template design for your course.  The graphic designers at the CSTL put together some designs for different tastes and types, so you can choose one that you like.

Click on “click here to preview” links to see what a design looks like.

A window with the design preview will appear when you click on the preview links.  Click on the “X” button on the upper right corner to make the window disappear.

The example shows what the “Colorful Southeast” design looks like.

Choose one design by clicking on the “radio button” by its name.  Then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click “Next” to continue.

After the course folder has been created successfully, you will be asked if you want to make that folder OIS accessible.  Doing so will result in the installation of the OIS files into that folder, allowing you to use OIS to add interactivity to your web pages.  Since that’s our goal, let’s click on the “Yes” button and let the Manager proceed.

Manager will now ask you some more information about the course.  The “Properties” tab contains information about the course itself, while the “Preferences” tab contains information to be shared among the other OIS programs.

You can have the Manager get the class roster from the SEMO mainframe directly.  To do so, make sure you check the “synchronize this class with the mainframe” option and that the course information, including section, term and year, is correct.

If you don’t want to let the Manager get the students from the mainframe, you can uncheck that option and click OK to finish installing OIS on this course.  You can add students manually or import them later from a spreadsheet or text file.

Click OK to finish.

Upon successful completion of all tasks, the Manager will present you with this message.  Our course is now created and ready to be used.