cls_website_training_manual

New Website Training:
User Manual
2013

Learning Management System
Page Manager (Administrator) Guide
Level 1
Introduction..........................................................2
User Account Settings............................................ 2
LMS Navigation...................................................... 2
Drop down Menu Navigation....................................2
The Dashboard.......................................................... 3
Class and Group Admin Info...................................3
Group Space Features............................................3
Disabling LMS Features.............................................3
LMS Controls..........................................................4
Dashboard Calendar (Carpe Diem).......................5
Creating Calendar Events....................................... 5
Sharing vs. Cloning.....................................................7
Calendar View Controls..........................................7
Type and Status Filters.............................................. 8
Calendar Filters..........................................................8
Customizing the Calendar Display.............................9
Exporting Calendar Events.........................................9
LMS/Group space sections.................................10
Home................................................................... 10
Customizing the Home Page...................................10
Home Page Elements...............................................10
Copying Element Layouts to Other Groups.............12
Members..............................................................13
Bulletins............................................................... 13
Creating New Bulletins......................................... 13
Calendar (groups).................................................14
Creating New Simple Events....................................14
Other Events...........................................................14
Resources............................................................... 15
Resource Folders........................................................15
Creating New Resources............................................16
Using Other Groups' Shared Folders..........................16
Resource Page Layout................................................ 17
Level 2
Media..................................................................... 19
Dropbox..................................................................19
Creating a New Dropbox............................................ 19
Managing Dropbox Submissions................................19
Reviewing Dropbox Submissions...............................20
Blog.........................................................................21
Blog Settings...............................................................21
Creating Blog Posts.....................................................22
Discussions............................................................. 23
Discussion Board Page................................................23
Discussion Board Setup..............................................23
Quizzes................................................................... 25
Creating a New Quiz...................................................25
Giving a Quiz to a Class...............................................26
Notifications............................................................... 26
Automatic Grading..................................................... 27
Reviewing Quiz Submissions...................................... 27
Grading Quizzes..........................................................27
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INTRODUCTION
The finalsite Learning Management System (LMS) lets teachers, coaches, and others manage their website groups with a
fexible, customizable portal. All LMS content is fully responsive – it scales from a desktop monitor down to a smartphone
screen with no loss of functionality.
The LMS also brings together all of the various pages and groups that each user is able to access in one clean, readable
format. Teachers, students, parents and other site users can easily switch between classes, athletic teams, faculty groups,
or any other groups that they belong to.
THE LMS LAYOUT
LMS pages have a unique visual style and a clean interface that gives teachers, students, and other users quick access to
group features.
USER ACCOUNT SETTINGS
LMS pages share a common header and footer. On the right-hand side, a buton ofers the
current user quick access back to their default Portal page. A drop down menu also lets
users adjust the settings of their user account. A red circle icon over the user's avatar lets
them know how many unread messages they have.
LMS NAVIGATION
Throughout the LMS, a persistent navigation bar allows users to move between their groups. The precise contents of the
navigation bar will depend on the user's group memberships.
Drop down Menu Navigation
At the upper-lef, a gray buton bar links the user to
the various pages that he or she can access. Which
butons appear depend on each user's afliated
groups and roles: student, parent, alumnus, faculty,
etc.. Everyone will see the Dashboard buton at the
lef; the other butons on the buton bar come
from the user's own group assignments. In this
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illustration, the user is a teacher, a coach, and a parent. She can access the academic classes she teaches and the athletic
teams she coaches, as well as faculty and parent groups that her school has setup in Group Manager. Since this person can
access multiple classes and teams, she can see a number of butons in the drop down menu, such as Classes, Athletics,
Faculty Groups, and so on.
The Dashboard
The LMS Dashboard can be accessed by teachers by clicking the Activity link in the finalsite status bar, displayed at the
botom of the Portal page when a teacher first logs in, or via the Dashboard icon on any LMS page. The Dashboard shows
an aggregated Activity Stream, displaying the most recent actions taken in each of a user's groups, as well as upcoming
calendar items scheduled for each of the user's groups. Further, the Dashboard also includes a comprehensive calendar
view showing ALL of a user’s calendars, including those for academic classes, athletics teams, site calendars, and (in the
case of faculty parents) children’s groups, if applicable. A full-screen Messages view is also available, if this feature has
been enabled for any of the user’s roles.
CLASS AND GROUP ADMIN INFO
Once inside a class page, the group name and group
administrators are listed beneath the drop down menu
navigation. If academic classes have been given a period number
in Group Manager, then that will display, as well. Users can hover
over the name of a teacher/coach/advisor to reveal a link to his
or her profile, a link to open up an email to the admin, and a link to send a message to the admin.
At the lef, the group's icon is shown – page managers (teachers, coaches, club advisors) can edit the icon by clicking the
“gear” icon (see LMS controls, below).
GROUP SPACE FEATURES
Beneath the LMS Navigation buton bar, another set of butons takes the user to the various sections of the group space
they are currently viewing. For more details on each of these features, see the corresponding section of this document:
• Home
• Calendar
• Resources
• Dropbox
• Quizzes
• Media
• Bulletins
• Blog
• Discussions
• Members
Disabling LMS Features
Page managers can choose to disable any of the LMS features if they don't plan to use them.
Features can even be activated for some classes and deactivated for others (see illustration
below). If a feature is disabled, the buton will not appear on the page, either for page
managers or for members (students). No content will be lost, so page managers can edit the
availability of individual features at any time.
When page managers open up Group Manager (using the 'gear' icon - see note about LMS
Controls below), they can edit their settings .
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Page managers can use the controls in the Group
Space tab to determine feature availability. In the
Features section, use the drop down menu next to
each LMS feature to set whether or not it is visible
to page managers and members.
LMS CONTROLS
At the upper-right of any LMS page, a series of butons allows teachers to quickly interact with
group space features, customize the page appearance, and more.
The lef-most buton, the '+' shaped Quick Add, lets page managers create new events,
assignments, blog posts, or any other group space activity with a single click (see right).
The 'gear' icon will pop open the Group Manager in a new window. Here, page
managers can adjust additional options that afect the appearance of the page.
Finally, the '?' icon will allow teachers/group page managers to browse the finalsite
Knowledge Base from directly within the LMS. The Knowledge Base contains instructions on how to use all of the
LMS features, as well as questions that other users have asked of finalsite Support, and general tips on how to
get the most out of the group space tools. This is the equivalent of the traditional Help menu.
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DASHBOARD CALENDAR (CARPE DIEM)
The LMS includes a new Calendar Manager interface, allowing page managers and members
to see all of their events in a streamlined, easy-to-use format that's compatible with standard
and mobile devices. To open the calendar, click on the Calendar buton from the LMS
Dashboard.
Page managers and site administrators can add events from this comprehensive calendar view OR from the individual
group space calendars. Events can be shared or cloned to any of the page manager's other Group Spaces.
The main calendar display shows events from all of the user's classes or other groups (such as athletic teams or student
clubs). Events from diferent calendars are color-coded.
CREATING CALENDAR EVENTS
New calendar events can be created in a number of diferent ways. Teachers can navigate to the calendar display and click
on a day; they could also select new event from the Quick Add menu or create an event from within a group space
calendar. Any approach will bring the user to the same Create New Event screen.
At the top of the screen, page managers are required to enter a title for the event, as well as an Event Type. The default
Event Types are Event, Assignment, Quiz, and Exam; additional custom Types will be defined by Site Admins. The Location
field is available, but it is optional.
The Date Assigned and Date Due fields are required, users can click on them to bring up a date-picker control. The Time
Due field is optional; if a teacher is creating an assignment and collecting students' files via a Dropbox, the Time Due field
controls when the Dropbox will stop accepting submissions. (Teachers can override this however by setting the Dropbox to
accept late submissions. If Time Due is not set, the Dropbox will remain open until midnight on the date due.)
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The Repeat controls determine whether or not the event will happen only once, or if it will recur on the calendar. Events
can be set to recur on one of several regular schedules:
• None (event only takes place once)
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Yearly
• Every Weekday (Monday through Friday)
• Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday
• Every Tuesday and Thursday
Afer selecting a recurrence schedule, users can set the end date of the event (if any), and any additional options
pertaining to the schedule they selected.
If the school uses one or more Block Calendars to automatically skip over certain days of the year, then they can be
applied to an event's schedule. Applying a Block Calendar will ensure that the event is not scheduled for any of the
blocked dates.
The Description field includes the Popup Editor, so group admins can use rich HTML, include Media Manager and File
Manager files, and otherwise format the event's description text.
The Calendars control is required – the settings here
determine to which group calendar(s) the event will be
applied. Page managers must select at least one calendar.
Depending on the method the user took to create the new
calendar event, the Calendars control may already have a
group selected. Users can click Share to more calendars to
select additional groups for this event. Selecting multiple
calendars means that the same event will be displayed on
each of those calendars. See the sidebar for more
information about the distinction between “sharing” events
between calendars vs. “copying” them.
Underneath the Description, the Notes field allows teachers
(page managers) to add ancillary information to the event.
The Attachment control lets page managers upload a file
from their computer to atach to an event. (Note that this
only works for fles that are on the page manager's
computer – fles that have been uploaded to File Manager or
to a group's Resources page cannot be attached to events.)
The Dropbox settings let teachers create a Dropbox for an assignment and collect students' work via the LMS page/group
space. Teachers can use the follow-on checkboxes to choose whether the Dropbox will accept submissions afer the
deadline has passed, and whether or not users will receive an email anytime a Dropbox submission is uploaded.
At the lower-right, the Publish checkbox ensures that the event will be visible on the selected calendars when it's saved. If
the event is not completed and needs additional editing, page managers can deselectPublish and then click Save Event.
The Save and Clone control lets page managers create a duplicate of this event and save it to another calendar. See the
sidebar above for details about how this difers from sharing an event onto another group's calendar.
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Sharing vs. Cloning
When events are “shared” among multiple calendars,
there is only one single event that is viewed by the
members of multiple groups. If that event is edited
afer it's been created, then all of the various group
members will see the changes, because they're all
viewing the same event.
Cloning, on the other hand, creates a new copy of the
event, and saves that copy to another group's calendar.
Any changes made to the original event will not be
refected on the clone.

CALENDAR VIEW CONTROLS
When viewing the calendar, users can hover over shortened event listings to view the full event title, and click on them to
bring up a new window displaying full details about the event. (iPad and other touchscreen-device users can tap once for
the full title, and tap again to bring up the detail view.) The controls along the lef edge of the calendar let users configure
exactly which events are displayed on the main calendar screen.
Page managers will see additional controls in the detail view, allowing them to edit, clone, delete or unpublish the event,
and to view the corresponding Dropbox (if applicable).
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Type and Status Filters
The Event Types and Event Status filters determine what kind of events show up on the calendar – use
the checkboxes to activate or deactivate events of a given type or status. These selections will afect all
of the displayed events, from any visible calendar. The numbers next to them in parentheses indicate
how many events fall under each filter in the viewable date range.
Calendar Filters
Farther down the lef-hand side of the Dashboard Calendar display,
the My Calendars section contains a series of checkboxes that
change depending on users' personal group memberships. The
example calendar pictured belongs to a user who is a member of the
Parent and Faculty roles, and who teaches a number of classes.
Additionally, this user has two children in the 'Student' role.
Expanding the first category of filters, My Groups, displays checkboxes
corresponding to all of the groups the user belongs to, either as a
Member or as an Page Manager. Select one or more calendars using
their associated checkboxes; events from the selected calendars will
appear on the main calendar display. The checkbox to the lef of the My
Groups label will select or deselect all of the calendars in this category.
The My Teams category serves the same purpose for any Athletics
teams on which the user plays or coaches. Each team can be
displayed separately on the main calendar. This section will only
display for users who are atached to one or more Athletics
teams.
Parents can see events from their students' calendars. Students' names
will appear as filter categories; opening up the category will show entries
for every group that student belongs to, including classes and Athletics
teams. Select one or more individual groups using the corresponding
checkboxes, or select/deselect all teams using the checkbox next to the
students' name. Parents will see a separate filter category for each of
their students.
The Site Calendars filter category contains all of the
site-wide calendars that have been made publicly
visible. These will contain events that are Division-
specific or School-wide.
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Event Status filters are only visible to group admins.

Customizing the Calendar Display
Each of the filter categories – as well as the calendars within them – can be
customized in terms of how they're displayed on the main calendar view. Hover
over a category to reveal the 'gear' icon, and click on it to open up the calendar
menu.
The first option allows the user to edit the color that's displayed on the main
calendar view. Changing the color of a filter category (as opposed to changing the
color of an individual calendar) will afect all of the calendars in that category.
Users can edit the colors for individual calendars as well for more granular control
of the main calendar view. A user's color selections will persist even afer they
logout and come back to the LMS.
The Select All and Deselect All functions will toggle the visibility of all calendars in this category on the main display.
The Show only these Calendars option will hide the calendars from all other filter categories from the main display.
Individual calendars can also be customized with their own 'gear' icons. The calendar-specific menus give users the same
Change Color, Export and Show only this Calendar options as the filter menus. Users also have the option to create events
directly on the selected calendar.
Exporting Calendar Events
The calendars within a category can also be exported for use
in another calendar system. When exporting, users can opt
to include events from just one calendar, or from any other
calendar they are able to view. Users can also select a date
range for the export, and the file format – options include
iCal, .XML, .CSV., MS Excel, and others.
Users can also create a “live” calendar export, so that they
can continuously update another calendar system with
events from a group calendar. To do this, click on Calendar
Tools at the top of the calendar page. This will generate an
.ical file, or display an RSS feed URL. Select the appropriate
option for the external calendar system and either upload the .ical file or copy-and-paste the RSS feed link. The resulting
file/URL will contain all of the events for a single group's calendar. To export live calendars for more than one group, the
process must be repeated for each individual group.
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LMS/GROUP SPACE SECTIONS
Each LMS Page/Group Space comes with a number of specialized sections, allowing page managers to determine how
information is presented to group members.
HOME
The Home section is an overview of a group's content, resources, recent activity, and other information. Information on a
Home page is displayed in elements. There are elements for individual group space sections (such as media, bulletins,
calendar, and so on), as well as for popular social media sites such as YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook.
Customizing the Home Page
Teachers can rearrange the element display by clicking the
Customize buton at the upper-right of the home page. In the
new window that pops up, teachers can select which elements to
display and set the arrangement. Use the drop down menu at the
botom to select a one, two, or three-column layout. Next, click
and drag each element from the list at the top of the window into
its appropriate column underneath. NOTE: Users on iPads or
other touchscreen devices can tap to rearrange elements instead
of dragging.
Some content elements can be placed on the home page more
than once. These elements have a small number next to the title in
the element list showing how many copies of that element type
can be dropped onto the home page. Each time one of these
elements is added to the home page, the number of available
copies drops by one.
As with all other aspects of the LMS, the home page is fully responsive, meaning that the elements will not be lost of the
edge of smaller screens. Instead, when viewed on a tablet or a smartphone, the columns will collapse so that they are
stacked vertically rather than laid out horizontally. Mobile device users will have the same functionality as computer users.
Home Page Elements
• Activity Stream: Displays a copy of the Activity Stream for
this group, including messages from the page manager
(teacher or coach) and group members, as well as events
such as new calendar items, new assignments, new
resources, and so on. Page managers can hover over an
Activity Stream update and click the red “X” icon to delete
it. NOTE: Members (students) cannot delete items from the Activity Stream.
• Bulletins: Shows the three most recent Bulletins. Page managers can click a New Bulletin link directly from the
element to post new content OR navigate to the Bulletin tab. Users can click the Bulletins buton or click ‘All
bulletins’ from the element to navigate to that page.
• Calendar: Upcoming class events are displayed, along with a link to pop open the full Calendar. A Manage
Calendar link lets page managers jump directly to the calendar, as well. NOTE: This calendar displays events for
this class/team/club only. The aggregated view can be seen from the Dashboard.
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• Content: The content element is a blank slate. Editing this element will bring up an empty space that page
managers can fill with any content they want to post. The full Pop Up editor is available so that rich HTML content
can be added. If this element is included on a Home page but is not filled out with content, it will remain invisible
to group members. Once something is added to a content element, it becomes visible. Up to 6 Content elements
can be added to a Home page.
• Embed: The Embed element allows page managers to include
content from other sites. Most social media, video-sharing or other
content site has some kind of “embed codes” function. The Embed
element includes shortcut links to many popular content sites –
click on an icon to jump directly to that site. Whenever possible, the
link will take users to that site's embedding instructions.
Page managers can copy the embed code from another site, click
Settings on the element, and paste the provided code directly into
the Embed element. Forms in Forms Manager also have embed
codes too, so the Embed element could be a great tool to include a
survey or other form on a group page.
• Facebook: We are not planning to use Facebook links at this time
unless a page manager would like to link to the Charlote Latin
School Facebook page.
• Flickr: The Flickr element accepts the URL of a Flickr stream feed
and displays the photos saved there. Users can also set the number
of photos to be shown and whether or not the photo titles appear. NOTE: The School is working to acquire a
School-based Flickr account for us to use.
• Media: Use the Media element to share content from the group's Media folder. See the Media group space
section for more details about using Multimedia Manager within groups. NOTE: The Media element would be
used to display videos or slideshows that are loaded to your media channel on the site.
• Overview: The Overview element is unique in that it cannot be dropped into a column; it will only appear as a
header at the top of the home page, spanning across all of the other columns. Removing the Overview element in
the Customize window will not move it back up to the list of elements, but will just gray it out. The Overview
element's content can be edited by clicking on the pencil icon along its right-hand edge.
• Resources: Resources are files, links, or other documents that are meant to be shared among group members.
Page managers can post content to the Resources group space section, and display them on the Home page using
this element. The Resources element shows those resource folders that are saved at the top level of the
Resources section – nested folders and resources within folders are not displayed.
• RSS: RSS feeds are a way for one website's content to appear on another site. Page managers can copy the RSS
feed URL from another site or page (mostly media such as newspaper and magazines) and paste it into this
element. Any time the other site publishes new content, that content will appear on the group home page.
• Vimeo: Use this element to include videos posted to Vimeo.com on the group home page.
• YouTube: This element allows YouTube.com videos to be embedded on the group space.
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Copying Element Layouts to Other Groups
The Copy buton at the upper-right of the group space allows the
customized element layout of one group to be applied to another
group's pages.
Once a page manager has setup the columns and elements, he or
she can click Copy and select one or more of the other groups. The
Home page settings from the source group will be copied to the
destination group(s). Any existing customization on the destination
group(s) will be overwriten.
NOTE: If you teach more than one section of a course, you can copy the layout from one section to the other. You will not
need to reformat your page for each class.
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Copying a Home page layout will copy both the
content from within dashboard elements as
well as their arrangement on the home page.
Elements tied to Group features (e.g., Calendar,
Media, Bulletins, Resources) will populate with
the corresponding content from the actual
Group.

MEMBERS
The Members tab displays a group's members and page manager(s), as well as some information from their profiles. The
membership list shows names as well as links directly to each user's email address and site profile. If a user's account has
an associated icon image, that can be displayed as well.
Page managers can also click the Bulk Email link to send an email to all members of a group. Teachers can choose to send
an email to some or all of the students in one class, to some or all students in multiple classes that they teach, or all
members of any other group that the teacher belongs to.
Additionally, emails can be sent not just to the class roster, but also to students' parents, and/or to class administrators.
Bulk emails sent from the Members tab will always come from the page manager's own email address.
BULLETINS
The Bulletins tab lets page managers create and track short content
items. Bulletins are automatically posted to the Bulletins element on the
group Home Page (the three most recent posts).
Existing bulletins appear in a table. The newest bulletins – or those
scheduled the farthest in the future (see below) – are at the top. A label
under the bulletin title shows author (teacher or coach), as well as the
date and time when it was posted
NOTE: If a bulletin is scheduled to be displayed in the future, the date/time
of its scheduled publication is shown instead.
Each bulletin entry shows both the bulletin title and its content. On the
right, butons allow the admin to either edit or delete each bulletin.
Creating New Bulletins
Click the green New Bulletin buton to add a bulletin. In the Bulletin
Editor window, create a title and enter the bulletin text. The Popup
Editor allows page managers to add rich-text formatting, create links,
and embed media, among other features.
The optional Display Date field captures the date when the bulletin
should go 'live' on the page. Until that date is reached, the bulletin will
be hidden.
Likewise, the optional Archive Date field captures the date on which
the bulletin will be pulled down and archived. Page managers will still
see archived posts on the Bulletins tab, but they won't be visible to
other group members.
Bulletins can be cloned to one or more of the page manager's other groups. Click the + Clone to my other groups link, and
select at least one group from the list. When the bulletin is saved, a new copy will be created in each of the selected
groups. Cloned Bulletins are class-specifc. As these new bulletins are copies, they are neither linked to the original nor to
one another. Edits made to a bulletin in one class will not carry over to bulletins in other classes.
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CALENDAR (GROUPS – CLASSES, TEAMS, PARENT/STUDENT GROUPS)
The Calendar page within a group space shows all of the events related to that particular group.
To see all events (regardless of which group they're associated with), members can click View all
Calendars, and page managers can click Manage Calendars - the labels are diferent, but either
way the link will direct the user to the main Dashboard calendar.
On the lef, the Event Types and Event Status filters allow the user to select which kinds of
events are displayed. Click the appropriate checkbox to display Events, Assignments, Quizzes and
Exams, as well as Published or Unpublished events. The number to the right of each category
indicates how many calendar events are currently in it.
The rest of the page displays the calendar view. By default
the calendar will depict the entire current month, but the display can be narrowed using the controls at the upper-right to
focus on the current week or the current day, or to display an agenda view showing a detailed list of upcoming events.
Creating New Simple Events
The simplest way to create a new event is by clicking on a day on the calendar. The
Add Event window will pop up, giving the user basic options for creating new calendar
entries. The user will give the event a title, and select which group it applies to from
the drop down menu (the menu will show all of the user's groups). The user can then
select an event type (Event,
Assignment, Quiz or Exam). The Publish
checkbox is selected by default, so
clicking Save Event will automatically
create the event on the class' calendar.
Other Events
To create more complex events, such as events that are shared among multiple classes, or events that repeat on a set
schedule, see the LMS Calendar section.
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When creating a new assignment that
spans multiple days, remember to click
on the assignment's due date on the
calendar view.
Event Status filters are only visible to page managers.

RESOURCES
The Resources tab allows page managers to share files, links, and other custom content
with all of the students. Resources are organized into folders. Folders can be made
visible only to their designated class, to any or all of a teacher's other classes, or to
other classes in Group Manager. Page managers also have control over the order in
which folders and resources are displayed.
Resources and folders are displayed as icon tiles. The responsive interface provides
more information to users about what each resource icon represents. Resource icons
at the upper-right of each tile indicate the type of resource: links, files or custom
content. Underneath each resource tile, page managers can move resources up and
down in the display, as well as archiving, editing and deleting resources.
Resource Folders
Resources must be saved within a folder. Click the New Folder buton to
create a new organizational folder.
As with individual resources, folders can be given a name and a
description and can be placed inside of other folders. Thumbnails and
display date ranges can be applied to folders just as with individual
resources.
Page managers can elect to archive an entire folder (take it ofine), or to
designate a resource folder as a dynamic file folder. We will cover this in
a later session.
Clicking Share this folder with several of my groups will allow a page
manager to copy this folder into one or more of his or her other groups.
Sharing to a page manager's other groups streamlines future updates, as
any changes made to those resources will update automatically in all of
the other group spaces, regardless of where the update is made. In other
words, the resources don't have to be edited from the original group, but
can be edited from any of the groups they've been shared to. Clicking
Enable other groups to share this folder will allow any other group to include that folder on their own resource pages (see
next section).
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Enabling sharing with other groups will give
the page managers of those other groups
rights to edit – and delete – a resource
folder.

Creating New Resources
Click the green New Resource buton to create a new resource. Give the
resource a title, and use the drop down menu to select a folder for this
resource. A Description of the resource can also be added – the name and
description will give end users more information about the resource before
they click to open it. Name and description info are superimposed over
resources icons on a semi-opaque gray background.
Page managers can also add a Thumbnail image to folders or resources.
Thumbnails will be displayed when the Resources page is set to Grid View (see
Resource Page Layout, below, or the screenshot to the right). If no thumbnail
image is applied, the resource/folder will be represented by an icon indicating
the resource type.
The Display Date and Archive Date controls allow page managers to set a
date range for the resource. The item will only be visible during that date
range and will be considered archived at the conclusion of the date range.
Prior to the date range, the resource will display the date on which it will be
made active (when resources are displayed in the List View).
Archived resources are still present and atached to a group, but they are not
visible to its members. On the Resource page, archived resources are
displayed at the botom of the list, and are grayed out to distinguish them
from active resources. Page managers can access and edit archived resources
at any time. Files in archived folders can still be shared to other classes.
At the botom of the New Resources window, select the resource type, either
Link, File, or Content.
Link resources are simply hyperlinks to external sites. File resources are files
that have been uploaded to be shared with group members. Content
resources are short text/multimedia files that page managers populate when
creating resources.
Paste in the full web address for links; for custom content, enter the text,
images, etc. into the text field. Teachers can use the full Popup Editor when
creating content resources, making them efectively mini-webpages within
the group space itself. When creating a 'file' type resource, users can browse
their local file system (or drag a file and drop it onto the ‘choose file’ buton);
existing files from File Manager can also be added as class resources.
Using Other Groups' Shared Folders
Page managers can add another group's shared folders to their own resource
pages. Shared folders are Resource folders that have been set to Enable other
groups to share this folder.
When a page manager clicks Add Shared Folder, a new window will pop up that
will allow teachers to select from a list of their own resource folders as well as
resource folders that have been shared from other classes. The drop down menu
lets users filter the list to only display folders shared from their own active
groups, their own archived groups, all active groups, or all archived groups.
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The Optional Group Filter lets a user simply type the name of a group whose shared resources they want to display.
Page managers can then click on the name of a group to select from a list of its shared resource folders. A page manager
can choose to display a shared folder onto more than one of their groups in a single operation.
Resource Page Layout
Afer creating resources, the page can be toggled between List View and Grid View.
In both views, the order of folders and resources can be customized. The order of
the listed resource folders can be adjusted by page manager either by clicking and
dragging the resources or (for mobile device users) by tapping first on the resource,
and then on the up or down arrows associated with it.
In List view, users can click on a folder to see its contents directly on the Resources
page. Archived resources are shown to the page manager as grayed-out items below
the main list (group members cannot see archived resources at all).
Grid view displays all resources and folders as tiles. If a resource has an assigned
thumbnail image, that image will be displayed as the folder tile; the resource type
icon (file, link, content or folder) is overlaid on the upper-right corner.
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New Website Training:
Level 2
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MEDIA
The Media tab provides a full-featured Media Player that allows group members to view videos, images and audio files
uploaded to the group's media channel. The Media Player in a Media element on the group Home page doesn't have all of
the sharing and navigation features available in the full Player.
The full-featured Media Player lets group members share, embed and download media content (although these options
can be disabled for individual items from within the Media Manager interface), as well as view descriptions, navigate
through content folders and channels, and search uploaded media.
DROPBOX
Dropboxes are calendar events representing classroom assignments. They allow students to upload files directly to the
teacher via the group space.
As with other calendar events, Dropboxes can be created on a repeating schedule; this allows teachers to accept
submissions related to ongoing assignments, or individual components of a larger project.
Creating a New Dropbox
New Dropboxes can be created with the green Add Dropbox buton, or by creating a new Assignment event on a group
calendar. As with other calendar events, teachers will be prompted to enter the Assignment Title, the dates the
assignment is assigned and when it's due, and which group calendar(s) the assignment should appear on. Teachers can
also optionally provide a location, description, notes, and atach files to the assignment entry that group members can
download.
Dropbox behavior can be customized, as well. Teachers can override the assigned due date and allow the Dropbox to
accept late submissions from students. They can also elect to receive an email any time a new submission is received.
Managing Dropbox Submissions
On a class Dropbox page, page managers can see a list of all the Dropboxes that have been created for the class, including
both recurring and single-occurrence Dropboxes. Dropboxes can be edited afer they have been created, and Dropboxes
on a recurring schedule can be edited individually or collectively. Teachers can get a summary of which Dropboxes have
recent activity, and then focus on a single assignment.
Students can access the Dropbox and submit documents to it from any device, including tablets and smartphones. If
members of the student role are given storage space in File Manager, then students using mobile devices can upload
documents from their device to File Manager, and from there they can submit the uploaded file(s) directly to a Dropbox.
Students can also post comments on the documents they upload.
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Reviewing Dropbox Submissions
The Dropbox page lists all of the Dropboxes that page managers have created. Teachers can
click on the name of a Dropbox to open it up. The Dropboxes that are currently active and
accepting submissions will be highlighted in green on the Status column. A filter allows teachers
to sort the list based on the Dropbox's status, as well as whether they have any unread
submissions. On the right, the icons in the Actions column allow users to edit the Dropbox
(adjusting parameters such as the name, due date, recurrence schedule, etc.), or to delete it
entirely. Deleting a Dropbox will also delete any submissions it has received.
Clicking on an individual Dropbox will open up a detailed view of its submissions. At the
top of the summary view, teachers can click on the links to edit the Dropbox assignment,
copy it to another one of their classes, or delete the entire Dropbox. Clicking the Show
details link will reveal additional settings configured when the Dropbox assignment was
first created, including when it was assigned, the due date, the current status, and
whether or not the Dropbox is set to allow students to submit responses afer the due
date has passed.
Group members are listed along the lef-hand side, allowing teachers to
see who has submited responses to the Dropbox. If the Dropbox is set to
allow multiple submissions from students, a number next to each name
indicates how many files the student has uploaded. To the right, teachers
can click the “word-balloon” icon to send feedback and other messages
back to students.
When reviewing submissions, teachers can reply to students'
comments in an Activity Stream-like dialog (these comments are not
public like regular Activity Stream messages though, they can only
be seen by the teacher and the student). Teachers can also atach
files to their messages, in order to send corrected submissions back
to students.
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BLOG
The Blog lets page managers create blog posts to share with students. The blog automatically lists newer posts at the top
of the page; older posts can be accessed through the Latest Posts, Categories, and Archive sections of the blog page, on
the right. Categories can be made up by the page manager and assigned to any post.
Blog Settings
The Settings link at the top of the list of posts allows page managers to control
how the blog behaves when new posts are created.
The first field sets the email address of the moderator, which is a page manager
who has overall responsibility for the blog.
• Email Moderator...: Selecting this checkbox will mean that whenever
any page manager creates a blog post, the blog moderator (usually
one of the page managers) will receive an email notification.
• Enable Comments...: Use this control to allow group members to leave
comments in response to blog posts. The first subsequent checkbox
activates notification emails to the blog moderator when new
comments are posted, and the second hides those comments from the
blog itself unless and until the moderator reviews them and posts
them to the page.
• Allow contributors to edit...: This option gives blog post authors
the option to go back and correct any copy errors afer the post
has been published.
• # of Posts displayed...: Fill in this field with the number of posts
that should be shown on the blog page. Posts are listed in
reverse-chronological order, with the newest posts at the top of
the page.
• Remove email links...: By default, whenever a user posts a
comment his or her name is listed alongside, with a link to the
commenter's email address. Select this option to hide the email
links – the commenter's names will still appear, however.
• Disable Avatar display: If a user has an avatar (picture), that
avatar will also be displayed next to their blog comments, unless this checkbox has been selected.
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Creating Blog Posts
Click the green New Post buton to create a new post.
Give the post a title and use the large text area to create the post content.
The Popup Editor allows for formated rich text, site links, embedded content
from Media Manager, and so on.
Use the Hide User Comments checkbox to keep readers from being able to
see any comments until afer they have posted one of their own.
The Categories feature lets writers create content groups for their posts. Any
existing categories will be displayed with checkboxes; posts can be assigned
to multiple categories, if needed. Use the +add a category link to create a
new category,and to edit the ones that already exist with the edit categories
link.
When finished, click either the green Save Draf or the blue Publish buton.
Publishing a post will make it live on the site right away. Saved posts are
stored in their current form and can be edited by admins, but are not yet
visible on the site to other group members.
Page managers can configure a blog post to be published on a specific date in
the future. When the Blog post is published, the author is prompted to either Publish now or Schedule for and select a
date. The blog post will go live at midnight on the chosen date. Posts can also be saved to more than one class's blog at a
time. Use the checkboxes provided to select the teacher's class blogs where the post will be visible.
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DISCUSSIONS
Unlike Blogs, the Discussions tab allows all members of a group – not just page managers – to participate in an online
conversation. Multiple discussion boards can be setup for diferent topics.
Discussion Board Page
The Discussions tab displays each new discussion topic on its own line, along with the number of replies and views each
topic has received, the time of the most recent post, and the identity of the last poster. Dedicated butons allow users to
create new topics, or display a topic shared from another class. Additionally, page managers have butons at the upper-
right of the topic table allowing them to add a topic, edit a discussion board, delete a topic, or toggle the topic list on or
of.
On the lef, the Recent Activity column displays the most popular current discussion topics and the last posts made to
each.
Discussion Board Setup
Page managers have a number of options when configuring discussion
boards. Each discussion board can have a diferent configuration.
• Board Title: The Board Title should describe the topic being
addressed
• Reply display format: The display format how posts are
displayed. “Chronological” will list all posts in order. This is
best used with short topics, or discussion replies that don't
necessarily need to become longer conversations.
“Threaded” allows posts to be displayed as replies to one
another, even if they are separated chronologically. In
Threaded view, any post that is a direct reply will show up
indented and immediately below its parent. This allows longer
conversations to develop without confusion over who's
replying to whom.
• Allow contributors to post...: Select this option to allow group
members (and not just page managers) to start new
discussions.
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• Allow contributors to edit...: This option allows users to go back and make changes to their responses even afer
they've been posted.
• Disable avatar display: When users participate in a discussion, their name as well as their photo will display next
to their post. Use this option to disable the icon (users' names will still appear, though).
• Enable other classes to share this discussion: Topics from one class can be set to appear on another class'
Discussions tab, as long as this checkbox is selected.
• Do not share comments...: If a discussion topic is shared to another class (see above), page managers can elect
not to share the original class' comments from that discussion.
• Email moderator... (2): Use these controls to set whether or not the board moderator should receive an email
every time a new topic and/or new topic reply is posted.
• Moderator email: enter the email address of the user who's responsible for the discussion board and for editing
comments posted to it.
• Moderation: If the Moderation options are selected, the board moderator will have to approve each post and/or
reply by logging in and manually publishing them in turn.
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QUIZZES
Teachers can use Quiz Manager to create self-grading multiple choice and short-answer quizzes for their classes. Quizzes
can be shared among diferent classes, and results can be collated easily. Teachers can set quizzes to automatically grade
students' responses, and quizzes can be time-limited so that they're only visible to students within a specified time frame.
Creating a New Quiz
Use the green Create New Quiz buton to start building a new quiz.
Afer giving the quiz a name, teachers will be prompted to begin entering quiz questions and their answers. There are four
types of quiz question:
• Multiple Choice/Single Answer: Students are given a range of possible answers and must select one
• Multiple Choice/Multiple Answer: From a range of possible answers, students select all that apply
• Short Answer: Students write a short response that must include at least one keyword/key phrase that teachers
identify in advance as being 'correct.'
• Long Answer: The same as Short Answer, but students are given much more room to write their response.
When creating either of the Multiple Choice-type
questions, teachers first enter the question, and then add
each of the proposed answers on a separate line
underneath. Use the Add buton to generate additional
proposed responses.
On the next screen, teachers then indicate
which of the proposed responses are correct.
Teachers can then finish editing questions or
move onto the next one.
Short-answer and long-answer questions work similarly except that students must write out their response. Teachers
supply one or more keywords or key phrases; students responses must match one or more of the provided responses in
order to be considered correct by the automatic grading system.
Afer adding all the questions they want to include, teachers can save their changes and publish the quiz.
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Giving a Quiz to a Class
When it's time to present a quiz, teachers can add it to an LMS page by scheduling a time for
the quiz to run. Click the blue Manage Quizzes buton to bring up the Quizzes List. The list
can be filtered according to the user's classes (or other group assignments) in order to make
it easier to select a given quiz from the list.
Afer opening the quiz, click the green Schedule Quiz buton on the
lef. If the quiz has previously been scheduled for any class, those
time periods are displayed above the Schedule Quiz buton.
With the Create a quiz date window open, first
select one or more classes. Use the calendar
displays to choose a start date and an end date for
when the quiz will be available; the drop downs
below set the times that the quiz will be published
and withdrawn, respectively. Finally, use the Quiz
Timer drop down menu to set the length of time
students have to complete the quiz once they've
opened it.
Notifications
The Notifications & Redirects tab controls what occurs afer students submit a quiz response.
Teachers can set the LMS to send them an email whenever a student submits a quiz using the Admin Notification Email
controls. Emails can be sent to more than one page manager/teacher by entering multiple emails in the Send Email to
fields. The Email Contents checkboxes determine the information that will be included in those emails.
The Student Confirmation controls determine what students will see upon submitting a quiz response. Use the
Submission Message field to write the message that will be displayed on the Quiz page afer a student submits his or her
responses (e.g. “Your quiz submission is complete!”).
The Popup Editor allows teachers to include rich text, images, media files and more.
Click the Show results of quiz checkbox to include the quiz questions and the students' responses to them in this message.
If Automatic grading is turned on for the quiz, students will see their grades along with their responses. Finally, the Email
confirmation section lets teachers opt to send students an additional email message confirming their submissions. As with
the admin notification email, teachers can configure the contents of the email message, including the results of the quiz
submission and/or a custom message.
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If the Quiz Timer is not set, there will be
no time restriction on students taking
the quiz. As long as students open the
quiz before its end date, they will be
allowed to submit their responses, even
if they finish and submit it after the time
the quiz is scheduled to end.

Automatic Grading
Quiz Manager can be set to automatically grade students' responses as they are submited; students can receive
immediate feedback on their performance.
Teachers can go to the Auto-Grading tab to select how the quizzes will be graded. There are four options:
• Individually weight questions by point value: teachers enter the total value of all the questions on the quiz and
manually assign a point value to each individual question. The system will tally up the number of points each
student earns based on which questions are answered correctly.
• Individually weight questions by percentage: the total point value of all the questions will always add up to 100.
Teachers can use sliders to adjust the relative value of each individual question.
• Equally weighted into a total point value: teachers enter the total value of the quiz, and the system
automatically assigns each question the same equal value.
• Equally weighted into 100%: all questions have the same relative value, and they collectively add up to 100
points.
The auto-grading method can be adjusted afer a quiz is saved, even afer responses have been received. If the grading
method is altered afer responses have been received, students who have already submited quizzes will see their
assigned grades change.
Reviewing Quiz Submissions
Quiz results can be viewed by opening the Quiz Manager and selecting a quiz as above, and then clicking the Results tab.
All of the submited responses to the quiz will be displayed on a
table; unreviewed submissions are shown in bold.
The table columns display the date each response was
submited, the students' names, their usernames, email
addresses, quiz grades (if auto-graded), their class, and their
responses to each individual question. Quiz submissions can be
exported and printed using the butons above the table.
Click on the document icon in the lef-hand column of a
submission to open up a more detailed view. This will display all
of the quiz questions and the students' responses. The student's name, email address, the class the quiz was assigned to
and the date it was submited are also shown. If the quiz was graded automatically, the teacher can override the grade
awarded by clicking the edit grading link at the top of the detail view. Individual responses can also be saved as a PDF.
Grading Quizzes
If Automatic Grading is not turned on, teachers can
manually enter grades for each quiz response by
opening up a detailed view of a submission as above
and clicking edit grading.
Teachers can then assign a numerical grade to each
question.
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GLOSSARY
Activity Stream..............................................................................................................................................................................
The Activity Stream is a chronological history of group activity, plus text updates and comments created by group
admins and group members. Activity Stream updates can be triggered by a group admin creating a new calendar
event, quiz, or other group resource. Messages that group members post to the Activity Stream can be viewed by the
other group members. Depending on the Activity Stream's settings, users may also be able to post comments in
response to an Activity Stream update. The Activity Stream is a component of fsSocial. Each class has its own activity
stream; likewise, individual site users (students, teachers, etc.) all have their own Activity Streams, which display
information from across all of their groups.......................................................................................................................... 2
Administrators, admins.................................................................................................................................................................
Administrators are users who have the authority and rights to make changes to a group. For academic groups, the
administrator is generally the teacher. Athletic group administrators are usually coaches, and so on..............................1
Block Calendar...............................................................................................................................................................................
The Block Calendar is a special type of calendar. Instead of containing events, the Block Calendar contains days on
which events from other calendars should not be scheduled ("block days.") A Block Calendar can be applied to other
calendars in Calendar Manager. When this is done, events from the other calendar(s) will NOT be scheduled for any of
the days which appear on the Block Calendar...................................................................................................................... 5
Constituent Manager....................................................................................................................................................................
Constituent Manager is the finalsite sofware tool used to edit, update and delete individual user accounts associated
with the website....................................................................................................................................................................5
Dashboard.....................................................................................................................................................................................
The Dashboard is the default landing page users see upon logging into the LMS. It contains a 'unified' Activity Stream
displaying content from all of the user's groups, as well as a list of upcoming calendar items...........................................2
DropBox.........................................................................................................................................................................................
DropBoxes are calendar events that represent class assignments. DropBoxes allow students to upload their files
directly to their class page; teachers can then download and review the file, and provide feedback on the content to
the student............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Dynamic File Folders.....................................................................................................................................................................
Dynamic file folders represent a view into a particular folder in File Manager. When a Resource is set to "Dynamic File
Folder," the group admin will be prompted to select a folder from within File Manager. The contents of that folder will
be displayed as a resource. Any changes to the contents of the folder within File Manager will be refected on the
resource...............................................................................................................................................................................13
Element.........................................................................................................................................................................................
An element is a modular block of content which can be customized and placed on a Group Space home section. Most
elements are specialized to perform a specific task, such as to display content from Media Manager, to show Resource
folders, show upcoming Calendar events, and so on. Elements can be added, moved and rearranged by group admins.9
File Manager..................................................................................................................................................................................
File Manager contains files uploaded by admins and other site users, for use throughout the site...................................5
Group.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Groups are a collection of users with a common purpose. The most common use for Groups would be for academic
classes. Athletic teams are also Groups. Groups can also encompass activities, parent organizations, or other
collections of users. Each Group can have its own Group Space on the website.................................................................2
Group Manager.............................................................................................................................................................................
Group Manager is the sofware tool used to manage Groups and Group Spaces. Using Group Manager, Site Admins and
Group Admins can configure what sorts of content will be displayed on the website, the group space's appearance, and
many other parameters.........................................................................................................................................................2
Group Space..................................................................................................................................................................................
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Every group defined in Group Manager can be setup with a Group Space. The Group Space is the web presence for that
group within the LMS sofware. Also known as "class pages.".............................................................................................3
Knowledge Base............................................................................................................................................................................
The finalsite Knowledge Base is a collection of FAQs about the finalsite CMS. It is broken up into a number of subject
areas. Knowledge Base content related to the fsLMS is available by clicking the '?' icon at the top of any LMS page.
Admins browsing the Media Manager can view media-specific Knowledge Base content on the "Help" tab. Additional
KB articles are available only to site administrators............................................................................................................. 4
Media Manager.............................................................................................................................................................................
Media Manager is the finalsite module that hosts and distributes video, image and sound files for use throughout the
website.................................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Media Player..................................................................................................................................................................................
The Media Player is where audio, video and image files saved to Media Manager are displayed to the user. Group
admins can manage media files for each of their groups separately. The Media Player can be accessed either from a
Media element on each group's home page, or from the Media page in a group's LMS pages........................................ 19
Popup Editor..................................................................................................................................................................................
The Popup Editor is finalsite's full-featured page editing interface. Using the Popup Editor, users can configure the text
and images on a page, as well as accessing other finalsite features such as MultiMedia Manager....................................5
Portal.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Portal pages are dynamic landing pages that are geared toward all users in a particular role, such as faculty & staf, or
parents, or students.............................................................................................................................................................. 1
Resources......................................................................................................................................................................................
Resources are files, links or web content created by group admins and shared with members of a group. Resources can
also be shared to other groups........................................................................................................................................... 11
Roles..............................................................................................................................................................................................
Roles are categories of website users. Common roles are "Faculty," "Student," "Parent," "Coach" and so on. Roles are
configured and managed within Constituent Manager........................................................................................................ 2
Site Administrator.........................................................................................................................................................................
Site Administrators, or site admins, are school staf with rights that allow them to control how the website itself
functions. Site Admins have access to many more features and controls than most users. By contrast, Group Admins
have rights to determine how their own specific groups function, but can't adjust the settings for the website as a
whole..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Status Bar......................................................................................................................................................................................
The Status Bar appears at the botom of the screen whenever a user logs into finalsite. It provides quick links to the
user's profile, portal pages, groups, activity stream, messages and bookmarks..................................................................2
Theme............................................................................................................................................................................................
The color scheme for a group's pages in the LMS.................................................................................................................4
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