Wondering where your upcoming courses are, or generally confused about how to get around in the "new" AsULearn? Try this 3-minute video:
Information:
AsULearn is a locally customized version of the well-known open-source Learning Management System called Moodle. Recently, as you may be aware, our campus has undergone some changes to our AsULearn architecture and interface.
First, in summer 2018, AsULearn underwent an architecture shift that increased the number of years' worth of past courses faculty would have access to, while keeping them organized in a way that would make a particular course easier to find. To accomplish this, each academic year past, present and future of AsULearn (always grouped Fall-Summer II) has its own "instance," or site, as does the now-well-known "Projects" instance, which holds committee sites, development sites, and anything non-Banner-driven and/or without necessarily an end date.
- In the past, faculty most often used the "Import" feature within a course to bring content from past courses into current or future courses. Import still works from one course to another within the same academic year or instance.
- However, now, due to this architectural shift toward higher availability, each instance or academic year is on its own server, for more space. Anytime you move content from one academic year to another, you will need to use a "Backup/Restore" process instead of Import, which takes a bit longer (3-15 minutes typically, depending on the size of the course. If you get a message that your course is too large to restore it to your new course, simply contact your IT Consultant for assistance.
While AsULearn is now a bit more complex, the upside of this shift is that faculty now have access to courses further back than previously, and it is organized in easier-to-find ways.
Second, in summer 2019, AsULearn was updated to Moodle 3.6, which organizes our main landing page for AsULearn differently in ways that better match the daily needs of users.
- The top block is for "Recently Accessed" sites.
- The middle block, called "Course Overview," contains the courses of your current academic year (which runs each fall through the end of Summer II).
- The bottom block, called "My AsULearn sites," contains access to all other instances, including your Projects/committees, your past years, and the upcoming year, each organized in a tab.
Within each tab, you may have enough established courses that you may need to page through your courses to find the one you need.
TIP: To easily move between instances or sites, keep a tab open of your main AsULearn landing page to return to, which can act as a hub to all your instances.
NOTE: The changeover to bring fall's courses into the middle "Course Overview" block for "current year" courses will happen the morning of August 9, 2019 (during which point it will be unavailable), at which point your Fall 2018-Summer II 2019 courses will shift to a tab within "My AsULearn Sites" at the bottom of the main AsULearn landing page.