CTools Templates
CTools (ctools.umich.edu) is the University of Michigan's course management system (like the commercial products Blackboard or WebCT, or the open-source Moodle), based on Sakai, an open-source "collaboration and learning environment." It provides an easy-to-use way to manage course websites that include schedule information, announcements, as well as course discussions, an on-line gradebook, etc.
The Department's CTools Templates are designed to make it easier to learn how to use CTools for your course. To this end, follow the CTools Template Tutorial. In case you've already looked through that, a short summary follows.
- Log on to CTools.
- Select the Math Template Site (which is called Math 000 Template for courses other than Math 105, 115 or 116, and Math 1xx Template (where 1xx specifies 105, 115 or 116) otherwise.
- Click the Site Info link on the left sidebar.
- Click Duplicate Site at the top of the page, under the blue "Site Info" bar.
- Give an appropriate Site Title, e.g.,
MATH NNN MMM TTT, whereNNNis the course number,MMMthe section number, andTTTthe term (e.g.,F08). Select the correct term, and click Duplicate. - KEY STEP: Select the new course from the CTools workspace bar or "-more sites-" dropdown menu..
- Then change the roster for your course, add the undergraduate office to the list of users, and edit the content of the site.
Course Repository
The Department's on-line repository of course materials has materials for math courses numbered under 600, commonly including Syllabi, Homework Assignments, and sometimes other course materials. Note that because the Introductory Program courses (105, 115, 116, 215, and 216) already have extensive instructor resources available, they are not included in the repository.
At the end of the semester we will be asking to take advantage of your experience teaching your course to add to the repository!
Organization:
The repository is organized by course number, then term, then instructor. If you are teaching a course, you will probably want to start with the most recent term, and possibly with the materials from an instructor that you know or have spoken with about the course.
Background
The Goal of the repository is to provide instructors who are new to a course a base level of information about what has happened in the course in the past, with information about the textbook that was used and material that was covered.
This is Motivated by the fact that the Math Department offers a lot of undergraduate courses, and has a lot of faculty (and graduate students) who teach them. The course repository is designed to facilitate a transfer of course memory from one instructor to the next.
University of Michigan Dept of Mathematics