The Stratepedia Learning Labs are online communities of practice, learning and support for educators, particularly those working with the Strategic Instruction Model or Content Literacy Continuum initiatives. The site serves two purposes: First, it houses public and private collaborative workspaces for these groups. Second, it stores online workshops and training sequences used in distributed SIM professional development.
The Learning Labs have very basic technical requirements: If you have a computer with an Internet connection and a web browser, you are ready to use the site. The site works on both Windows and Macintosh-based computers and has been tested with most modern web browsers.
Most areas in the Learning Labs require an account to access. Registering for an account is free and allows you to interact with other people in that course or workgroup.
You'll need to use your account to access most of the functions and content in the Learning Labs. You'll need to sign in each time you use the site, using the steps outlined here.
Before you begin: Before you sign in, make sure you've created an account and know what your username and password are.
Yes. Use these following steps to access the Learning Labs as a guest. Being a guest means that you do not have to create an account or officially sign in, although your participation may be limited.
Your Learning Labs account settings are stored in your profile. You can change these settings–including your name, e-mail address, and password.
No time to check your workgroup every day for new forum posts? No problem–with notification messages, new posts can arrive automatically in your e-mail inbox. Here's how.
The Learning Labs can make it easier to put a face with a name. Follow these instructions to upload a picture of yourself to be displayed on your profile.
Forget your Learning Labs account information? This page is for you. The Learning Labs doesn't have a password reminder, but it does have a way to help you create a temporary password and then assign a new password. This procedure takes a few steps–please follow along carefully.
Generally speaking, you must join a public workgroup or online course prior to viewing its content or interacting with other members. Some workgroups allow guest access–see Signing into the Learning Labs as a guest for more information.
Effective February 25, 2010, we are changing our policy regarding the Learning Labs service. We will no longer add new groups to the Learning Labs. We will continue to host and support existing groups using the site.
You must join a private workgroup prior to viewing its contact or interacting with other members.
Before you begin:
1. You must be signed into the Learning Labs to join a workgroup–see Signing into the Learning Labs for assistance.
2. You need to know the enrollment key required to join the workgroup. Contact the person in charge of your group to get this information.
With tracking, you can easily see how many new messages are waiting for you in a forum. Tracking may be used in tandem with notifications to help you follow online discussions in your workgroup.
Before you begin: To track new messages in forums, you must turn on forum tracking in your account settings. See How do I change my account settings? for details.
A Moodle Forum is a primary collaboration tool for a workgroup. Common terms for this type of tool include discussion board, threaded discussion, and bulletin board.
Before you begin: To participate in a forum, you must be signed in and be a member of the workgroup or course to which the forum belongs.
The Database module in Moodle allows course designers and workgroup leaders to create flexible information repositories, using fields that apply directly to the course or workgroup. At its most basic level, a database in this situation can be thought of as a spreadsheet–you can define columns of data and then sort and search them. A more advanced comparison might be Microsoft Access or Filemaker Pro.
As your workgroup adds content to a database, it can become challenging to locate important information in it. Fortunately, Moodle's Database module includes a search function.
Before you begin: To search a database, you must be signed into the Learning Labs and a member of the workgroup containing the database.
A glossary is a tool that can be used to organize information and documents in your course in the Learning Labs.
Tokbox is a free and easy way to communicate via video with participants. Adding Tokbox to your course is a great way to increase interest and collaboration, although it is an advanced skill and may take some practice.
You will need a camera, microphone, and Adobe Flash player. If you don't have a Flash player, you can visit http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer to download for free.
This guidebook was created by Aaron Sumner and Amber Hoffman-Nutt.
Your feedback helps us make the Stratepedia Guidebook series a more useful resource. We'd like to know what you think. Please send your comments and suggestions to us at help@stratepedia.org.
Thank you for using the Stratepedia Guidebook series!
Stratepedia is part of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas. To learn more about Stratepedia, please visit Stratepedia.org.
Questions or comments should be sent to Aaron or Amber at help@stratepedia.org.
Thank you.
