Instructional Technologies
IT offers many different services and technology resources for your use in and out of the classroom. Below are the most commonly used resources.
E-Mail Mailing Lists
Moodle
Class Folders
Web Site
Feedback Form Creator
Workshops and Seminars
Classroom Technology Installations
E-Mail Mailing Lists
Each term, an e-mail mailing list is automatically setup for your use in your courses. This tool is, by far, the most widely used technology on campus. Course mailing lists take the form of <deptname or abbreviation>-<course number><course section>. For example, the mailing list for Math 124 B would be math-124b@stolaf.edu. Course mailing lists should be used only with the authorization of the faculty member teaching the course.
Course mailing lists include every registered member of a class — both students and auditors — and are updated nightly from information from the Registrar's Office. Faculty teaching the course are also included based on Registrar's Office data. TA's are not automatically included. A faculty member may request TA inclusion by sending e-mail to root@stolaf.edu.
Current Term Courses
Mailing lists exist for current courses and are in effect according to the following schedule:
| Term | Valid Dates | |
| Semester 1 | Sepember 1 through December 31 | |
| Interim | January 1 through January 31 | |
| Semester 2 | February 1 through May 31 | |
| Summer Session 1 | June 1 through July 15 | |
| Summer Session 2 | July 16 through August 31 | |
View the list of current course mailing lists.
Past and Future Term Courses
Course mailing lists exist for future terms -- once registration has occurred for that term -- and for the past five terms. For example, semester 1 mailing lists can be used through semester 1 of the following year.
In order to use past or future term mailing lists, you must use the "fully qualified" course mailing list name. In general, this "fully qualified" list name is of the form:
year - term - course @stolaf.edu
where year is like "2004-05" and term is one of the following: semester1, interim, semester2, summersession1, summersession2. The course is the familiar name like "classics-129" or "math-112."
Lists of students enrolled in courses from past or future terms is available through the Student Information System.
Moodle
Moodle is St. Olaf's course management system (sometimes called a Virtual Learning Environment). Moodle is a powerful, but easy to use web application that was used by over 140 courses last year. The St. Olaf Moodle server is located at http://moodle.stolaf.edu/
A Moodle course can include forums for discussion, live chat rooms, online class materials (called resources), a calendar of events, quizzes, a grade book, assignments, journals, and more. A single course could have all of these features or only a subset, depending on which tools are selected for use.
Classes in Moodle are automatically generated from the Registrar's data and students registered for a class are automatically registered for the corresponding Moodle online class. Faculty members are added as Professors in their Moodle classes automatically. Photos are also added to the list of participants in a class based on their college ID photos.
Access to a Moodle course is typically restricted to people with St. Olaf usernames and passwords, but can also be granted to anonymous guests, depending on settings set by the faculty member(s) teaching the course.
Moodle is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use system and both faculty and students can be up and running with it in a matter of minutes. Moodle has excellent online documentation available as well as a Teacher's Manual.
Many faculty have questions about whether they should use Moodle or use a combinations of the other tools mentioned above. The answer depends on the person teaching and what kinds of features they need or want. If you need assistance in determining which route would be best, contact contact your IT Department Representative.
Class Folders
Each term, class folders are automatically created for each class section on the server classes.stolaf.edu. Students are automatically granted access to those classes for which they are registered. Likewise, when faculty are granted access to those classes they are teaching. Faculty may request TA's be added to their course mailing lists (see above) and they will be granted access to the corresponding class directory.
Access to the class folders is on the same schedule printed above for the e-mail mailing lists.
Each class directory has a disk quota of 50MB. Faculty can request disk quota increases for class directories via e-mail to root@stolaf.edu.
On Macs, the class folders can be found on the Classes volume which is accessible from the server stofiles.stolaf.edu. When mounted on your desktop, you will see an icon labeled 'CLASSES'. Within CLASSES you will see any class directories to which you have access.
On PCs, class folders appear on the L: drive.
If you need assistance in connecting to stofiles.stolaf.edu, please contact the IT HelpDesk at x3830 or via e-mail at helpdesk@stolaf.edu.
Class folders are usually accessed from on-campus, but are also accessible from off-campus For full details, please review the information at http://www.stolaf.edu/services/iit/documentation/remotefiles/.
Explanation of the folders within a class folder
Each class folder is automatically created with the following
folder structure:
Class Materials
The Class Materials folder is used to store materials
used by the class, such as a syllabus, papers, etc.
Library Materials
The Library Materials folder is used by the Library
to put "e-reserves" or documents that you have placed on reserve.
Professor
The Professor folder is only used by faculty and TA's
to store private information about the class, such as class lists,
grades,
etc.
Student Shared
The Student Shared folder is a place where groups of students
can collaborate on documents.
Feedback Form Creator
The Feedback Form Creator, found at http://www.stolaf.edu/formcreator/ is a web-based survey system designed for course feedback and evaluations. It can be used at anytime during the term to gather feedback about course content, student comprehension, or general feedback. It can also be used for surveys outside of courses. More detailed information and instructions are available from the system once you have logged in.
Web Site
Some faculty prefer to put course materials on the web in addition to, or instead of, using Moodle or the class folders mentioned previously. Links to online course materials for the current term can be found at http://www.stolaf.edu/courses/. Faculty wishing to put course materials on the St. Olaf web site can request a web space by contacting Dan Beach (beach@stolaf.edu). Course web sites can be open to the world, restricted to on-campus viewers, or password protected.
Creating web sites can be a little tricky at times, depending on what you wish to put online and what kinds of features you want to include in your course web site. Documentation on creating web pages can be found at http://www.stolaf.edu/services/iit/documentation/webpage/.
Workshops and Seminars
Each semester, IT offers a variety of computing seminars for faculty and staff to help you learn new skills or brush up on forgotten ones. Topics range from creating images to developing web sites to working with databases and spreadsheets. The schedule of seminars is available via the LEARN system at http://www.stolaf.edu/apps/learn/
IIT can also assist you arrange for specialized workshops for your classes. IT staff can come to your class to teach web design, using the servers, creating presentations with PowerPoint, and many other topics. If you would like assistance in scheduling a workshop for your class(es), contact your IT Department Representative.
Classroom Technology Installations
Many classrooms are equipped with various levels of technology.
Nearly all St. Olaf classrooms are equipped with computers and projectors. The full
list of equipped rooms, along with instructions on using the technology
available in each room, can be found at http://www.stolaf.edu/services/iit/classrooms/db/.