Information for Wattle Front-Runners

While the College intends for Wattle to be used for CASS courses in Semester 1 2010, rather than Semester 2 2009, there is the possibility for ‘Front-Runners’ to start using Wattle early. This is particularly appropriate in the case of new courses.

Front-Runners must have notified the College Education Project Officer by COB Tuesday 2nd June in order to have Wattle course created for Semester 2 2009.
 

Front-Runners should be aware of several issues with using Wattle in Semester 2: 

Wattle Course Creation

‘Shell’ Wattle courses will be created for each course specified by Front-Runners. Only a small number of Wattle courses have been migrated from WebCT and these courses were not selected by the College. No further courses can be migrated from WebCT before the migration for Semester 1 2010 begins in August.

Student enrolment in particular undergraduate/graduate co-teaching courses will occur as they did previously in WebCT. 

College Support

There will be no support provided by the College for those who are using Wattle in Semester 2.

DOI Support

DOI support is expected to be limited. Semester 2 2009 is the first large-scale test of both the system itself and DOI’s capacity to support it: all courses in CMBE and CPS moving to Wattle for S2 2009 and the Wattle Support Team is small and also new to Wattle. This may mean that you may have to wait some time for assistance if you request it.

Self Support

Since Wattle is built around Moodle, which is an open-source product, there is an abundance of support material available online as well as an active community of users who are able to support each-other. This means that Front-Runners won’t be stuck out on their own.

Links to these resources can be found at: http://wattle.anu.edu.au/help.html.

Commercial Partner Support

The University’s commercial partner for Wattle, NetSpot, is able to provide over-the-phone and email assistance:

NetSpot Helpdesk
Mon-Fri: 8am - 10pm
Sat-Sun: 9am - 5pm
E: wattle.support@anu.edu.au
T: 1300 544 894

Training

Training in the use of specific Wattle tools and features is being conducted by DOI and places are limited. The College cannot guarantee that a place will be available to Front-Runners. Front-Runners should register sooner rather than later.

‘Sandpit’ Sessions are being run by the College to introduce staff to Wattle. These sessions allow staff to experiment with a hidden site in a safe and fun environment. Sessions are scheduled for two hours, but participants are free to come and go as they wish.

Registrations for College and DOI sessions can be made through HORUS or Training@ANU.

Sandpit

A single ‘sandpit’ Wattle course can be created for each staff member for experimental learning. These courses are hidden from students. While it is possible to move content from a sandpit course to a teaching course using the ‘import’ function, this will not move across as an identical copy: ‘blocks’, the functional units which surround the main links to activities and resources, will not be moved across. Considering this, it may be safer to build the Wattle course in the shell in which students will be enrolled before they are enrolled.

Other Lecturers in Wattle courses

For many Wattle courses, several people appear as lecturers though not all of these people will be teaching that course. These can be removed using the ‘Assign roles’ tool in the ‘Administration’ block of the Wattle course.

For more information contact Jake Francis, College Education Project Officer, jake.francis@anu.edu.au, x56808