University of Phoenix Forums Manual

ENG 221,

Name of Team Members

Janet Chappell

November 1, 2010

2UOP Forum Manual

ContentsIntroduction 3

Forum Navigation 3

Main Forum 3

Chat room 4

Course Materials 4

Learning Teams 5

Individual Forum 6

My Items 6

Discussion Forum Window 7

Posting New Threads 8

Reviewing Threads and Messages 10

Replying to Threads and Messages 12

Forum Information and Preferences 13

Class Members 13

Preferences 14

Tips/ FAQ’s 16

Useful Links 16

Reference and Citation Generator 17

Grammar and Writing Guidelines 17

Center for Writing Excellence 17

Learning Team Toolkit 17

References 18

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Welcome to the University of Phoenix. As an online UOP student you will be spending a lot of time navigating the forums and using it to communicate with your instructor and fellow classmates. This manual is for incoming students who need to get familiar with the UOP forums, and it concentrates on the forums and the links within the forum page. Online learning is a new experience for many incoming students and we wish to make the transition as smooth as possible, so this manual will give detailed descriptions of everything within the forums and serve as a reference guide. This guide breaks down the forum into four sections, the forum navigation section, the discussion forum window, the forum information and preferences, and the useful links. Once again we welcome you to University of Phoenix and wish you success in all your endeavors.

Forums Navigation

The forum navigation pane (Fig. 1.1) is where faculty and students can access all the student website content. Using the navigation pane Users can navigate from the Main Forum, Chat Room, Course Materials, Learning Teams, Individual forums and My Items.

Fig. 1.1 – Forums Navigation

Main Forum

To access the Main forum window (Fig 1.2) select the Main forum link located at the top of the Forums navigation pane. In the Main forum users can see the name of threads and interact with other students and faculty by reading, posting and replying to the discussion threads.

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Fig. 1.2 – Main Forum

Chat Room

To access the Chat Room forum (Fig. 1.3) users can select the Chat Room link on the Forums navigation pane. In this section both students and faculty have the ability to read, reply and create new threads on the topic of their choice.

Fig. 1.3 – Chat Room Forum

Course Materials

To access the Course Materials forum (Fig. 1.4) users can select the Course Materials link in the Forums Navigation Pane. In this forum the faculty posts course syllabus, lectures, and all other pertinent material students can read. In this forum however only faculty has the ability of editing and posting new threads.

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Fig. 1.4 – Course Materials

Learning Teams

There are six Learning Teams labeled A through F (Fig 1.5). Students are assigned by the faculty to a Learning Team. This section allows students as well as the faculty to interact regarding team assignments and progress of projects, in this section students as well as faculty have the ability to read, reply and post new messages related to the Learning Team. To access any of the Learning teams, select the link of the Learning Team Forum (Fig. 1.6).

Fig. 1.5 – Learning Teams

Fig. 1.6 – Learning Team Forum

Individual Forum

The Individual Forum (Fig. 1.7) is labeled with the student’s name and last 4 digits of the IRN number. This forum is used to communicate with the course instructor and to receive feedback on grades and assignments. Only the student and the course instructor can view this forum and have the ability to read, reply and post new threads.

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Fig. 1.7 – Individual Forum

My Items

The My Items section is composed by two folders, My Drafts and My Sent Items (Fig. 1.8).

Fig 1.8 – My Items

To access the My Drafts (Fig. 1.9) folders select the link under the My Items section. The My Draft folder contains drafts of messages that students have saved but not posted to the any of the discussion forums of the specific course. When a student creates a reply to a message or a new thread but does not finish the message can be saved and it will appear on the My Draft folder for later review, completion and posting. Only the student can view and remove messages from the My Draft folder.

Fig. 1.9 – My Draft Folder

To access the My Sent Items (Fig. 1.10) folders select the link under the My Items section. The folder contains all the messages you have sent while participating in a course. Only the student can access the My Sent Items folder. The student can remove messages that have not been responded to or if they are less than 48 hours old. Only messages that have been posted to the class that the student is attending can be viewed in this folder.

Students can view the messages by subject of the message, by the forum where the message was posted, and by date and time of the message.

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Fig. 1.10 – My Sent Items

Discussion Forum Window

The discussion forum window is where faculty and students begin to review, post, and reply to discussion threads. The discussion forum window (fig. 2.1) shows you the threads for a particular forum. From this window, you can see the names of the threads, the author of the thread, the number of replies to the thread, and the last posting date to the thread. New threads can be posted from this window.

Fig. 2.1 –Discussion Forum Window

To open the forum window into a new browser window, select the “Open In New Window” button. The name of the forum is in bold and located in the upper-left corner of the window; in fig. 2.1, the name of the forum is “Main.” In the upper-right corner, you can find the current date and time. To view a thread, click on the hyperlinked name of the thread. If a thread name is in bold, the thread has not been read or there are replies to the thread that have not been read.

The default view of the forum is the threads listed in date-and-time-descending order based on the last posting date. The Forum View pull-down menu gives you four options-Threaded, Messages By Date, Unread Messages, and Flagged Messages; all of the options list in

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date-and-time-descending order. The Threaded option shows all of the threads in the forum list. The Messages By Date option shows all the messages in the forum. The Unread Messages option shows all unread messages in the forum. The Flagged Messages options show all messages in the forum that you flagged for follow up.

Fig 2.2 – Thread Close-Up

Fig. 2.2 shows a close-up of view of one thread. At the beginning of each thread line, there are icons (fig. 2.3) that are visual references and gives alerts for that thread. By hovering your mouse over the icon, you will see what the particular alert icon is. The first column displays an alert icon that tells you the type of thread, for example, a discussion question or an announcement. The second column icon gives you a quick reference for who created or posted the thread. The third column icon lets you know if you have flagged a post or reply within the thread.

Fig. 2.3 – Alert Icons

In the “Thread” column, the name of the thread is hyperlinked, and when selected, the forum messages for that thread will appear. The author of the thread, which is also hyperlinked, can be selected to see all user messages posted by that author. The “Replies” column shows the number of reply messages to the original posted thread. Finally, the last column shows the day, date, and time of the last posted message to that thread.

Posting New Threads

To post a new thread, you should select the “Post New Thread” button. This will open a new thread window (fig. 2.4) where you can create a new thread within the forum.

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Fig. 2.4 – Post New Thread Window

Like the Discussion Forum window, the Post New Thread window displays the current date and time along with the option to open the new thread in another browser window by selecting the Open In New Window button. To ensure that the new thread is posted in the correct forum, the forum name is displayed in parentheses following “Post New Thread.” The Subject line of the thread will show up in the Discussion Forum window. To attach a file or document to the thread, select the Browse button. You can attach multiple files, but note that the file maximum size is 10 megabytes per file. Fig. 2.5 shows the Post New Thread buttons and fig. 2.6 shows the message format buttons.

Fig. 2.5 – Post New Thread Buttons

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Fig. 2.6 – Message Format Buttons

Reviewing Threads and Messages

To review a thread from the Discussion Forum window, select the hyperlinked thread name. The thread will open (fig. 2.7) showing the thread message and any messages posted to the thread as a reply. The “View Entire Thread” button allows you to all of the messages of the thread in descending-date-and-time order in a separate browser window. The “Mark Thread As Read” button will mark all of the messages of the thread as read by removing bold font from all of the messages.

Fig. 2.8 shows the details of the thread message window. The thread message that is highlighted in yellow is the message you are reviewing at the bottom of the window. The messages and their replies are showed in a cascading order making it easier to find and group the messages. Any message that is bolded is a message that has not been read or viewed. The author of the message is hyperlinked, and when selected, a “User Messages” window (fig. 2.9)

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will appear showing you all of their messages grouped by week in descending date order. All messages also note the post day, date, and time.

Fig. 2.8 – Thread Message Window Detail

Fig. 2.7 – Thread Message Window

Fig. 2.9 – User Messages

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In fig. 2.10, you will see the message header information. Here is the name of the thread, the author of the post, their e-mail address, and when it was posted. The author’s name and e-mail address are hyperlinked; selecting the author’s name causes the User Messages window to appear, and selecting an e-mail address causes an e-mail window will open so an e-mail message can be sent. Here is where to reply, view, print, and flag the message. Messages can be flagged as high, medium, or low priority, and marked as read or unread. Previous and Next hyperlinks are available to cycle through the messages within the thread.

Fig. 2.10 – Message Header Information

Replying to Threads and Messages

Selecting the Reply link causes a Reply Message window to appear (fig. 2.11). The window is very similar to the Post New Message window. The difference is the thread or message reply appears at the bottom of the screen with the addition of the “Quote Original” button. When the “Quote Original” button is selected, the thread or message will appear in the body of the message.

The message format buttons (fig. 2.6) appear to customize your message and to perform various functions including the “Spell Check” function. Selecting the “Spell Check” icon causes a spell check window (fig. 2.12) to appear. The spell check function scans through the message for possible spelling errors allowing the opportunity to correct the error, ignore the error, or add the word to the dictionary. For more help on the spell checker, select the “Help with spell check?” button located in the format button bars.

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Fig. 2.11 – Reply Message Window

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Fig. 2.12 – Spell Check Window

Forum Information and Preferences

This section of the forum page has three components that make it up, Class Members, Preferences, and Tips/ FAQ’s (Fig. 3.1). This section does not have a heading but can be very useful as a class progresses.

Fig. 3.1- Forum Information and Preferences

Class Members

The first link is Class Members; selecting this link will show a window that displays a list of the class members and the instructor in the current class and also their university email address. Selecting Class Members will create a display similar to Fig 3.2.

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Fig. 3.2 – Class Members Screen

Each one of the names on this page is a link that shows all the posts done by that person in chronological order. Selecting the e-mail link after their name will open a box within Microsoft Outlook so an e-mail message can be drafted and sent to that person. This is useful for communication during team projects or collaborating on class assignments.

Preferences

The Preferences are useful in providing visual organization of the forums. The General Preferences tab allows the user to change format options, font options, automatic spell checking, and also allow the user to create a personal signature to end each of their posts (Fig. 3.3).

The Organize Messages tab allows the user to color code the individuals in the class so that a post from a specific individual is always the same color in every forum of that class. This allows the user to easily distinguish post from the instructor or team members from other classmates. Each color selection is listed with the respective person. To use this tool first select which individual will have a different color from the drop down menu then select the color to associate with that person’s posts (Fig 3.4)

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Fig 3.3 – Preferences General Tab

Fig. 3.4 – Preferences Organize Messages Tab

Tips and FAQ

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The Tips and FAQ link will open a new window that will display various insights on how to navigate through the student website. There are various screens that give much more detailed information of all of the elements of the student websites including the student forums. An example of a screen is in figure 3.5.

Fig. 3.5- Tips and FAQ Screen

Useful Links

The Useful Links section is not part of the UOP forums, instead it is a selection of links to assist in writing that originate in the tools of the University of Phoenix Online Library. These links will be covered in much greater detail in a guide for the university library. Since they appear on the forum screen it is beneficial to give a brief overview of the four links in this section (Fig. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1 – Useful Links Menu

Reference and Citation Generator

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“Reference and Citation Generator produces several citation examples to serve as Reference page entry and in-text citation models. In addition, this online tool will help you draft properly formatted APA reference page entries and in-text citations. However, the Generator will not fix errors or typos that you entered in the various fields. Review the populated entries for APA accuracy before using the entries in your paper” (Reference and Citation Generator, 2009).

Grammar and Writing Guides

The Grammar and Writing Guides is a part of the Center for Writing Excellence. The guides cover many writing issues associated with writing correctly at the university level. Some examples of the subjects covered are, active and passive voice, Clarity, Introductory phrases, redundancy, etc. This area allows the student to review and correct a known problem in their writing and elaborates on how errors and imperfections can be eliminated (Grammar and Writing Guides: Writing Style, 2008).

Center for Writing Excellence

“The Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) is an online writing lab designed to assist the University's students in developing essential written communication skills. The CWE helps students to create writing that is articulate, cohesive, structured, concise, and easily understood by the reader” (Center for Writing Excellence, 2010). Through this link a student can submit a paper for review through WritePoint, Tutor Review, or Plagiarism Checker. All papers need to be submitted to Plagiarism checker prior to being submitted for grading. This is also the page to download papers that have been previously submitted.

Learning Team Toolkit

The Learning Team Toolkit is a link to tools designed by the university to “develop effective skills in collaboration” (Welcome to the Learning Team Toolkit, 2010). Through this link the student has access to learning team charters, which help organize teams and delegate responsibilities, and a learning team log, which is a spreadsheet for tracking team objectives. The Learning Team Toolkit website also has extensive subjects on coordinating and leading teams, some of which are toolkit essentials, team basics, project planning, conflict resolution, etc. Using the information and organizational tools in this website are mandatory because all of the classes at the University of Phoenix have a portion of the grade in each class devoted to learning teams.

References

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Center for Writing Excellence. (2010). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from UOP Library: Center for Writing

Excellence: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/classroom/ic/cwe/home.aspx

Grammar and Writing Guides: Writing Style. (2008). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Center for

Writing Excellence: Grammar and Writing Guides:

https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/grammar/writingStyle.asp

Reference and Citation Generator. (2009). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Reference and Citation

Generator Home Page: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cwe/citation_generator/

UOP: Classroom- Discussion. (2010). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Main Forum:

https://classroom.phoenix.edu/afm213/secure/view-class.jspa?classID=188399&orgID=25

Welcome to the Learning Team Toolkit. (2010). Retrieved October 29, 2010, from UOP Library: learning

Team Toolkit: http://www.apollolibrary.com/Library/ltt/toolkit1.aspx

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