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Use this with care. Making a user an admin gives them complete control over
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the system. They could even revoke *your* admin rights!
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Admin users also enjoy the same privileges as lecturers, for all subjects on
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the system. In addition, admins can enrol users in a subject as lecturers
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(this is the only way to become a lecturer), and change or delete a lecturer's
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enrolment. Go to the subject page for "Advanced IVLE" and enrol the user
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"lecturer" as a Lecturer in the subject.
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Administering subjects and offerings
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Admin users also enjoy the same privileges as lecturers, for all subject
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offerings on the system. In addition, admins can enrol users in an offering as
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lecturers (this is the only way to become a lecturer), and change or delete a
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lecturer's enrolment. Go to the subject page for "Advanced IVLE" and enrol the
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user "lecturer" as a Lecturer in the subject.
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Admins can also administer subjects. Here it is important to distinguish
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between a "subject" (a course on a specific topic which is repeated over a
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number of semesters or years) and an "offering" (a particular instance of a
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subject, for one semester). Lecturers can administer *offerings* they are
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enrolled in, but not *subjects*.
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As an admin, go to the "Subjects" page. You will see a link "Manage subjects
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and semesters". The list at the top of the page shows all registered
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subjects. Click "Create new subject" to create a brand new subject (i.e., a
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new course). Call it "Introduction to Programming", with the URL name
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"intro-prog" and subject code 200101.
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Now we have created a *subject* but not an *offering*, so nobody will be able
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to teach or enrol in this subject. From the "Introduction to Programming"
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page, click "Create new offering". Select the semester in which the subject
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will be first taught. If you wish to create the first offering of a semester
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(e.g., 2011 semester 1), you will have to create a new semester first. Type
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in a subject description. (Note that each offering has an independent
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description.) Once you have created an offering, you can enrol lecturers, and
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they can in turn enrol students.
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Lecturers can take over administration duties of an offering (such as editing
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the description and managing projects), however it remains the admin's duty to
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administer the subjects, including creating new offerings each semester and
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Administering semesters
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An important duty of the administrator is controlling the *state* of each
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semester. Return to the "Manage subjects and semesters" page. Note the
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"Semesters" table contains a list of all known semesters, and whether they are
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"past", "current" or "future".
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IVLE could automatically create and manage semesters based on the system
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clock, but it presently does not. That is because your institution may have
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a different concept of a "semester" to ours. (For example, what are the
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semester start and end dates?) IVLE has therefore been designed to require
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admins to manually activate new semesters and disable old ones.
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In the sample data, 2009 semester 2 is the "current" semester. Let us assume
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that we are moving into the start of 2010. Edit 2009 semester 2 and set its
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state to "Past". Then, edit 2010 semester 1 and set its state to "Current".
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This affects the system in several ways. Mainly, it just changes the UI for
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all users, in terms of which offerings are presented as "current".
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Marking a semester as anything other than "current" will make it impossible
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for students enrolled in offerings for that semester to submit projects.
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Only do this after the semester has fully closed.
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It is possible for multiple semesters to be marked as "current", if this is
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desired. Therefore, there is no need to disable one semester before enabling