Creating & Managing a Virtual Classroom

CREATING & MANAGING A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

Interested in a two-way communication tool that extends learning beyond the four walls of your
classroom? Then you’re in the right tutorial. Let’s learn how to create a virtual classroom for each of the
classes you teach. In this virtual classroom, you will be able to post announcements, assignments,
events, useful links, and students will be able to participate in a discussion forum.

A. Creating a Virtual Classroom

1. Go to the NBED Portal. From the District 2 website Homepage, follow the 3 steps below:

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2. Scroll down to My Collaborative Sites and click the plus sign by Student Portal-District 2. Then click
on the name of your school.

3. In the upper-left, click on My Classes and then Create.

4. Under Web Pages, select Sites and Workspaces.

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5. On the New SharePoint Site in the Title and Description section, enter a Title (i.e. KHorsman-Math
6A) for your class (Step 1 in the screenshot below). You can also add a description, but it’s not
mandatory.
6. For Web Site Address, you’ll need to add a URL (i.e. KHmath6A) for this virtual class (Step 2 in the
screenshot below). Keep your URL short with no spaces or special characters.
7. For Template Selection, be sure to select the Custom tab and the Class template (Step 3 in the
screenshot below).

8. For Permissions be sure that Use unique permissions is selected (Step 4 in the screenshot below).
9. In the Navigation Inheritance section, click Yes (Step 5 in the screenshot below).
10. Click Create! (Step 6 in the screenshot below).

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11.On the page entitled Set Up Groups for this Site, for Visitors to this Site click on Create a new group
(i.e. KHorsman-Math 6A Visitors). Add yourself & your principal by clicking on the address book
icon. Permissions=Read only.

Section B of this tutorial will show you the settings to enable students to request Visitor permissions.

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12.For Members of this Site, verify that Create a new group (i.e. KHorsman-Math 6A Members) is
clicked. Ensure that you are a Member. If you plan to have a colleague who will be contributing to
your virtual classroom, you can add him/her as a Member later. Permissions=Read + Write.
13.For Owners of this Site, verify that Create a new group (i.e. KHorsman-Math 6A Owners) is clicked.
You, the teacher who is creating the virtual classroom, will be the Owner. In addition, you should
add “dt02portaladmins” as Owners. This will give the Tech Mentors access to your virtual classroom
in case you need assistance. Permissions=Read + Write + Edit.

14.Before clicking OK, double check that you are a member of each group.

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Congratulations!! You have created your first virtual classroom!!

B. Managing Permissions

1. Accessing Class Site Settings

As the owner of this virtual classroom, you have access to the Site Settings page that contains links to
pages where you can administer all aspects of your class site. These links are divided into the
following sections:

 Users and Permissions. This section contains links to pages where you can administer users
and user permissions.
 Look and Feel. This section contains links to pages that affect how the site appears and
behaves.
 Galleries. This section contains links to pages where you can manage the building blocks to
create sites and pages.
 Site Administration. This section contains links to pages where you can modify
administrative settings for the site.

To open the Site Settings page:

Click on the Site Actions menu situated in the upper-right-hand corner and select Site Settings.

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You are now presented with the Sites Settings page that contains the 4 sections described above:

For this tutorial, we will focus on the first 2 sections.

2. Adding Members to 3 Different User Groups

1) Under the Users and Permissions header click on Advanced Permissions to manage the site
permissions.

2) You can see that the groups created during your class site creation are already configured:
 Members (i.e. you, as the site creator) have Contribute permissions
 Owners (i.e. you, as the site creator) have Full Control.
 Visitors (i.e. you, as the site creator, & the principal) have Read permissions.

Simply click on one of the groups (i.e. Visitors) to see the members (i.e. Arsenault, Donna &
Horsman, Kandi)

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3) Now you can follow these steps to enable students to request Visitor permissions.

Under the Groups menu on the left-hand side, begin by clicking on Visitors.

4) In Settings, select Group Settings.

5) Scroll down to Membership Requests. For “Allow requests to join/leave this group?” click Yes.
Then fill in your email address. By clicking this setting, you will not need to add each student
through the address book. Instead when students see your class listed in their My Classes of My
Site, they will request membership to the Visitors group. As you receive email requests in your
Inbox, simply click that you accept the students.

6) Click OK.

Please note:

Parents do not have provincial email accounts. As a result, you cannot add parents to the Visitors
group. Parents will log into their child’s virtual classroom using his/her username and password.

C. Managing the Theme

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Return to Site Actions—Site Settings. Under Look and Feel, select Site Theme.

See the directions in the screen shot below.

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D. Adding Content to Your Virtual Classroom

1. Main Section of Homepage

1) To return to your site’s Homepage, click on your site’s title in the breadcrumb path at the top.

2) To add content, click on a link entitled Add new.

3) Once you have added new assignments and events, click Upcoming Assignments and Events to
see the calendar view.

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2. Student Information

Very Important...Please Note:

If you are going to use the Student Information section, as Visitors, students will by default have Read
access to view the information.

1) To remove the students’ permissions, click on the Student Information link in the menu on the
left-hand side.

2) Click on Settings and select List Settings.

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3) Under Permissions and Management, click on Permissions for this List.

4) Click Actions and select Edit Permissions.

5) For the warning, click OK.

6) Select the checkbox beside the Visitors group (the group to which your students will belong).

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7) Next click Actions and select Remove User Permissions.

8) A warning will pop up; click OK.

9) The Visitors group no longer appears; consequently, the students in your class will not have
permissions to the Student Information library.

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3. Class Discussion Forum

If you are going to use the Class Discussion section, as Visitors, students by default will have only Read
access. To give students Contribute permissions, follow these steps:

1) Return to your Homepage by clicking on your site’s title in the bread crumb path at the top.

2) Click on the Class Discussion link in the menu on the left-hand side.

3) Click Settings and select Discussion Board Settings.

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4) Under Permissions and Management, click Permissions for this discussion board.

5) Under Actions, click Edit Permissions.

6) Click OK for the message below.

7) Check off the Visitors group of which students are a member. Notice that students currently have
Read only permissions; as a result, they would be unable to contribute to the discussion board.

8) Under Actions, select Edit User Permissions.

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9) On the right-hand side in the Permissions section, change Read to Contribute and click OK.

10) Click OK.

11) You see that Visitors now have not only Read but also Contribute permissions to the class
Discussion board.

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E. Accessing Your Virtual Classroom

The following directions explain how to go about accessing your virtual classroom in the future.

1. To return to the NBED Portal, simply click on Portal in the upper-left-hand corner.

2. Scroll down to My Collaborative Sites. So that you don’t have to close and re-open your browser,
simply click Refresh. By doing so, you will be able to see your newly created virtual classroom.

3. Below My Collaborative Sites, click the plus sign beside Student Portal-District 2. Then locate
your school (i.e. Edith Cavell School) and click the plus sign. Your virtual classroom will be listed
there. By clicking on the link, you will return to your classroom.

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F. How Do Students Access My Virtual Classroom?

Students would follow these 6 steps:

1. Open a web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) and enter the following website address:
portal.nbed.nb.ca
2. Type in regular username (nbss\username)
3. Type in regular student password.
4. Under My Collaborative Sites, click on school name.
5. Click on My Classes in the upper-left.
6. Select the virtual classroom they would like to enter.

Congratulations on becoming a virtual classroom master!!

KandiHorsman, TechnologyMentor, D2