Creating and Customizing Your MyCourses Class Shell

Workshop Syllabus

This professional development workshop is designed to help RIT faculty meet the curricular
needs of their students by helping faculty create and customize their class shells.
Instructor: Mr. Godys Armengot
Office: Eastman 3236
Phone: 585-475-4427
Email: gaagsl@rit.edu
The Goals: This workshop assists faculty in expanding their understanding and use of the LMS
to integrate this technology into their curriculum in ways that directly enhance student learning
and support course and program goals.
Location: This workshop meets in the MLTC (Eastman building) computer lab on the campus of
Rochester Institute of Technology.
Time Commitment: This is a five-day workshop that consists of four hours each day.
Workshop Description: This workshop is designed specifically for new and returning faculty
members with limited or no prior training in using MyCourses. It is also be open to returning
faculty with prior experience who wish to receive updated training. This program is open to fulltime, part-time, and adjunct faculty and will be particularly beneficial for new faculty.
Faculty members will learn how to enhance student learning by making effective use of RITs
learning management system MyCourses. As a result of this plan, instructors will learn how to
use the learning management system effectively. All instructors will reach intermediate or higher
level of proficiency in using the learning management system after completing the trainings
provided. This will be valuable because all classes and many committees have shells through
MyCourses and not all faculty members currently have experience using them or make use of all
of the capabilities that they provide.

Workshop Schedule:
Day

Description

1. Getting to Know
Today you will create your
MyCourses and Creating Your own course shell and learn
Course Shell
how to navigate RITs
learning management system.

To Prepare Before Class

Log in with your RIT userid
and password at
mycourses.rit.edu and take a
look at the sample course
shell visible to you under the
category Development.

2. Customizing Your Course

Shell for Dynamic,
Interactive, Learning

You will incorporate the key

elements for group work
including discussion boards,
groups, calendar, chat, and
dropbox.

Spend some time

familiarizing yourself with
MyCourses by logging in on
your own computer.

3. Incorporating Media Using

E-Learning Principles

Use e-learning principles to

improve your online
presentations and activities
and add them to your
MyCourses shell.

If you have time, take a look

at E-learning Principles
(Clark & Mayer, 2011).

4. Enhancing Transparency

Create and manage quizzes,set

up and use the gradebook on
MyCourses and learn how to
post your final semester grades.

Bring in a syllabus and a quiz

that you would like to post on
MyCourses. We will use the
grading criteria from your
syllabus to set up your
gradebook today.

5. Moving Forward

Set up the notification system

on MyCourses and explore
advanced settings to meet
your curricular goals. Share
your course shell with the rest
of the class. Take the
workshop survey.

Consider the next steps to

making your course shell
ready for your class. Bring in
any questions you have.

Important Note:
This workshop is designed to address specific issues that instructors have with the technology we
use every day at RIT. Therefore my instructional strategies take into consideration that
instructors will have different levels of familiarity with the learning management system and elearning principles. I encourage you to ask questions and also to share tips and help each other

throughout the 5 day workshop because you may have insights to share or questions that
everyone can benefit from.