Figure 6.1: Instructor Module

The basic interface to the ALEKS Instructor Module was designed for the greatest possible ease of use. Although all parts of ALEKS can be used without training or documentation, the wealth of features in the Instructor Module is not easily grasped by a first-time user. The basic interface, to address this need, has been constructed to be a fully functional, menu-driven gateway to the ALEKS Instructor Module. Once common operations are familiar, the instructor may prefer to bypass the basic interface and work directly in the advanced interface, which is somewhat more powerful, especially in the fewer steps needed to accomplish tasks and in the possibilities for combining tasks and working with groups.

Wherever possible in this chapter, descriptions of operations in the basic Instructor Module are cross-referenced to descriptions of similar operations in the Advanced Instructor Module.

The essential method of the basic interface is what software designers call the "wizard." This method breaks a task down into steps and leads the user through those steps, asking questions and confirming the accuracy of information and decisions as it goes. The wizard minimizes the likelihood that the user will become lost or confused or take an unintended action while using the system. The use of the wizard interface involves a tradeoff between the number of steps required for a given action and the degree of familiarity expected of the user.

Throughout the Instructor Module (as we will call the basic interface in this chapter) there is a left-hand sidebar with links to the major areas of the Instructor Module: "How do I," "Course Admin," "College Admin" (available to users with Administrator status), "Reporting," "Taking Actions," and "Advanced" (Fig. 6.1). The links are all active when the user has selected a course for the focus of Instructor Module functions. These areas will be explained in the following sections. Also, each page of the Instructor Module contains a link to the Message Center, which can be used at any time to send queries or messages to ALEKS Corporation Customer Support.

Like the Advanced Instructor Module, the basic Instructor Module offers different capacities to users who are registered in ALEKS with Administrator status, as opposed to those with Instructor status. Essentially, an Instructor has control only over those courses for which she or he is the instructor; an Administrator has control over all courses for all instructors in the college, exactly as though he or she were the instructor for each of those courses.

In the following, the parenthetical notation "(Administrator)" indicates which areas, operations, and parts of operations are available only to users with Administrator status.