Latest Announcements

You no longer need to request a worksite throught OCS. Anyone with a pid, can create their own site in Scholar in the Site Setup tool. Simpy login to Scholar and in your My Workspace, there is a tool in left menu called Site Setup. Using the Site Setup, look for the New link and create your site. If you are creating a Course Site and you plan to attached a roster, just make sure to choose the correct term. If you have any questions, please contact OCS via 4Help.

4Help is Your First Stop for Support
4Help and answers.vt.edu increased their support by being the primary contact for all OCS-related support questions at Virginia Tech.  This includes the all services covered by Online Course Systems -- Blackboard, Scholar, ePortfolio, CourseEval, DyKnow, Courseware, ElementK, or iTunesU. We are asking all faculty, students, and staff with questions about these services to direct their questions through 4Help.  They can be accessed at 231-HELP (231-4357) or http://www.4help.vt.edu; Online Course Systems continues to work with 4Help and answers.vt.edu to ensure consistent, quality support for the educational technologies we support. 

Scholar Videos

Scholar Tutorials | "Generic" Videos | ePortfolio | "On-the-Fly"

Scholar is Virginia Tech's implementation of Sakai, which is currently being developed and used at MIT, Stanford, Michigan and Indiana and many other universities. Scholar enables innovative ways to teach students, assess learning, and collaborate with users at Virginia Tech and beyond. With its capabilities of project site creation and resource sharing, Scholar consolidates the functions of a course management system like Blackboard with research and collaboration features, all coupled with enhanced ePortfolio capabilities.

To view any of these flash-based tutorials, you will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. Download the latest version for free from Abobe's web site: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

VT Scholar Video Tutorials

These videos are a collection of tutorials the OCS staff have created to answer everyday user questions regarding a myriad of Scholar tools. Access the Scholar Tutorials.

"Generic" Sakai Videos (courtesy of rSMART©)

These videos are a collection of tutorials the larger Sakai community have created to demonstrate how to use specific Scholar tools. Access the "Generic" Videos.

ePortfolio Videos

Scholar and ePortfolio are closely integrated. These videos are a collection of tutorials the OCS and ePortfolio staff have created to answer questions about using the ePortfolio tools. (If you would like to learn more about ePortfolio, please visit http://eportfolio.vt.edu/.) Access the ePortfolio videos.

VT Scholar "On-The-Fly" Videos

These videos are a collection of "just-in-time" and "on-the-fly" videos the OCS staff have created to answer specific user questions. These are not high-quality tutorials; these videos contain variances in sound, speed, and visual quality, but they "got the job done" in record time. The staff used various programs to create these, including JingProject (free), IOJ (free), and Camtasia Studio ($). Access the "On-the-Fly" videos.