Queen Margaret University Date Management Tool
Date Management Tool
What does it do?
This tool allows tutors to view in one screen when items are available and change dates attached to more than one content item within a module at the same time. For example, change:
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adaptive release dates on content, lesson plans, folders, files, web links, tasks, mash-ups and the due date of assessments
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dates when discussion boards are visible
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Announcement start and close dates
The tool also provides an overview of date criteria set against all items within your module.
When do I use it?
The date management tool will be most useful at the start of the academic year when the module areas have just been copied across from the previous year. If you have any assignment dropboxes with incorrect dates, you should contact the school office to update them.
Points of note
At all times, the make content available toggle within a content item settings will override date criteria i.e. an item will only be visible if within the dates set and the item availability is set to yes.
Using the date management tool does not impact on the availability of the module. It only changes when the module content is available.
How do I use it?
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Open the date management tool
The date management tool can be found in the Course Tools menu in the course management control panel as shown to the left.
To open the date management tool click on Course tools > date management This will take you to the next screen where you can choose how you want to
change the dates in your module.
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Select Date Adjustment Option
On the screen which appears (see above), there are four options:
- List all dates for review – This will produce a report where you can see all items and the dates associated with each item. This is the recommended option to use.
- Adjust by number of days – This will move all dates by the number of days specified
- Use term info
- Course start date – Do not use this as we do not use the course start date option
Select the appropriate option, and then click on Start.
List all dates for review
You will be presented with a progress bar showing the progress of the report. Upon completion, the screen will appear as below. You will also be sent an email with the details within the report. Click on Next to proceed.
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Upon completion of the date management process, you will be sent an email automatically with all the dates on your module. See Appendix I for an example
Editing content dates
By default, all items with date criteria will be visible. You can filter these using the Item Types and Date Type menus.
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- Item types include, Announcements, Assignments, Tests, Content items (word/Powerpoint documents), Folders, weblinks, mash-upsDiscussion board.
- Date types include Start date, End date, Due date
Adjusting dates to a specific date
This is only possible on an item by item basis. To do this, click on the pencil icon to the right of the date you wish to change.
Once you click on the pencil icon, the whole row of the table is highlighted and a date box appears. Enter the new date required then click on the green tick in the top right corner of the highlighted row to confirm the change of date.
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Adjusting dates by number of days
To adjust one or more dates by a specific number of days, select each one in the table by clicking on the tickbox to the left of the item title. Once you have selected all the items you require, click on the Adjust dates button. These can be found at the top and bottom of the Name column.
A box will appear at the bottom of the page showing the number of items selected, and a box to enter the number of days you want the dates to be adjusted by. In this example I chose 5 days.
Once you have entered the relevant number of days, click on OK.
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The items selected in the table will be updated and can be identified by the updated tag just below the title.
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Use Term Info
The option to use term information to adjust dates makes use of the dates which control module availability. Using this option will adjust dates relative to the start of semester date. For example:
[table]
To change the dates based on terms, click on the Use Term Info radio button. The screen will then show the current semester the module is attached to in the Course Start Date field. Below this will be a dropdown menu showing the terms you can update to.
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You will only be able to see terms where the start date is in the future. For example, if your module begins in semester 1, you will see options for semester 2 and 3 only. Semester 2 modules will only see the semester 3 option.
Select the term you want to change the dates to be inline with then click on Start. Please note that using this method will change all dates applied within the module. There will be no way to change all the dates backwards in bulk.
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