Site Info Tool

The Site Info tool allows you to manage the overall options of your OWL-Space site. Here you can add or remove other tools, add new members, change the tools and options your members have access to, and organize how your tools are ordered in the left-hand menu bar.

The main page of Site Info shows a number of tabs across the top. Directly below them is the basic information about your OWL-Space site: the site's name, contact, availability, creation date, and icon. Much of this basic data can be changed by clicking on the Edit Site Information tab.

The bottom part of the main page shows a list of all the members of your site. Here you can change a member's role (student, TA, etc.), set their membership to inactive, or remove their membership altogether. In the table of members, use the selection box in the Role column to pick a new role for a member. Use the selection box in the Status column to set a member to Active or Inactive. To remove a member, check the box for that member in the Remove column. Press the Update Participants button at the bottom to save your changes.

The Edit Site Information tab brings up a page where you can enter several details about your OWL-Space site in simple text boxes. The Site Title is what is displayed in the OWL-Space navigation bar, in the subject of emails and notifications sent from your site, in the public list of sites, and so on. This is the name that people know and recognize your site by. For course sites, this is usually the course number (plus section number if necessary). The Description is the text that members see when they come to your site's home page, while the Short Description is a limited length text displayed in your site's listing in the public database of OWL-Space sites.

The Icon URL field allows you to specify an image that will be displayed at the top of the left-hand tool menu. Enter the URL for the image in the text box. The Site Contact Name and Email should have already been set to your name and email when the site was created.

Press the Continue button to save any changes you have made. This will take you to a confirmation page. Press Finish to complete your changes.

The Edit Tools tab allows you to add or remove tools from your OWL-Space site. Each tool will appear as a link in the left-hand menu bar, so the more tools you add, the bigger the menu will be. To add a tool, check the box next to its name in the list of possible tools. To remove a tool, uncheck its box. When you are done making changes, click the Continue button at the bottom. Note that even if you already have a News or Web Content tool on your site, an unchecked box will appear to allow you to add another of this same tool, and a listing and checked box will also appear for your current tool, giving you the option to remove it.

If any of your tools require some initial set up (such as a News or Web Content tool), you will be taken to a page where you can fill in the options for that tool. When satisfied with the options, press the Continue button.

Next, in either case, you will be taken to a confirmation page. A list of all tools on your site after the changes, with new tools in red, will be displayed, along with a list of all the tools you are removing. Press the Finish button to complete your changes. Press the Back button to return to the previous page, or the Cancel button to cancel your changes.

The Manage Groups tab allows you to change the membership of any of your groups, add new groups, and removed existing groups. To add a new group, click on the New tab at the top. On the Create New Group page, you can enter a name for the group in the Title box, a Description in the box of the same name, and adjust the membership of the group using the two lists below. To add a member to the group, select the member in the left-hand list and press the Add to group > button. To remove a member from the group, select the member in the right-hand list and press the < Remove button. When you are finished creating your group, press the Update button at the bottom.

To change the membership of an existing group, click on the Revise link to the right of the group's name in the table. This will bring you to a page exactly like the Create New Group page, where you can change the membership as well as the group Title and Description.

To remove a group, check the box for that group in the Remove? column of the table, then press the Remove Checked button. You will be taken to a confirmation page. Press Remove to complete the deletion of the group.

The Manage Access tab allows you to adjust who has access to your site. When the Publish site box is not checked, only you (and others with administrator privileges on your site) can see and use your OWL-Space site. When checked, your site will be available to all of your site members at whatever level of access you have specified for each different group.

The Global Access choice of Private or Display... changes how non-members see your site. If set to Private, non-members cannot see your site. If set to Display... then non-members can find your site in the Sites tool (available in My Workspace or from the OWL-Space portal) and access any resources or parts of your site that you have set as public.

Checking the Can be joined... box will allow anyone who can log in to OWL-Space and see your site in the Sites tool the ability to automatically join as a member of your site by clicking on the Join link in the Sites tool. In the selection box Please select a role: you can choose what type of member anyone who joins automatically will become (student, TA, etc.).

Press the Update button to save any changes you have made.

The Add Participants tab allows you to add new members to your site. Add new members by entering their Rice NetID in the box. You can add multiple members at once by entering each member on a separate line.

You can give all the new members the same membership type (student, TA, etc.), or select a different type for each member, by choosing the appropriate option under Participant Roles.

When you are done, press the Continue button.

If you selected to give all members the same role, you will see an option selection on the next page, allowing you to chose one type of membership. If you chose to select a membership type for each new member, then you will see a table of all your new members with a selection box next to each name. Choose the role you want for that member from the selection box. When you are finished, press the Continue button.

Next you will be taken to a page which allows you a choice to send an email automatically to each of your new participants to notify them they have been added to your OWL-Space site. Select Send Now to send the email, or Don't Send if you don't want to send the notification email.

Finally you will see a confirmation page showing each of your new members and the options you have chosen. You can press the Back button to return to the previous pages and make changes, press Cancel to cancel adding new members altogether, or press Finish to complete the process and add your new members.

The Import from Site tab allows you to copy content from another OWL-Space site you have access to and add it to the current site. A list of all sites you have access to appears on the Import from site page. Check the box next to every site you would like to import from, then press Continue. On the next page is a list of all the tools you can import content from, and a column of checkboxes for each site you are importing from. Check the box for each site/tool combination you want to import from, then press Finish. Imported items that can be saved as drafts (assignments, etc.) will appear as drafts. Imported items that can't be saved as drafts (glossary terms) will be made visible.

Similarly, the Import from File tab allows you to import content that has been exported from an OWL-Space site into a file. Several tools have these export functions.