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E-Reserves

Many faculty members aren't aware that we create page management accounts for them as we create their ERes pages. Faculty automatically have access to such features as adding, deleting, or modifying documents, making announcements, replacing documents, making links, creating folders, etc. This page mainly deals with getting started and adding documents. Please see other pages if you'd like to:

• Replace a document that currently resides on a page (for example, if you have an incorrect solution on the page)
• Modify a document (for example, change the name of the document as it appears on the ERes page)
• Create folders and move documents into folders
• Make course page announcements and work with the discussion/bulletin board
• Change your course page information, including passwords, names of TAs, co-instructors, etc.
• Check your usage statistics for your courses, including course page hits, document hits, etc.
• Archive and restore courses and documents at the end and beginning of a semester
• Link to specific documents on ERes from Blackboard course pages - and how to link to Bb courses from ERes
  

There are a couple of ways to get started. From the main screen, you'll see an Admin Functions/Login link right in the middle of the page. This link will appear on all course pages throughout ERes. Also from the main ERes screen, you could click on Admin Functions on the right side of the screen. Log in with your user name and password (available from the ERes manager). You'll be given a list of your courses - you can only work with courses for which you are the page owner. Alternatively, you could navigate to your own course, and click on Page Management on the right side of the screen.

From the main ERes screen, click on Admin Functions. Your login will give you access only to your pages.

From within an ERes course page, click on Page Management. Your login will give you access to all of the management features.

You'll see a list of things that you can do - many of them will seem obvious once you click on them, and there are descriptions listed for each item on each screen.You can make all of these changes from your home or office computer - our ERes system resides on a dedicated NT server that supports uploading of files, so you can add material directly to the server.

Some of your options for your documents include Adding, Deleting, or modifying a document or link, (changing the wording, replacing the document with another copy of something), Changing the order that documents are listed on the page, Archiving a document (hiding it from view but not deleting it), Restoring it, and Creating or modifying folders for your material (or moving material into folders).
For your page, the most common functions include adding course page announcements, creating new topics or deleting old threads on your discussion board (bulletin board), changing your course page info (name of the course, password, TAs), or retrieving access statistics.

How do I add something to my page?

There are several things you can add to your page: documents that exist on your hard drive, links, announcements, on-the-fly text entries ( a free block where you can type in any text that you'd like), or connections to items that currently exist on another course page. You can also replace or modify a document (as in the case of a set of solutions with a wrong answer or a document that has the wrong title) or easily delete or archive a document (archiving means to hide it from view without actually deleting the file).

Most of these choices spring from the 'Add a document or link' option. If you click on that, you'll be presented with this set of options:

You should choose Add a document if you'd like to put a file that is currently on your computer onto your ERes page. Add a link allows you to quickly add any URL to your ERes page and you can give it any title that you'd like. Sometimes we can't place an item on ERes, so we have to put in on paper reserve. We create a reference to it from this screen. If you'd like to simply type in any text (reading assignments, page numbers, meeting locations, etc.), choose Create a document on-the-fly. And finally, if you'd like to link to a document that is currently online, choose the last option.

Adding a document
There are several steps to adding a document, but all of them are simple and clearly explained on the ERes page. First, click on the Add a document option. You'll see this screen:

Our Windows NT server supports file transfer and it works in conjunction with the ERes software. Your first step will be to transfer your file from your computer to the server. To do this, click on Transfer files.

By clicking on the Browse button, you'll be searching to the location of the file on your hard drive - the default location when you click the button is the desktop, but of course you may have to navigate through your file structure in order to track it down.

Double-click on your file to select it, or click on it once and click on the Open button. You can add files in any format - pdf, htm, gifs or jpgs, text or Word files, etc.

Once you selected your file, click on the Transfer button - this is the step that actually copies your file to the server in the library. You haven't actually added it to your page yet, but you've got the file sitting in the right location.

Just in case you weren't sure, ERes gives you a little Success message! If you'd like to transfer any more documents, click on the Browse button again, or click on the Done button if you're ready to add items to your ERes page. Once you've done this a few times, you'll see it goes very quickly.

Hey, we're back at this screen - remember, we started here - but it looks a little different. Look at the top line - now it says that files exist in your staging directory. On the first screen, it said there weren't any files in the staging directory.
If you're done transferring files, go ahead and click on Continue.

If you had transferred more than one file, they would all be shown. Usually, you are only selecting one file at a time because you are going to associate that file with your entry on the ERes page.
To add a document, check the box with the file that you want to add and click on Continue.

This is where you can title the document whatever you'd like to call it - Homework due 10/30, HW 8, the title of the article, etc. You can also add it to a folder, insert a document password, or list the number of pages. This title is what will actually appear on the ERes page, so call it something that your students will recognize!

There you go! Success! That item is now online and instantly accessible across campus. If you wanted to add an author name or other copyright information, select that option. You can also add another document or simply return to the Page Management screen. By returning to the course page, you can see how it looks.