What's New in PAWS

Instructors who use PAWS course homepages will be pleased with a new tool that allows them to copy content from one course homepage to another. Many instructors reuse course material -- either for a different course or for the same course in another term. Until now, moving content from one course homepage to another has been an onerous process; instructors had to save and re-upload content one piece at a time. With the new tool, instructors can choose a source and destination class, and can move individual or all types of content (files, photos, links and news items) from one course to the other.

The tool is located within PAWS as the Copy Course Content channel. To add the channel to your layout, click the "Add Stuff" link at the top left of PAWS, find the channel and click and drag it to one of your tabs. Once on your layout, the channel is simple to use. After you choose source and destination terms the channel finds and displays the courses associated with you in these terms so that you can choose the courses from which and to which content should be copied. With a click of the "Copy" button, all of the content types you specify are copied from the source to the destination course. (If you have trouble, a handy Help icon will walk you through the process, or you can visit the channel's help document here.)

Do you have comments about anything PAWS related? We're always open to feedback.

Posted by PAWS Content and Communications at 03:49 PM | Permalink

Students and alumni can now confirm their official transcript orders through PAWS.

This new "View Status of Your Official Transcript Request" option is available in the Grades & Transcripts channel on your Academics tab. This feature displays the status of your order for an official transcript and the date your transcript was produced and sent out.

For further information about transcripts, visit the transcripts information page. PAWS always welcomes your feedback. Send us your comments by clicking on the Feedback link at the bottom of the PAWS login page.

Posted by PAWS Content and Communications at 09:12 AM | Permalink

The U of S Survey System -- a new tool recently released by Information Technology Services (ITS) -- is integrated with PAWS and can be used to conduct surveys from within the University web portal. From PAWS courses, instructors can use the tool to easily poll their students. In PAWS groups, group leaders can use the survey tool to poll group members. Because the tool's database does not connect answers with respondents and the data is hosted in a secure environment, Survey allows for anonymous responses, making it useful for gathering feedback on a wide range of subjects.

The tool can be found in both Course Tools and PAWS Groups applications in the left-hand Course and Group Tools menus. Instructors and group leaders can administer surveys through the Manage Surveys link in the left-hand Content Tools menu. Survey creators are responsible for their own surveys, including consideration of ethics approval requirements and more. More information can be found in the survey tool reference manual available online at https://survey.usask.ca/docs/.

In addition to the Survey tools offered through PAWS Course and Groups applications, the University community can add a new My Surveys channel to their PAWS layout; the channel shows individuals a list of surveys they can manage and ones that are targeted to them for participation.

A training workshop on how to use the survey tool is offered by ITS Training Services. To sign up for the next offering on Jan. 11, 2007, visit http://focus.usask.ca/courses/registrationcourse.cfm?courseid=566.

The survey tool is accessible outside of PAWS at http://survey.usask.ca.

Posted by PAWS Content and Communications at 02:05 PM | Permalink