GA-TA Guide
From CLEW Wiki
Do You Need CLEW for What You’ll Do? An Introduction
Ahh, your job includes taking care of the CLEW website for your professor!
That sounds daunting, but with an introduction to the tools you’ll be using, you will see that CLEW has some organizing and timesaving features that can help you and your students keep on top of the course work.
This article will help you perform some of the basic functions you may be asked to do including:
- upload course material to your site;
- post a date to the course calendar;
- create an announcement and sending an email to all students;
- grade an assignment;
- grade a forum posting;
- post grades into Gradebook;
- post grades using Feedback; and
- customize your site by managing your site tools.
If you require more detailed information than what this article covers, please visit the appropriate tool article for further explanations. Hands-on workshops for instructors and their assistants are available. Visit http://www.uwindsor.ca/clewworkshops to register if you need more help than what this article provides.
Resources Basics
Adding a Resources Folder
In the left-hand menu, select Resources. By default, the “Resources” tool has one root folder. This folder’s title is the same as your course’s title. Creating sub-folders to the main folder may be useful for both you and your students in order to help organize materials into categories such as “Lecture Notes,” “Readings,” “Week 1 Materials,” etc.
- Select the Add link to the right of the folder to which you want to upload a file.
- From the drop-down list, select Create Folders.
- Enter a name for your folder.
(See the Creating a Student Folder in Resources article to find out how you can designate and enable a specific folder for your students to add content to).
Unsupported Characters
When naming an item such as a file, folder, discussion forum, or wiki page, avoid using either foreign characters or the unsupported characters below, as any of these characters can cause an error.
Important Note: Even if the file appears to load correctly, it will not display if you include such symbols in the filename. It's possible that you could use one of these symbols and not receive an error while uploading; however, when others try to access the file, they will receive an error.
Unsupported Character List
- Back slash \
- Forward slash /
- Question mark ?
- Asterisk *
- Quotation mark “
- Colon :
- Less than <
- Greater than >
- Hash mark #
- Percent sign %
- Back slash \
- You can create more folders by selecting Add Another Folder.
Adding a File for Viewing or Downloading
- Select the Add link to the right of the folder to which you want to upload a file.
- From the drop-down list, select Upload Files.
- To choose your file, select Browse and then click Open.
- Locate the file you want to upload from your computer and double click on it.
- Enter a Display Name. Display Names are shown on the Resources home page. By default, CLEW enters the filename as the file’s Display Name, which you may keep or change. It is recommended to make the Display Name as meaningful as possible.
- To upload large files or multiple files, you may want to consider using WebDAV to be able to drag and drop files from your computer to the server.
- Copyright Status Please check the copyright status for materials you've linked to or uploaded to ensure that the copyright information is accurate and you have appropriate permissions to post materials on your site. Selecting this status is mandatory.
For more information on copyright, visit Campus Copyright Information.
Setting Access and Display Options for Resources Files
- (Optional) To add a description or any other details, such as who can access the file or when it should be visible, select Add details for this item beside the file name. (See the Availability and Access article for more information).
- (Optional) To upload a second file at the same time, select the Add Another File link. You can then select another file to upload by repeating the steps above.
Sending Resources Update Emails
- If you want to send an email notification to all students, choose Email Notification from the drop-down menu. Selecting High - All participants will send an email to all participants in the site. Selecting Low – Only participants who have opted in will send an email to those who have enabled low-priority emails to be sent to them in their individual preferences (found in My Workspace -> Preferences -> Notifications). The default option is None – No notification so if you do want an email to go out, you need to select the correct option. These options are consistent throughout other tools in CLEW with emailing options. Emails will be sent to students only if the site is “launched .”
- Select Upload Files Now to finish uploading the file. You will be returned to the Resources home page, or the folder you were working in.
Uploading or Downloading Multiple or Large Files
Using WebDAV, AnyClient or CyberDuck
Maximum size file limits for upload are displayed on the Upload Files screen. Currently you can upload only 50 MB at a time. To upload more than 50 MB at a time, use the Upload-Download Multiple Resources link and follow the instructions. This will enable you to use a program called WebDAV, which allows you to map and transfer your files from your hard drive directory to your CLEW site or vice versa. Mac users may want to try Cyberduck(open source software), which will provide the same functionality. Another free file transfer software program that some report is helpful, is called AnyClient. Those using Windows 7 might benefit from this utility program. More detailed instructions are available in the WebDAV article.
See the Resources article for complete instructions on how to edit, delete, copy, and reorder resource items and many other functions of the tool.
Calendar Basics
The calendar can be viewed by day, week, month, or year, but opens as a default to the Calendar by Week screen. To change your view, use the View drop-down list to select from the following options: Calendar by Day, Calendar by Week, Calendar by Month, or Calendar by Year. If you change settings however, the preferences are not saved.
To display the calendar for an earlier or later period (week, month, etc.), select the Previous Day/Previous Week/ Previous Month/ Previous Year, or Next Day/Next Week/Next Month/Next Year link(s). To view all of your scheduled activities in a list, select List of Events.
When viewed by day or week, the calendar will display a time range of 10 hours. To adjust the range so that it displays hours that are earlier or later in the day, click the links at the top Earlier or bottom Later of the calendar.
Adding a New Item
- On the Calendar tool home page, click Add from the menu bar.
- Enter the required information:
- Title: A name for the event. (Note: Since all events are aggregated to your students’ My Workspace Calendar, be sure to make meaningful titles to distinguish yours from other courses. For example, instead of “Office Hours,” “Prof. Smith’s Office Hours” would be more useful.)
- Date: Select the date of the event by using the drop-down lists or by clicking on the calendar icon to select the appropriate day.
- Start Time: Enter the time the event begins.
- Duration: Select the length of time for the event. The default time is one hour. When you change the duration, CLEW adjusts the end time automatically.
- End Time: Select the time the event ends. When you change the end time, CLEW adjusts the duration automatically.
- (Optional) Message: Enter any message or description you want to appear with this event. Use the icons and drop-down lists of the Rich Text Editor to format the text as necessary, and if you are pasting text into the editor from MS Word, remember to use the Paste from Word
icon.
Displaying Entries to Groups
- (Optional) Once created, this event will be immediately available for view by all members of your site. If you have defined groups/sections for your site, you will see the Display to selected groups. Use the check boxes to choose which groups or sections can view the calendar item.
Note: If you don’t see the Display to selected groups option, no groups or sections are associated with your site.
Setting the Frequency of the Event
- (Optional) If the event is to occur more than once, select the Frequency link and complete these steps:
- Next to Event Frequency, use the drop-down list to select how often you want this event to repeat. Options include once, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
- If selecting an option other than once you will see Every where you can define the intervals between recurrences using the drop-down list.
- Ends use the radio links to select if and when event will stop the recurring.
- Select Save Frequency.
Setting the Event Type and Location
- Next to Event Type, use the drop-down list to make a selection.
- (Optional) Next to Event Location, enter a location for your event.
- (Optional) To add one or more attachments to the event click Add Attachments. You will be given a choice to:
- upload a file from your computer (select Browse);
- enter a URL to link to a website (type or paste in the URL and click Add);
- select from a resource already in your Resources tool (click Attach a copy beside the file to attach); or
- select a resource of another site (select Show other sites and click Attach a copy beside the file to attach).
Select Continue to add the attachment(s) or Cancel to exit to the event without adding the attachment(s).
- Select Save Event.
Note: When you create an assignment using the Assignments tool, you are given the option to add the due date automatically to the calendar for groups if the calendar tool exists. You must have the "Calendar" tool enabled on the site for this option to work.
Announcements Basics
Adding and Editing Announcements
The Announcements tool allows you to inform site participants about items of interest, deadlines, events, or activities, and is a useful tool when posting a notice about important changes in meeting times, deadlines, or meeting locations. Announcements appear on the Home page of your course or project site. You can also choose to have an announcement automatically sent via email to all site participants (available when the course site is launched only).
Note: To post an announcement, be sure you have selected the correct course or project site tab. The active tab will have a white background.
- Select Announcements in the left-hand menu of your course site.
- In the “Announcements” home page, select Add on the "Announcements" menu bar.
- Enter a relevant subject for your announcement next to Announcement title. This field is mandatory. Titles are viewed on the “Announcements” home page.
- Enter the body of the announcement message in the text box and use the Rich Text Editor to format the text as necessary. If you plan on pasting text into the body of the announcement, please see the section on “Pasting Text in the Rich Text Editor from MS Word.”
Displaying an Announcement
- Under Access, select how to display your announcement by choosing from these options:
- Display to public: Visible to members of other sites
- Display to site: Visible to site participants only
- Display to selected groups: Visible only to certain sections or groups. Use the checkboxes to choose which groups or sections can view the announcement. Note: If you don't see the Display to selected groups option, no groups or sections are associated with your site.
- Under Availability, you will see Show selected, which means this announcement can be immediately viewed when created. You may change this selection to Hide this announcement from your students (if you need to finish it at a later time), or you may choose to set a start and/or a stop date to when this announcement will be viewable.
- The most recent announcements will be displayed on the site’s home page in chronological order. The most recent announcements for all the sites to which you belong will appear in your My Workspace. To add, edit, or delete announcements, use the Announcements tool. Some customization of how Announcements appear is available by selecting Options.
Adding or Linking an Attachment
- (Optional) To add one or more attachments to an announcement, select Attachments, Browse to choose your file, and double click the filename you want to upload from your computer. Then select Continue to add the attachment.
- Instead of adding an attachment from your computer hard drive or portable drive, you may select one of the other attachment options: a URL to link to a website; a resource already in your Resources tool; or a resource from another site. Note: If you should choose to attach a file from another site, please ensure that your students have at least “read” access to these files on that site. See Actions -> Edit Details when selecting that resource item to adjust if necessary.
- Select Continue to add the attachment(s).
Sending Announcement Update Emails
- (Optional) If you want to send an email notification to all site participants, choose High – All participants from the Email Notification drop-down menu. This option ignores user notification preferences and sends the email to all participants of the site. Select Low – Only participants who have opted in if the announcement does not need to be emailed to those who have opted out of receiving “low priority” email notifications. The default position for email notification is set to None – no notification, so you must change that if you wish the message to go to your students.
See the section on Changing Email Notification Options for more information about settings your participants may have enabled.
- If you choose to specify dates as mentioned in the “Displaying an Announcement” section, the notification will be emailed on the specified date.
- Select Add Announcement to post your announcement. You will be returned to the Announcements home page.
- If specific groups are enabled on the site, an Announcement will be visible and can be sent to the specific group and the maintainers of the site.
An email will be sent to students only if the site is “launched .” Announcements that have been hidden from students will appear in a grey font to instructors.
Edit an Announcement
To edit an announcement:
- In the left-menu of the relevant course or project site, click Announcements.
- Under your announcement's subject, click Edit.
Note: If you don't have sufficient rights to edit a particular announcement, you will not see the option to revise it. Also, you can edit only one announcement at a time. - Make the desired changes to your announcement.
- After editing, click Save Changes to save your changes, Preview to preview your announcement, or Cancel to cancel your changes.
Grade Assignments Basics
Grade a Submission
In order to grade student submissions:
This tool makes use of the Sakai Text Editor.
Our Text Editor article includes a number of tips including how to add images or paste content from MS Word.
- Click on Assignments in the left menu
- Under the heading "In/New" you see which Assignments have submissions.
- A number in the "In" column designates how many submissions are there
- A number in the "New" column designates the number of submissions that you haven't opened yet
- Click Grade beneath the Assignment from which you want to view submissions. A screen opens that shows the Student names, date and time of submission (if the student has submitted), the grade (if it has been graded), and a check mark if the grade has been released to the student.
- Click Grade beneath the name of the student whose submission you want to view. A screen will open to show the student's submission.
- If the submission was typed into the Content Editor box, you can read the submission and offer any comments to the student within the Content Editor box. If you place double curly brackets around your comments {{like this}}, your comments will appear red to the students. There is also another Content Editor for you to provide comments outside the text of the submission.
- Enter a grade into the box labeled "Grade:"
- Uncheck the "Allow Resubmission" box
- Click Return Assignment to Student if you want to release the grade to the student, or click Save to save your changes but not release the grade.
- If the submission was a file attachment, download the file and open it using the appropriate software.
- Make any comments to the student within the document. Save a new copy of the file that contains your comments.
- Click Add Attachments, browse your computer and add the file.
- Enter a grade into the box labeled "Grade:"
- Uncheck the "Allow Resubmission" box
- Click Return Assignment to Student if you want to release the grade to the student, or click Save to save your changes but not release the grade.
- If the submission was typed into the Content Editor box, you can read the submission and offer any comments to the student within the Content Editor box. If you place double curly brackets around your comments {{like this}}, your comments will appear red to the students. There is also another Content Editor for you to provide comments outside the text of the submission.
- When you have finished grading student assignments and are ready to send grades to the Gradebook, when viewing the list of submitted assignments, click Release Grades.
Assignment Integration with Gradebook Notification
The CLEW Team has implemented some changes to the interface in the form of "visual cues" to notify instructors when a discrepancy exists between displaying grades in Assignments and in Gradebook (see below).
Discrepancy 1: Assignment Submissions List
This cue appears in the Assignment Submissions list and looks like an asterisk symbol under the Grade column and a description appears before the Select User list, indicating the discrepancy exists.
Discrepancy 2: Assignment Submission - Reviewing
In this case, the assignment has already been graded one time, and you are reviewing that work, therefore you will see the "Regrading" on the screen.
Discrepancy 3: Assignment Submission - Regrading
This notification appears when you are "Regrading" a submission.
Grade discrepancies can be resolved by releasing the grade through the "Assignments" tool. Or, if you are not ready to share the grades - please be sure to set the associated entry in Gradebook as Not Released initially by deselecting the Release this item to Students and the Include this item in course grade calculations options (see image below demonstrating the options deselected in the Gradebook tool).
Once you are ready to release the grades in "Assignments", you would then click the Release this item to Students and the Include this item in course grade calculations options (as seen above) in the Gradebook tool.
Remember to click Save Changes in either of the above operations in Gradebook entry to complete the task.
Return a Submission to a Student for Editing
Perhaps you would like to give a student another chance to improve upon her submission. You can return that submission to the student with tips on what you would like for her to do, and let her resubmit the Assignment.
Follow the instructions above, but in your comments, give the student instructions for the revisions you would like to see. You might want to tell the student to include the word "revised" in the file name of the revised submission. Then, do not enter a grade, leave the "Allow Resubmission" box checked, set the number of resubmissions allowed using the drop-down menu, and set the "Accept Until" date and time using the drop-down menu. Click Return Assignment to Student.
You will retain the original submission so if the student never resubmits, you may grade the original. If the student does not change the file name of the resubmitted file, the original will be replaced with the new file. If the resubmitted file has a different name (such as adding "revised" to the file name), you will see both the original submission and the second submission.
Review student status for all assignments
You can view a list of your students and see each one's status on each of the assignments. You can see whether the student has submitted the assignment, the assignment status, and the grade, if one has been given.
- In the left menu, click the Assignments link.
- From the "View" drop-down list, select Assignment List by Student.
- To view the status of a student's assignment submissions, click the black arrow next to the student's name. To hide the student's information, click the arrow again.
Upload or Download All Options
The Assignments tool has a number of different options. If you desire the functionality of grading a number of assignments offline, please see the Upload or Download All Assignments article for further explanation of these features.
Assignments Considerations
- Assignments added in the Assignments tool can only be graded, edited, or removed in the Assignments tool, even if they are added to the Gradebook or associated with a Gradebook entry.
- If the grades for an assignment have not been released, they will not be displayed in the Grade Report, nor will they be available to download to a spreadsheet, by using the Download Spreadsheet option on the Grade Report screen.
- The "Access" section will only appear if groups have previously been defined for this site. See Sections or Manage Groups.
- If the assignment is currently open to students, you will only have the options of previewing and posting the assignment.
- Note: You can completely delete an assignment before any students have submitted work. However, if you delete an assignment after the first submission, all students will continue to see the assignment with a notice saying "(Assignment has been deleted)", even though the assignment will not be visible in the Assignment List that you see as an instructor.
- For a less-formal option for private file sharing between instructor and students you may want to consider the Drop Box tool.
- Where applicable, deleting an assignment will delete the corresponding Gradebook entry.
- Please note that when an assignment is given an automatic item in the Gradebook that item will only be updated when grades are "released" as opposed to when they are only modified - modifications remain only in the assignment itself until they are released.
- When you import assignments and Gradebook items from another site, the items in the Gradebook that you created with the Add Assignment to Gradebook option won't appear in the Gradebook. You will have to use the Assignments tool to add them again.
- For imported assignments that you created using the Associate with existing Gradebook entry option, you will have to use the Assignments tool to re-associate them with the appropriate Gradebook items. Imported assignments will have Add Assignment to Gradebook selected by default; to associate the item with an existing Gradebook entry instead, select Associate with existing Gradebook entry and choose the desired Gradebook entry before you post the assignment.
- If you are using the Download All/Upload All feature and you have a file that contains your comments for the student, make sure you copy it into the "Feedback Attachment(s)" folder prior to zipping the folder to prepare it for uploading.
- If you are using Gradebook associated with the Assignments tool, and you do not want the grades to be released to the students yet as you are grading an Assignment, ensure you deselect the Release this item to students option in Gradebook. This is a known issue and we are working on a solution.
Grade Messages in Forums Basics
Note: This applies to the Forums tool only. For specific information regarding the Discussions tool, refer to articles under Discussions.
(Back to Forums)
Note: Before following these directions you must first create an item in the Gradebook; for instructions, see Creating/adding, editing, or deleting a Gradebook item.
To grade a message in Forums:
- In your site's left menu, click Forums.
- Click the title of the desired topic.
- Find and click the individual message to grade, and then click Grade. Alternatively, you can click the title of the thread or Display Entire Message, and then, next to an individual message, click the Other Actions menu, and select Grade.
- Enter a point value for a grade, and then use the drop-down list to select the item for which you're posting the grade.
- Next to Comments, compose a message in the text box.
- When you're finished, click Submit Grade. To cancel, click Cancel.
Gradebook Post Grades Basics
Enter Grades
Note: If you use the Add to Gradebook option in the Assignments, Discussions or Forums tools, you must enter grades via the appropriate tool.
Enter Grades for Items into the Gradebook
- From the left menu, click Gradebook. If you are not already on the main page of the Gradebook tool, click Gradebook Items or the reset icon to the left of the page name.
- Locate the item for which you want to enter grades in the item list and click its title.
- Enter each student's score for the item into the box following his or her name. Scores must be greater than or equal to zero, and may contain up to two decimal places (e.g., 9.25). You may leave a box blank if you are waiting on a student's grade.
- To add comments for students, click Edit Comments. Type your comments in the text box.
- When you are finished, click Save Changes. A grade history log indicating the date entered, the recorded score, and the submitter will be created for each score. Click the Log icon to view the details for an entry.
Edit Grades
Note: Scores submitted via external tools such as the Assignments, Discussions, and Forums tools cannot be edited in the Gradebook. These scores must be changed in the source tools. You may edit comments using the same process listed above for editing grades.
To edit previously entered grades in the Gradebook:
- From the left menu, click "Gradebook". If you are not already on the main page of the Gradebook tool, click Gradebook Items or the reset icon to the left of the page name.
- Locate the item for which you want to edit grades in the item list and click its title.
- On the Item Summary page, current grades for individual students for the particular item will appear in editable fields in the "Points" or "Percentages" column. To edit an item score for a student, change the points in the appropriate field.
- To add comments for students, click Edit Comments. Type your comments in the text box.
- When you are finished, click Save Changes to update the scores with your changes. The grade history log will record the date of each score change, as well as the updated score, and the name of the user who made the change. Click the Log icon to view the details for an entry.
To complete the procedures in this article, you must be assigned a role having the necessary permissions. This often excludes Students and TAs by default. To determine your role and accompanying permissions, follow the directions in Permissions and Roles.
Feedback Post Grades Basics
Feedback Key Concepts and Considerations
Spreadsheet formatting: For a spreadsheet file to be compatible with Feedback, it must be:
- Saved in .csv format
- The first column must contain UWin ID's in lower case, and
- The first row must contain headings. Other data cells may contain text or numerical values.
- When you update an existing feedback file, this will overwrite the original Feedback posting and reset the Last Checked column to never, so you will lose the tracking of when a participant has viewed their feedback when you update the file.
Create a .csv File for Import into Feedback
You must begin with a .csv file that contains the student usernames. This is easily accomplished by exporting and downloading a Gradebook, or Roster file.
Gradebook
- Click Gradebook
- Click All Grades
- Click Export as CSV at the upper right corner of the screen.
Note: You may need to delete columns if there are already entries in the Gradebook (except the first one containing the UWin ID) to prepare for the information you want to display in the current Feedback file you want to work on.
Roster
- Click Roster
- Click Export at the upper right corner of the screen.
- Delete the first column "Name." The second column "User ID" is the one that needs to be first for a Feedback file. You can also delete the Email Address and Role columns if you wish as that is redundant information. Then insert your column heading(s) containing what you wish to give feedback on, and the enter data in the corresponding rows/cells for students or participants.
Add Feedback to the CSV File (Rubric Example)
- Open the file you downloaded from one of the above sources. The file will be displayed in MS Excel. There will be columns other than the student username and student name. You can delete those.
- To use this tool as a grading rubric for an Assignment, label each column with a part of the rubric. For example, Citation 10%, Grammar 10%, Position Statement 15%, Support for Position 25%, Evidence and Examples 25%, Closing Paragraph 15%, Total Grade 100%.
- Enter your comments beside each student's name for each of these topics. You can also include the points awarded for each item.
- Save the spreadsheet with a name that identifies it as your Feedback spreadsheet, and save as a .csv (see inset images Excel Save As and Save as .csv to right).
- When you save, you will get a warning saying that the file may contain features that are not compatible with CSV. Answer Yes to that warning.
- Close the file
Import Feedback File
- Click Feedback in the left menu bar.
- Click Add at the top of the screen.
- "Title" - Enter a descriptive title (maximum length is 30 characters), such as "Rubric for Assignment 1"
- Click Choose File
- Locate the file and double-click it.
- If you want this Feedback released immediately (i.e., allow your students to see the grades, or participants to see your comments), check the "Release feedback to participants?" box.
- Click Post or to cancel, click Cancel.
- On the "Verify Upload" page, you will see a sample of how the file will appear. To continue and post the file, click Save. To return to the upload screen, click Back.
To upload additional files, repeat the instructions above.
Edit Tools Basics
Adding or Removing Tools from your Site
You can add and remove tools from the left-hand menu to customize your course site. For example, if you will not be using the Lessons tool, you can remove it from your course site. But if you want to use the Polls tool, you can easily add it to your site. It is recommended that you remove unused tools from your site to avoid confusing your students.
- Select Site Editor from the left-hand menu of your course site.
- In the "Site Editor" home page, select Edit Tools on the "Site Editor" menu bar.
- Select the checkbox beside the tool(s) you want to add to your site. A checkmark will appear in the box. Remove the checkmark from the checkbox of any tool you want to remove.
- If you're adding or already using the Site Mailing List, News, or Web Content tools, the Customize Tools screen will provide a chance to make certain changes. If you're not adding or using one of these tools you will not see this screen.
- When you are finished, click Continue.
- On the confirmation screen, you will see a list of your site's tools and any changes you've made. If the list is accurate, click Finish. To edit your changes, click Back, or if you wish to cancel, click Cancel.
Note: The three tools which appear in the Site Management box should never be removed from your site (as seen in the image on the left). These three tools are “Instructor only” tools and are not viewable by students. They are also important tools to the CLEW Administrator if he/she should ever need to troubleshoot an issue on your site.
In some sites, some of the Site Management tools such as "Site Editor" and Roster tool names will appear in the student interface. The contents will not be available to the students however, so rest assured, they won't be seeing the class list or be able to make changes to your site.
Related Articles
This article is based on the equivalent Sakai help article created by Indiana University found at: http://kb.iu.edu/data/arcr.html.
Additional sources of content include Brock University's Sakai / Isaak Wiki and the University of Florida Sakai / e-Learning Documentation with thanks and appreciation for the collaboration.
All respective sources used are under a free-for-reuse license and additional permission has been obtained.
Other articles about Sakai tools and how instructors can use them:
Core Tools: Announcements | Assignments | Email Instructor | Forums | Gradebook | Quizzes & Tests | Resources | Site Editor | Syllabus
More Tools: Polls | Chat | Drop Box | Home | Discussions | News | Feedback | Sections | Lessons | Site Stats | Web Content | Wiki
Related articles: How to add tools to CLEW | Using the Text Editor | Manage Groups | Permissions and Roles | Contact the CTL for help
We are constantly trying to improve the information in this Wiki.
If you notice any errors or omissions with this material, please advise the CLEW Team.

























