GeorgiaVIEW Vista

1. Learning Vista
2. Getting started
3. Usernames and passwords
4. Preparing documents for Vista
5. Vista templates.

Introduction

GeorgiaVIEW Vista is a course management system which makes it easy for instructors to include features of Web-based instruction in their courses: for example, a syllabus, linked pages, e-mail, online testing, a gradebook, chat rooms, discussion boards and so forth.

Course enrollment data from Banner is exported to Vista, so that all Vista course sections are created and populated automatically.

oneLearning Vista

Instructors wishing to use Vista with a course section can attend introductory and intermediate workshops in Rome and Cartersville which enable you to implement many Vista's basic features, post content for your class sections, and begin developing a course.

Online Vista courses are also available to help faculty learn how to implement and manage a Vista course. They include instructional modules and movies demonstrating key concepts and procedures.

There are also handouts, online tutorials, movies and podcasts.

Vista handouts

  • Introduction to Vista
    Gives demonstrations and hands-on practice to familiarize you with Vista's tools and interface.
  • Managing Content in Vista 3
    Organizing, uploading, managing content files.
  • Presenting Content in Vista 3
    Using organizer pages and learning modules to create learning paths for students.
  • Vista for Instructors, a pdf 2-page introduction, and a student handout for accessing vista courses.


Vista online resources

  • Step-by-step how-to guides at Georgia Perimeter College' site. Short tutorials which focus on a specific Vista task (linked with permission).
  • There are also two excellent "Enhance a face-to-face class with Vista" handouts at GPC, which demonstrate basic Vista management tools (mail, grade book, etc.) and show you how to add content (see under "EF2F1 Basic management, and EFTF2 Course materials).
  • Vista helplets. Answers to frequently asked questions, and 'helplets' that demonstrate Vista tasks.
  • Vista FAQ's. The Online Support Center has a comprehensive list of frequently-asked-questions for instructors. Navigate to the Instructor/designer support section.
  • Podcasts. Download Vista Helplet Podcasts from GPC.

twoGetting Started

One of the benefits of Vista is that Banner and Vista are linked, allowing class sections to be automatically available each semester without you (or students) having to request or do anything.

Every semester, instructors are assigned course sections in Banner. Class sections, and instructor and student enrollment data, are then exported from Banner to Vista. The initial data export is done a few weeks prior to each semester, and is updated at various junctures until drop/add ends.

Each Vista user has a username and password, and has different "rights" according whether he or she is an instructor or a student.

Instructors are automatically given designer/instructor rights for the course(s) in Vista. This allows you to design and develop your course to meet your needs, and gives you access to Vista tools like Grade Book, an online white board, discussssions, chat-rooms, and testing.

Accessing Vista

Because Vista is Web-based, you can easily access it from any computer with Internet access via a web-browser.

All Vista users access courses in which they are registered via a personal entry page called "myVista." A unique username and password is required to access each user's "myVista" page. This remains the same each semester.

To access your "myVista" page:

1. Go to: http://highlands.view.usg.edu
2. Enter your user name and password.
3. Click OK. Your "MyVista" page appears.
4. Click the course you are enrolled in as a designer/instructor/student to begin.

 

Student Guide to Vista access

This student handout explains how to access and log on to GV Vista. It contains all your student need to access their Vista courses.

 

threeUser names and passwords

Instructors:

Vista user name: same as your GHC email name (or get it from the Vista Administator).
Vista password: same as PIN used to access SCORE

Students:

Vista user name: generally the same as GHC email name.
Vista password: same as PIN used to access SCORE

Troubleshooting student logon info.

If students are unable to log on because either their username or password does not work, first check the student's username by looking it up in the section gradebook. If the username is correct, the password is incorrect.

If students are unable to log on because their password does not work or they have forgotten it, they should go to the Online Support Center. OSC representatives can re-set student PIN's.

Instructors can also provide students with their username, listed in each section's Grade Book. Go to the course section, click the TEACH tab > Grade Book.

Student passwords are the same as the PINs they used to log on to SCORE when the Banner data was exported to Vista. Some students may have never logged on to SCORE and do not know their PIN. The initial student SCORE PIN is: month/date/last two numbers of their year-of-birth (i.e. 012687).

 

Getting HELP with Vista

24/7 online HELP for students and instructors is available at the Online Support Center (OSC).

The OSC has answers to frequently-asked-questions so that students can quickly resolve the most common Vista issues. There is also a 1-800 number students can call and talk to a representative. In addition, students can chat online, or post a 'ticket' decribing the problem they are having

fourPreparing documents for Vista

Many instructors have course material prepared in wordprocessing applications such as Microsoft Word. Word processing documents do not display text directly on the Web. To display text directly on a Web page, you must use the right format, called HTML (hypertext markup language).

It is certainly possible to upload Word documents (.doc or .docx) to Vista, but your students will have to download and save the document and open MS Word to read it. A better solution is to convert text documents to HTML, the format required display text directly on a Web page in Vista.

Although you can save a Word document as a Web page by using the "save as > Web page" command in Word, doing so produces Web pages that do not always display as expected on the Web (and in Vista).

A better solution is to use the built-in HTML creator and editor in Vista, or to use a separate HTML editor such as Mozilla Composer or NVU.

(Hint: If you do use Word to convert a .doc to an html page, try the "save as html" or Save as Web page filtered" command. If you do this, you should also run the Web page through "Word HTML Cleaner," which will strip out non-standard code. You just upload the page, click a "process" button, and the cleaned-up html page appears in a window, where you can copy and paste it.

Free HTML editors

Your best bet for preparing text for Vista is to use a free html editor like Mozilla Composer or NVU.

Download Mozilla, which, in addition to a Web browser, gives you an HTML text editor called Composer, a WYSIWYG ('What you see is what you get') Web site and page editing tool. Composer is free, easy to use, and produces 'clean' HTML code that works on a wide range of browsers.

You can set up and use the Mozilla browser for Vista, click a tab and switch to the Composer window, where you can create, format and edit Web pages or basic html. You may find that Vista's internal html editor is all you need, but Composer is more flexible and gives you a larger design space on screen.

The University of Texas has a good tutorial Creating a Web Page using Mozilla Compose

For information about NVU, see.

 

fiveVista templates

Templates are one of Vista's most useful and timesaving features, allowing you to develop a course once, then have it saved as a template that can be assigned to sections of the course in subsequent semesters.

Beginning Vista users can request that a course section be saved as a template. Experienced Vista users can be assigned the role of "Course designer," which allows them to manage templates themselves with the Template Manager.

To learn how templates work, download this Vista Templates handout (pdf) which explains what templates are, how you can use them in Vista, and how to manage them with the Template Manager.

You can only manage templates if you have been assigned the Course Designer role in Vista by a GHC Vista Administrator. Intermediate Vista workshops are offered explaining the template management process.