Help Topics

The BCUDL-LOR stores “files” and “lessons”.

A “file” is just that – a file; a PDF, Word Document, PowerPoint presentation, or other file that you upload and share using the LOR.

One or more uploaded files that are grouped together and given a title, description, and other information are a “lesson”.

Any number of files can be collected into a lesson. They can be files of your own that you have uploaded, or they can be files that other users have shared that you wish to include in a lesson. One file can be used in many lessons.

To create a lesson you can begin by creating an empty lesson and then add files to it either by choosing existing files or uploading new files, or you can begin by choosing one or more files that you wish to use and then create a new lesson containing them.

You can also create a lesson by cloning an existing lesson. This can be one of your own lessons, or one shared by another user. Cloning creates a copy of the original lesson, which you can then modify or extend. Cloned lessons contain a reference back to the original lesson on which they are based.

Lessons can also contain reference links to other related lessons.  

When you first create a lesson or upload a file, only you can see it. Other users will not see your file or lesson when they search or browse the repository, and you will not even be able to see it yourself when you are not logged in. To make a lesson or file available for other users to see, two things must happen: the item must be shared, and it must be approved.

Sharing an item indicates that you want it to be available to other users. To mark an item as shared, click the “Shared” box in the lesson or file description.

Approval of a lesson or file indicates that the LOR manager has reviewed the lesson to ensure that its content is appropriate for sharing through the LOR. Once you mark an item as shared, it will appear in a list of items pending approval that that the LOR manager reviews periodically. When the LOR manager marks a shared item as approved, it becomes visible to other users.

• Remember that both lessons and files can be shared and approved, so to share a complete lesson, both the lesson itself and each of the files that make it up must be shared and approved.
• If you are unable to view one of your own files or lessons, make sure that you are logged in. Remember that you will not be able to view even your own lessons if you are not logged in.
• When an approved file or lesson is changed, its approval status is removed, and the item must be reviewed and approved again before it will be visible to others.

The My Content and My Favorites areas appear only when you are logged in.

The My Content area contains lists of the lessons you have most recently created and the files you have most recently uploaded. Your four most recent lessons and four most recent files are listed. The lists are updated automatically. Your 4 most recent files and lessons are listed. To view lists of all your lessons or all your files, click the “View all my lessons” or “View all my files” link.

The My Favorites area contains similar lists of lessons and files, but these are ones that you have chosen to mark as favorites, much like bookmarking a web page. These can be your own files or lessons, or ones shared by other users. To add an item to your favorites, search or browse to the lesson or file details page, and click the “Add to my favorites” link.

• Save often:
  Save your work often. It is important to realize that, like any web-based application, the BCUDL-LOR only has a transient connection with the servers that store your files and lessons. Any information that you enter when creating a lesson exists only on your own screen until you save it. If there is a problem or error saving a lesson (see below for information on some of the more common possible problems), any information you have entered that has not yet been saved will be lost. If you are entering a lesson, do not try to enter the entire lesson in a single step. Enter it in several small bits, stopping to save your work frequently. An even better strategy, especially if you are building a lesson that will take a considerable amount of time to create, would be to first create your lesson content offline as a text file or word processing document, and then just paste the information into BCUDL-LOR once you have finished writing the lesson.
• Pasting text into BCUDL-LOR:
  You may find that unusual things happen when you paste text into the descriptive text fields of a lesson (Description, Overview, Goals, etc) from other applications, especially Microsoft Word. It is not always possible to correctly translate text formatting from an application such as Word in a Web application like BCUDL-LOR. There are several strategies you can use to work around this:
• If you are entering small amounts of text, enter it directly into BCUDL-LOR, rather than pasting from another application. This will not be practical, however, when working with larger amounts of text, as you may lose what you have entered if there is an error or your connection times out. To avoid this problem, you can:
• Go ahead and use Word to write your lesson, but rather than pasting the text directly from Word into the lesson by hitting the paste button or CTRL+V, use the ‘Paste from Word’ feature of BCUDL-LOR. Click the button indicated in the picture below. This will bring up a separate window; paste your text there, and then click ‘Insert’. This will run your text through a process that will clean up most of the formatting problems that occur when you paste directly from Word.
  ‘Paste from Word’ Button:
  
• Use a simple text editor such as Notepad to write the text for your lesson. There will be no problems when you paste the text into BCUDL-LOR. Since Notepad doesn’t support any text formatting, however, your content will be just plain text until you use the tools inside BCUDL-LOR to format it.   

• Login timeouts:
  As a security precaution, the BCUDL-LOR system will only allow you to remain logged in for a limited period of inactivity. After this time limit has expired, you will be automatically logged out, and anything you have entered that has not yet been saved will be lost. This will not be immediately apparent. Your screen will not change when then login timeout expires. The next time you try to click a button or link, however, the system will indicate an error. It is also important to understand that “inactivity” means periods when there has been no communication between your system and the server - which only happens when you click a button or link. You may be at the keyboard typing away entering a large lesson, but if you are not regularly saving your work, the system will not be aware of your activity and you may find that when you do finally try to save your work, the timeout has expired and your work is lost. This is normal behavior for a secure web-based application like the BCUDL-LOR. Other secure systems that you may be familiar with, such as banking sites, behave similarly. To avoid the frustration of spending a considerable amount of time entering a lesson only to lose your work because your login has expired, be sure to work in small chunks and save your work often. The login timeout is 20 minutes.
• File size limits:
  There is a limit on the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded to BCUDL-LOR. This is currently set to 10 MB. If you try to upload a larger file, this will cause an error.     
• Field size limits:
  There are also limits on the amount of text that can be entered in any of the descriptive text fields of a lesson (Description, Overview, Goals, etc.). If you enter a very large amount of information into one of these fields, this may cause an error. The size limit for the File Descriptor is 8000 characters and the field size for the Overview to Assessment sections is unlimited.