Manage course users

Add staff members to your course

In Ans, you can add staff members to your course to reduce your administrative workload and increase collaboration. You can even invite staff from outside your school. It is also possible to invite students and assign them a staff role. This is mainly used for students or teaching assistants. In these cases, students will be granted staff authorisation for your course only. If you are not allowed by your school to invite new members, please contact your administrator to invite them for you.

You can add staff members to a course by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Add staff and choose the role that you want to assign to user by clicking the first drop down menu. If you want to add a student to your course with a staff role, click the second drop down menu Employee and select Student.
6. Check the box of the staff member you want to add and click Add. 
7. If the user does not yet have an account in Ans, click New staff.
8. Fill in the details and click Create. 

The user will receive an invite via email.

Remove staff from your course

If needed, you have the option to remove staff from a course. If this is done by accident, the action can be reverted easily by adding them again. This may require the help of your administrator.

You can remove staff members from a course by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar. 
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Staff in the tab at the top.
6. Check the box next to the staff member(s) you want to remove.
7. Click on the dropdown menu More and click Remove from course.
8. Click Confirm.
   

The first option is to manage learners on an individual basis.

Add learners to your course

You can add learners to a course by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab at the top left.
6. Select Add learner.
7. Select the learners(s) you want to add and click Add. 
8. If the learner does not yet have an account in Ans, click New Learner.
9. Fill in the details and click Create. 

The user will receive an invite via email.

Remove learners from your course

If needed, you have the option to remove learners from a course. If this is done by accident, the action can be reverted easily by adding learners to your course again. This may require the help of your administrator.

You can remove staff members from a course by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_importantCourses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab at the top left.
6. Check the box next to the learner(s) you want to remove.
7. Click Remove from course.
8. Click Confirm.
   

Adding learners to your course by hand can be a time-consuming task. Therefore, it is possible to import learners by uploading a .CSV, .XLS or .XLSX file. The file should consist of a maximum of 5 columns containing:

• Student number (mandatory)
• E-mail address
• Last name
• Middle name
• First name

The order of the columns is not important. It should at least contain the student number. A template file is available in the import dialogue in Ans.

error_outline Please note that importing information may overwrite the email and student number of existing learners if not used precisely. More information about this can be found below.

Ans will check the import file per row. If either the email or student number is found, the other attribute will always be overwritten from the import file. This is elaborated with two examples:

1. If the import file finds a student number which is also present in Ans, the import feature tries to find an email address. If the email address exists but is connected to another user in Ans, both accounts are merged.
2. If the import file can't find the student number, but can find the email address in Ans, the student number of the existing account in Ans will be overwritten.

Both actions above are done regardless of the status of the checkbox 'Overwrite information from existing learners'. This checkbox is only meant to overwrite the name of learners.

You can import learners to a course by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab at the top left.
6. Click Import and click Download template or create your own .CSV, .XLS, or .XLSX file. 
7. Click Browse for a file and select the file, or drag and drop the file into the pop-up.
   • Check the checkbox 'Overwrite information from existing learners' if you want to overwrite the name of the learners. Please note, the email and student number will always be overwritten if the information provided does not match the information in Ans.
   • Check the checkbox 'Send invitations' to ` invitations to new learners. This option is not possible if your school enforces Single Sign-On (SSO).

A class is defined on school level and consists of staff and learners. Using classes allows you to:

• Plan assignments for a class.
• Filter the results for a specific class.
• Filter the insights for a specific class.

You can add a class to a course and Ans will automatically synchronise the students in that class with the course. When a student is added to a class, the student will be added to all the courses that are linked to that class.

Only administrators and department admins are able to edit and view all classes. Instructors are only able to view and edit the classes which they are part of.

You can add classes to your course, by following the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_importantCourses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab at the top left.
6. Click Manage classes and click Add class.
7. Select the class you want to add.

Groups can be created for the following reasons:

• To separate students for different timeslots, for example to distinguish students that have right to extra time.
• To distribute different groups to reviewers in order to divide up the grading/reviewing
• To create different groups for group assignments

Within Ans, you can use groups with different purposes, depending on your assignment type. Below you can find the different ways groups can be used for different assignment types. 

• Digital test (individual)
  Groups can be used to allocate different time slots for the taking session of a digital test. For example, students with time extensions can be added to a group and that group can be allocated additional time.
  
  
• Digital test for groups
  The assignment type works in the same way as the standard digital test, the difference being that the test is taken in groups. All members of the group can individually and simultaneously take the digital test. When one group member saves answers, the other members of the group will see the saved answers when they are in the test. All members of the group can alter the answers up until the timeslot ends. When the deadline of the timeslot passes, the most updated answers are the definitive answers that will be submitted.
  
  
• Hand-in assignment for groups
  Every member of a group can hand in work for the whole group. When a file is uploaded, but not yet submitted, other group members can view, edit, delete or download the uploaded files. If the file(s) are not yet submitted, all members of the group can upload additional files until the timeslot has ended. If one of the members of the group has submitted the uploaded file(s), other group members are no longer able to edit, delete or add additional files.

Create a group and add learners manually

To create a group from the member overview, follow the steps below. 

1. Click the domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top and click Groups in the tab in the top left.
5. Click New group and fill in a group name. 
6. Click Save.
   
7. After creating a group in your course, you can add learners to the group.

After creating a group, you can start adding learners. There is a limit of 2500 learners that can be added to a group. If you want to add more learners to a group, you need to distribute the learners over multiple groups.

To add learners to a group, follow the steps below.

1. Click the domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top and click Groups in the tab in the top left.
5. Click on the group that you want to add students to. 
6. Click Add learners.
7. Select the learner(s) and click Add. 

Import a group

If you want to create multiple groups, it is possible to import groups with a .csv or .xlsx file. You can use one file to import one or more groups at the same time. All students that are included in the file will be added to the course if they were not yet a member. If a student account does not yet exist, Ans will automatically create an account for the student, unless this is restricted by your school settings. If a non-existing student is created by this import, you can add other details such as the name of the student in the platform. Alternatively, the student can also add their name after signing in.

error_outline Please note that importing information may overwrite the email and student number of existing users if not used precisely. More information about this can be found below.

Ans will check the import file per row. For the group import, the email address is an optional field. If the email address is used and if either the email or student number is found, the other attribute will always be overwritten from the import file. This is elaborated with two examples:

1. If the import file finds a student number which is also present in Ans, the import feature tries to find an email address. If the email address exists but is connected to another user in Ans, both accounts are merged.
2. If the import file can't find the student number, but can find the email address in Ans, the student number of the existing account in Ans will be overwritten.

To import a group, follow the steps below.

1. Click the domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top and click Groups in the tab in the top left.
5. Click Import and click Download template or create a .csv, .xls, or .xlsx file that consists of at least two columns: group name and student number. Optionally you can add a third column with an email. The order of the columns is not important.
6. Click Browse for a file and select the file, or drag and drop the file into the dialogue.   

Group settings

Click on the group you want to adjust the settings of and then click Settings to visit the settings page. On this page you can change the name of the group. You will also see two other options:

• Learners can join or leave 
  If this option is enabled, learners can join or leave the group by themselves.
  
  
• This group can start or hand in a group assignment
  If this option is enabled, students can participate with the group in group assignments. A student can only be in one group with this option enabled.

Delete a group

error_outline Please be aware that deleting your group is irreversible.

If you no longer need a specific group within a course, you have the option to delete the group.  It is only possible to delete a group if they have not yet started an assignment. 

You can delete a group by following the steps below.

1. Click domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top and click Groups in the tab in the top left.
5. Select the group you want to delete and click on Delete.
6. You can also click on the Group and select Settings in the tab at the top.
7. Click Delete in the Danger zone section. 
8. Click Confirm.

If you would like your learners to sign in using an email and password, you can send them an invitation. Invitations will only be sent to learners that haven't yet signed in. You can only send one invitation per learner per day.

 To send invitations to learners, follow the steps below.

1. Click your domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_importantCourses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab at the top left.
6. Click Send invites.

All eligible learners will receive an email with an invitation to start using Ans. If the Send invites button is disabled, there are no learners to invite.

If required, a learner can be given the right to extra time for all assignments within your course. When a learner is given this right, they are automatically added to the group 'All learners with the right to extra time'.

When setting up the timeslot for your assignment, you can select the group 'All learners with the right to extra time'. You can then allocate the amount of extra time to give to these learners. Please keep in mind that they will not automatically receive extra time unless a separate timeslot is created.

Also, if you are making use of groups within your course, Ans will create a group of learners with right to extra time for each of the groups.

To allow learners the right to extra time for all assignments within your course, follow the steps below.

1. Click click domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar. 
4. Click group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click Learners in the tab on the top left.
6. Check the box next to the learner you want to give the right to extra time to.
7. Click the dropdown menu More and select Give the right to extra time.
8. The more_time -icon will indicate that the learner now has the right to extra time for all assignments within your course. 
9. If an administrator has already given students extra time for all assignments in your school, the more_time-icon will already be shown in the learners overview.
10. When a timeslot is created, you will need to select 'All learners with the right to extra time' and create a timeslot for these learners.

In the settings of a question, you have the option to set the question to 'skippable'. This means that the question will not be included in the assignment for students that have 'set skip exercises' enabled at the member's overview on course level.

Set skip exercises for certain students, within your course

1. Click domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click on group Members in the menu at the top.
5. Click the Learners tab.
6. Check the box next to the student you want to enable 'set skip exercises' for.
7. Click the dropdown menu More and select Set skip exercises.

The content_cut icon in the member's overview and the result overview will display to indicate that the student can skip exercises set to 'skippable'. 

Set a question to skippable

1. Click domain School name in the menu on the left.
2. Click label_important Courses in the menu at the top.
3. Select your course or use the search bar.
4. Click on your assignment or use the search bar. 
5. Navigate to the question, select more_horiz-icon and click Edit.
6. Click more_vert-icon and check the box Skippable.