The greatest distinction between site services is that some are wide open to the Internet (such as Web Hosted sites) while others only allow restricted access (such as SPARK). Access to your site depends on the purpose of the site and the type of material you are posting. Access should always be restricted when there are issues of student privacy (FERPA) or copyright.

In addition to their personal OIT Account, Faculty can request an additional OIT Account for each course they teach. With this account, faculty get UMail, UDrive, UMass Blog, and Web Hosting services that can be used exclusively with their courses.

To create additional accounts for your courses, bring a picture ID to room A113 in the Lederle Graduate Research Center. Course account names are limited to eight characters, so check with your department to see if there is a standard naming convention you should follow or if there are other courses with the same number.

SPARK courses must be set up separately and will be tied into SPIRE to create the course and course roster. To request a SPARK course, fill out the form at: http://courses.umass.edu/accoprod/webct/vista4_request_course.htm

The UDrive service gives you (and your students) online file storage. By default, this space is private, but files and directories can be shared with individuals, groups, or the public. If all you need is a simple space to post handouts and assignment files, UDrive is a good option.

For more details about UDrive see: http://www.oit.umass.edu/udrive/

Blogging software makes it easy to maintain a simple site. You choose from a set of customizable designs and post announcements using an online form. You can also post static pages (such as a syllabus), links, files and images. Additional tools let you allow students to comment on posts or contribute their own. A blog gives you everything you need for a simple course site, plus extra features, without much effort

For more details about Blogs see: http://blogs.umass.edu/

SPARK’s Web-based interface makes it easy to post course content on a site that can only be accessed by students who are registered for your class. As a fully-featured Learning Management System (LMS), SPARK also allows you to add special tools to your site, such as online chats, bulletin board discussions, assignment drop boxes, quizzes, and surveys.

SPARK can also help manage student data. The roster and grade book is updated daily during the semester with roster information from SPIRE. You can use the grade book to record and calculate grades, or download the roster data to Excel and work there. Data from other sources can be imported into the grade book to combine all the data for a course in one place. At the end of the semester, final grades in SPARK can be transferred to SPIRE to make the grading process simpler.

SPARK has also being linked to more of the other services on campus. Links to EReserves, Scholar, TurnItIn and (coming soon) OWL make it easier for students in a class to access all of their online tools from a single location.

To request a SPARK course, fill out the SPARK Course Request Form:
http://courses.umass.edu/accoprod/webct/vista4_request_course.htm

For SPARK documentation and online tutorials: http://www.oit.umass.edu/webct/campus-vista/faculty

Web hosting gives you empty server space and lets you build a site yourself You can write it in HTML or use software such as SeaMonkey (free) or Dreamweaver (commercial) to build, post, and maintain your site. If forms processing or other programming is required, you can request access to the OIT CGI server. Web Hosting requires attention to detail and technical proficiency, and is not for everyone.

For technical information about uploading content to your Web hosted site see http://www.oit.umass.edu/web_hosting/personal/index.html.

For documentation about using Dreamweaver to create a course site see http://www.oit.umass.edu/academic/workshops/coursesites.html.