Web Site Features
A course web site can serve many purposes: you can use it to advertise your course, communicate and share materials with students (e.g., assignments, syllabi, video), and even assign and grade students’ work.
Following are the web site services available with IT Services Course Support:
- A URL in the form “www.stanford.edu/class/<name of your course>”
- You can also request a shorter, easier-to-remember URL in the form “<name of your course>.stanford.edu” at itservices.stanford.edu/service/vhost.
- An AFS directory where your web site files are stored
- You can access your course Web files at /afs/ir.stanford.edu/class/<name of your course>/WWW/ via SFTP or OpenAFS (see file-transfer.stanford.edu for instructions).
- An optional WebAuth-restricted sub-directory
- When you sign up, you can opt to have a WebAuth-restricted subdirectory created inside your WWW directory.
- 500MB of storage space
- For Web pages and other data. If you think you and your students will need more space, you can request it when you sign up.
- Freedom to design your own layout and styles — plus many Web add-ons
- IT Services provides page templates and other Web authoring tools and applications, but does not create your course Web pages for you. For information about web site authoring tools and add-ons, see web.stanford.edu.
- Web site archiving
- IT Services automatically archives all your files after the end of the quarter. See “Disk Space” below for more information about archiving.
Web Site Features and Characteristics Compared to CourseWork
| IT Services Course Support | CourseWork | |
|---|---|---|
| How do students access the course web site? | Each course has its own URL in the form “www.stanford.edu/class/<name of your class>”. You can request a virtual host name (“vanity URL”) to make the URL shorter and easier to remember. | Student logs in to coursework.stanford.edu, then selects the course name from those s/he is registered for. |
| Does it require a password? | Not by default. You can request a restricted web directory that will allow part of your site to be protected by a SUNet ID and password. | Yes. Guest login & registration can be allowed. |
| Can I make announcements? | Not on the web site, but you can use the class email list for announcements. | Yes. Announcements can be posted in CourseWork as well as via the class email list. |
| Can I control the layout of the course home page? | Yes. | No. CourseWork creates the page for you, by placing the content you provide into a template. |
| Can I include multimedia files? | Yes, but you may need assistance from your ATS. | Yes. Just upload the file into CourseWork. |
| Can I assign work and collect student responses on the web site? | If you make a separate request to use Stanford’s CGI Service, you can create your own — or install off-the-shelf — web applications. | Yes. CourseWork provides problem sets, short answer tools, and a flexible event sign-up tool. |
| Can I have online quizzes? | If you make a separate request to use Stanford’s CGI Service, you can create your own — or install off-the-shelf — web forms. | Yes. CourseWork provides online quizzing, problem sets, and short answer tools. |
| Is it integrated with the Registrar’s class list for secure access? | Yes | Yes |
| Can students self-register for my course web site? | You control access; there is no need for self-registration. | Yes. |
| Can I have a course web site without learning HTML? | Some familiarity with HTML — or use of an HTML editing program such as Dreamweaver — is required. | Yes. |
| How do I upload content? | You can use Secure FTP (see file-transfer.stanford.edu), or OpenAFS for Mac or Windows (see Essential Stanford Software). There are other methods, but these are the most common. | Just follow the prompts in CourseWork. |
