When Neuvontajono is launched for the first time for a new course in the course management system, a new Neuvontajono instance is automatically generated. There is no need to request a new instance from your system admins if they have configured the required LTI settings in the course management system so that you can add Neuvontajono as a part of your course in the CMS.
As a teacher you can configure settings for your course by selecting the Settings tab. Remember to save the settings by clicking Save in the bottom of the page.
The following options are available:
Course name: The name of the course shown in the top of the page. The default value for the name is taken from the initial launch of Neuvontajono from the course management system.
Additional URL: If there is a separate page in the course management system or elsewhere describing the lab sessions, you can put the address of the page here. It will be shown as a link in Lab Sessions tab.
Combine with: If there are multiple course codes in use although they basically share the same lab sessions, it is possible to combine Neuvontajono instances so that only a single Neuvontajono is used for the all courses. Check the correct Course id field above of that course which shall remain in use and paste the value in this field.
After this setting is stored, all the other users except the course teacher are redirected to the defined Neuvontajono instance.
Video projector URL: This optional URL can be given to override the default projector view with a set of pictures. See the file format description to more details how the configuration file should be constructed.
Default UI language: This option is valid only if the course management system does not provide the preferred language. In this case the user interface will use the language specified here.
Default participation policy: This setting defines the default value for the sessions if it is possible to join the sessions only locally, remotely or both. This value can be overridden for each session separately, if needed.
Help message for remote participation: You can use this setting to override the default message for the purpose of the video connection address when joining the queue. The default text is shown below.
There is also possibility to add session-specific help text which is shown after the course-specific help text.
Require to sign up in local lab sessions: Selecting this option will show the Sign up button for the students before they can join the queue. The option can be used to collect the participants even if they won't join the queue but are asked to sign up every time they are present.
Visibility of statistics for participants: This configures who can see the statistics of how many participants there has been in each session each week. By default this is enabled for all users. This will store personal information of the participants and if this should be avoided, the feature can be disabled.
Visibility of statistics for queueing: This configures who can see the statistics of queuing counts and waiting times. These statistics do not require storing any personal information. By default only the course teacher is allowed to see these statistics.
Visibility of the queue length graph: This configures who can see the graph of queue length in each session. These statistics do not require storing any personal information. By default only the course teacher is allowed to see these statistics.
In the bottom part of the page you can see a list of all sessions and buttons to edit, delete and create new sessions.
In case that the queue opens before the session starts, the queue open time is shown in parenthesis. Disabled sessions are shown as strikethrough text.
If you want to temporarily disable and then later enable all sessions again, you can use the buttons in the bottom of the page. The change will be effective immediately. This can be useful to disable the sessions during the exam weeks, holiday periods etc. although defining the excluded days for the sessions is probably an easier way to manage this.
Each lab session can have the following settings. Always remember to save the settings in the bottom of the page to make them effective.
Name: A short name to distinguish the sessions.
Default participation policy: Use this option to override the course default setting for participation mode, if needed.
Location: The location of the local lab session. You can specify multiple locations by separating them with a comma. If you define multiple locations, they will share the same queue and assistants. Use this if the resources are shared. If there should be two separate sessions at the same time so that each of them have their own staff members, create two lab sessions.
Method for remote participation: Write here the name of system which is used for the remote assistance, such as Zoom or Teams. This is shown only for remote sessions.
Help message for remote participation: If you need a session-specific instructions for remote participation, you can enter the text here. It will be shown after the course-specific help message or it will override the default help text if the course-specific message is not defined.
Staff members: Use this optional field to define the course staff members. Use comma to separate the members. The information is shown for the users but does not have any functional purpose in Neuvontajono.
Language of instruction: You can define here in which language or languages are used by the course staff members in this session. The language is shown for the students. If you define more than one language separated with a comma, the students need to select in which language they would like to get instructed.
Weekday: Select the correct weekday for this lab session.
Start date: Select the date when the sessions start. It can be any weekday, the sessions will start on the next possible date if the selected date is not the weekday of this session.
End date: Select the date when the sessions end. If the weekday does not match with the selected weekday for this session, the sessions will end in the last date which has the correct weekday and is before the end date.
In use: This option can be used to temporarily disable the session group. Using the Enable all and Disable all buttons will change this setting for all groups.
Excluded dates: If the lab session is not organized in each week within the given date range, you can define here the dates to be excluded. Make sure to select the dates again, if needed, after changing the weekday or the date range.
Start time: Define here the starting time of the lab session. Check the help text below the input field how to format the time. The format depends on the language of the user interface. By default, the queue opens at the same time when the session starts.
End time: Define here the ending time of the lab session. It must, naturally, be later than the start time.
Queue opens: If you want to open the queue before the session starts, you can define here when the queue will open. It needs to open at latest at the same time when the session starts.
This setting can be helpful if your sessions start always at quarter past and end at sharp but you don't want to close the queue between the sessions. By using this setting, you can define the queue to open at sharp and then the students who will remain in the same location can enter the queue at any time although the staff members would not be present.