For every class taught at Stanford, faculty members and TAs are entitled to a suite of centrally-hosted online services: web site space and templates, an email mailing list, a newsgroup for online discussions, and a central location on the campus network for sharing and storing documents and other data. There is no charge for these services.
University IT Course Support (previously named “Leland Course Services”) is easy to request and accommodates a high level of customization — one sign-up form is all that’s required to register or renew the included services.
For those who prefer a more automatic, single-source option and are willing to have their materials conform to preconfigured formats and styles, the CourseWork course management tool is available from Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR).
Links to more information about the services included in the Course Support suite:
- Web Site
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. - Email List
Class email lists enable you to send announcements easily to everyone associated with your class. University IT provides you with four lists, enabling you to tailor your email communications to students, administrators, or guests — or to everyone involved with the course. - Disk Space
University IT Course Support includes 500MB of space for you to store and share syllabi, web files, course outlines, problem sets, notes, essays, etc. - Newsgroup
The Usenet newsgroup provided by University IT is well-suited for online discussion and student participation, particularly because newsgroup posts are available — and relatively easy to access — for the entire quarter.
