What is HomeRoom?
HomeRoom is a student portal and companion product for VirtualOffice. It allows students to track their VirtualOffice courses offered by their course instructors and interact with their course websites in a more sophisticated manner.
[ FAQ # 23 ]
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How much does HomeRoom cost?
Just like VirtualOffice, HomeRoom is FREE! Students can create an account, register for as many course websites as they wish, and interact with all those websites all for free. We will be introducing a limited amount heavily screened and non-intrusive advertising on HomeRoom in the near future, but will continue to offer the product for free.
[ FAQ # 24 ]
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Why should I sign up for HomeRoom?
HomeRoom is more than just an easy way to access your websites. Much like VirtualOffice, HomeRoom is designed around the student and their needs. - Access all course websites from one place online! No software to download or upgrade.
- Send and receive messages to and from course instructors.
- Get a quick view of what's new in all course websites.
- Manage and view tracked forum threads and questions asked to the Virtual TA.
- Maintain a personal calendar.
- Get a quick view of the today's course calendar.
In addition to all the features listed above, you can keep your HomeRoom throughout your educational career. Regardless of how your instructor modifies or sets up their websites, you always view and interact with your course websites using the same intuitive interface.
[ FAQ # 25 ]
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How many course websites can I add?
You can add and remove as many courses as you like with HomeRoom. There is no limit.
[ FAQ # 29 ]
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Once I add a course, when can I access it?
Once you add a course, you may or may not have immediate access to it, depending on the way the course is set up. If the course instructor has open or open with registration on the course, you have immediate access to the course and all its resources the second you add it. If the instructor has specified the course as open with restricted registration, you will not have access to view or interact with the course until your registration is approved by the course instructor. If the course is locked, you cannot access it unless you have the course password, regardless of whether you register or not.
[ FAQ # 30 ]
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What detailed information can I see for a course?
The course details feature of HomeRoom gives you following details: - Message Center: A list of all messages exchanged between you and the course instructor, and the ability to send a new message.
- What's New: What new information has been posted to the website since you last logged in.
- Forums You Are Tracking: A list of all forum threads you are tracking that have been updated.
- Need Help or Have Questions: A resource area with ways you can get help from the teacher, website, and other students.
- Today's Calendar: A list of all events in today's course calendar.
- Your Questions: A list of all questions asked via the Virtual TA that are being tracked, and their status.
In addition you get the basic details of the course, including the course instructor, website address and link to the website and school.
[ FAQ # 26 ]
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When will I know if my questions asked via the Virtual TA have been answered?
When you ask a question to the Virtual TA and choose track it, the question gets added to the course details section of your website. As soon as your question is answered, you get an email with a link to the answer, and the question listed in your course details section turns into a link to the answer.
[ FAQ # 27 ]
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How does the HomeRoom student messaging system (SMS) work?
The student messaging system (SMS) works very much like email. You can send a message to your instructor and they can send a message to you. When you reply to a message, your new message gets added to the end of the message thread, along with details of the time you posted your message. Similarly, when they reply, their message gets added to the bottom of the message thread along with details of the time and day they posted their reply. Messages are therefore exchanged back and forth in one thread, and not multiple messages. This makes tracking your correspondences much easier and creates less clutter in your message area.
[ FAQ # 28 ]
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What is VirtualOffice?
VirtualOffice is a software suite that allows educators to create a feature rich, powerful website (or even one website for each course they teach) quickly.
[ FAQ # 2 ]
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How does VirtualOffice help instructors?
VirtualOffice allows instructors to easily and quickly create powerful websites. They can create multiple websites, or just one, for each course they teach. In addition, all websites are then manageable from the single VirtualOffice account. Furthermore, every website comes with interactive tools that allows instructors to post unlimited content, and allows their students to interact with their website to find information, help each other, download resources, study, and much more!
[ FAQ # 6 ]
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How much does VirtualOffice cost?
VirtualOffice is a free service. We dont ask for any credit card information for the basic subscription when you sign up. We plan to offer a series of upgradable subscriptions in the near future, and will continue to offer the basic subscription at no charge. We are also considering placing a very limited amount of screened advertising on our free products in the future.
[ FAQ # 10 ]
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Can I password protect my VirtualOffice websites?
Yes, you can password protect each website you create through VirtualOffice. You can decide to make any of your websites either open or locked. When you lock a website, you have to assign it a password that users (i.e. your students) need to use when accessing your website. Unlocking your website can be done with the click of a button.
[ FAQ # 11 ]
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Can I reuse my VirtualOffice websites?
Yes! That's a big appeal of VirtualOffice. Once you create a website, you can choose to hide or show content, password protect it, and schedule automatic postings of your course material. Using these features you can "reset" your website every time you use it for use by a new class. By reusing your website you can keep all your FAQs and you knowledgebase, but allow your students to interact in a clean, uncluttered environment.
[ FAQ # 16 ]
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How is VirtualOffice different from other course management systems?
VirtualOffice takes a proactive approach to course management. The system doesn't wait for you to figure out exactly what information you need to put on your website to help your students, but rather gathers that information for you using our patented Virtual TA. This makes your website setup and maintenance easy, and very effective. Typically it takes less than 10 minutes to get a website up and running. When your students ask the Virtual TA a question, we communicate all unanswered questions to you. Furthermore, we give you a break down on how your website is being used, which questions are being viewed the most, and how effectively your Virtual TA is answering student's questions. In addition we offer a file management system for you to upload course material, discussion forums, a course calendar, a ticker announcement system, and the ability to organize and create an unlimited number of custom webpage's.
[ FAQ # 17 ]
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What kind of statistics are tracked on my website?
VirtualOffice tracks statistics for each website you create. You are given statistics on what percentage of questions your Virtual TA is answering, what percentage of FAQs are helpful, and how often your Virtual TA is being used. Furthermore we track the number of hits to: - Frequently Asked Questions section
- Discussion Forums
- Virtual TA
- News Ticker
We also allow you to compile detailed reports of how many hits specific parts of your website are getting.
[ FAQ # 20 ]
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What is the difference between an educators and commercial license?
The educators license is free for educators affiliated with an acredited educational institution (grade school teachers, junior high school teachers, high school teachers, junior college teachers/profs, college/university teachers/profs, teaching assistants, home school teachers, etc), while a commercial license is intended for use by non-educators. Educators can create an unlimited number of websites and use them in their classrooms for free. The commercial license allows non-educators to create an account at no charge, and create an unlimited number of websites at no charge, however they are required to pay for any website they wish to activate. Both educators and commercial licenses share the same features.
[ FAQ # 21 ]
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Why do you offer commercial and educators licenses?
VirtualOffice was created for teachers. Our main goal is to provide effective, useful, and easy to use website solutions for teachers who may not be able to afford a commercial solution or do not have the time and knowledge to set something up themselves. Shortly after VirtualOffice was released we received several requests by non-educators to use our software to run online courses outside of classrooms. In an effort to maintain the integrity of the free educators website and accomodate the commercial users we offer a commercial license to non-educators, and continue to offer the free license to educators.
[ FAQ # 22 ]
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What is a course announcement and where does it appear on my website?
A course announcement allows you to make announcements for your class to read by displaying them in a scrolling ticker at the top of every webpage on your website. You can create a custom message with custom text, or you can choose to link the announcement directly to a FAQ already in your system. If a student clicks the announcement in your ticker at the top of any webpage, it opens a small window with your announcement text or the FAQ you linked it to.
[ FAQ # 9 ]
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Is the course announcement and news ticker customizable?
Yes, the course announcement and news ticker is customizable. You can add and remove announcement from it, and choose how you want it to display the announcements (scrolling horizontally, scrolling vertically, or fading).
[ FAQ # 13 ]
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What is a discussion forum and how does it help my class?
A discussion forum is an online bulletin board where students can post questions and comments, answer each others questions, and share information online in an open forum. It allows your students to interact with each other anonymously. Once you've set up a discussion forum, your students have unlimited access to posting to them. Furthermore, you have the ability to administer them by blocking posts and deleting threads.
[ FAQ # 8 ]
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How many discussion forums can I create?
You can create an unlimited number for forums for each of your course websites you create using VirtualOffice. Furthermore, your students are given unlimited access to the discussion forums via your website.
[ FAQ # 12 ]
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What kind of administrative capabilities do I have for a forum?
As a website administrator you have full control of your forums. You can: - Delete a forum
- Delete a thread
- Ban any user/email from posting to that or any other forum
You can also edit the forum title and description at your discretion.
[ FAQ # 18 ]
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Can I upload course material (documents and files) to my website(s)?
Yes! Uploading course material to your course website(s) is easy! All you do is find the document or file you want to upload on your computer, give it a brief description, and choose which document group you want it to display in. When your students visit your website they can to your document library page, where all your documents and files are displayed and sorted into document groups you create. They simply click on the title of the document or file, and the file is automatically downloaded.
[ FAQ # 14 ]
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What kinds of files and documents can I upload?
Currently we allow you to upload the following document and file types: Microsoft Excel (.xls) - Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)
Microsoft Word (.doc) Microsoft Publisher (.pub) Comma Separated Values (.csv) PDF (.pdf) Text (.txt) Postscript (.ps) Flash (.swf) JPEG (.jpg) GIF (.gif)
[ FAQ # 15 ]
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Can I upload documents without making it available to my students?
Yes. When uploading a new document or editing an existing document upload, you have the ability to make it visible or invisible to your students. If made invisible, it will not appear on your website. Furthermore, you can choose to have it made visible automatically on a pre-selected date by adding it to your calendar. If you choose to add a document to your course calendar, you can choose a date on your calendar you wish to release the document on your website. At midnight on the specified date the document appears on your website automatically. This gives you the ability to upload all your documents for the course and schedule them to be release automatically without you having to remember to do so.
[ FAQ # 19 ]
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What are FAQs?
FAQ is an acronym for Frequently Asked Question. In the context of your website, it refers to frequently asked questions you receive from your students.
[ FAQ # 5 ]
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How do the FAQs and virtual TA work together?
The FAQs comprise the knowledge and memory of the virtual TA. When your student asks your virtual TA a question, it uses the FAQs (along with the discussion forums sometimes) to find information to help the student. It does so by matching questions based on their similarity, not necessarily on their exact match. Thus a student can ask a question "similar" to what they want to know, and the virtual TA tries to interpret what they are asking, and returns FAQs that match or are similar to their original question.
[ FAQ # 7 ]
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What is the Virtual TA?
The Virtual TA is a big part of what makes VirtualOffice unique. Much like your TA, the virtual TA's job is to help you by answering students questions and helping them find information. Your students ask your virtual TA a question, and it then searches your discussion forums and FAQs for matching information.
[ FAQ # 3 ]
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How does the virtual TA work?
When a student asks the virtual TA a question, it figures out what kind of information the student is trying to find. As a result it performs two types of searches: If your student asked a direct question (such as "when is the final exam?"), the virtual TA searches for similar questions that already exist in your FAQs. Thus a question does not have to match exactly. Furthermore, the it compensates for spelling when asked a question. If your student inputs keywords (such as "exam") it will search your FAQs and discussion forums for any matching keywords.
When a student asks your TA a question they cannot answer, the TA will usually ask you directly. The virtual TA behaves in the same manner. If it is asked a question it cant answer, it automatically sends the question to you in the form of a report, and allows the student to optionally track his or her question. Once you answer (in the form of an FAQ), the student is notified via email and is given a link directly to the answer.
[ FAQ # 4 ]
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