myCSUSM
Course Management FAQs
- I have multiple sections of the same course. Can I combine them?If the course content, activities, and due dates are the same between the sections, then yes you can request a combined container. Email us at cchelp@csusm.edu with names and numbers of the sections to combine. We will create one container that combines the enrollments of all the sections, so you only have to post content and activities in this one container. You will still see the individual courses (there is no way to remove them) but you can leave those hidden and only make visible the combined container.
- A course was reassigned to me. Can you remove the previous instructor?Changes to instructors in MyCSUSM are not tracked the same way as changes to student enrollment. When students are dropped from a course in MyCSUSM they are automatically dropped from the course in Cougar Courses within 24 hours. Unfortunately this does not happen for instructors. A separate process is run to remove previous instructors. We try to run that process once to twice a week. If it has been more than two weeks and they still have not been removed, please contact us at cchelp@csusm.edu and let us know the name and number of the course as well as the other instructor's name.
- How do I add students, a TA, or a colleague to my course?
To add a TA or colleague, please see our help guide on how to add users. The role you choose for them depends on what you would like them to be able to access. An official TA can be given the role Facilitator with Gradebook Access to allow them editing access as well as grading access. If you want your colleague to be able to import your content into their course, you will choose the role Facilitator without Gradebook Access (this gives them editing ability and the ability to import). If you only want them to be able to view your course, choose the role Student.
We caution against manually adding students. Manually adding a student to a course in Cougar Courses does not represent official enrollment. To be officially enrolled in a course they must be enrolled and on the roster in MyCSUSM. Once they are officially on the roster in MyCSUSM, they will automatically be added to the course in Cougar Courses within 24 hours. If you want them to have access to the course earlier than the 24 hours you can manually add them (see the help guide in the paragraph above), but keep in mind if they end up not taking the course or dropping the course you will need to manually remove them (see question below).
- How do I remove students, a TA, or a colleague from my course?
It depends on how they were added. If you manually added someone you can manually remove them. Go to your Participants list and click the trash can icon under the Status column.
If you do not see a trash can icon it means they were not manually added, so they cannot be manually removed. For students to be removed they must be removed from the roster in MyCSUSM. Once they are removed from the roster in MyCSUSM, they will automatically be removed from the course in Cougar Courses within 24 hours. For more information on how to remove a student from the roster in MyCSUSM please contact your department or the Registrar's Office. For previous instructors to be removed a special process has to be run. Please see the answer for the second question above.
- How can I add someone without a CSUSM account to my course?
Please email cchelp@csusm.edu with their first name, last name, email address, and the role you want us to give them: either student or facilitator without gradebook access. We can not assign an Instructor role or facilitator with gradebook access role as only the instructor assigned to the course should have access to student work and grades. We will create an account and notify them of their username and password.
- How can I see what the student sees (student view) in my course?You can briefly switch your role to student to view your course as a student would. Please see our help guide on how to view as a student.
- How do I print a roster?
If you want a list of the students and their emails you can export an Excel sheet from the Participants page:
- Click on Course Dashboard on the right under the Contents area.
- Click on Participants.
- Scroll to the bottom and click "Select all [#] users"
- From the "With selected users" dropdown at the bottom choose "Download table data as Microsoft Excel"
- Is there a way for me to download all the files I've posted to my course at once?
Yes, there is.
- From your course homepage, click the gear icon in the upper right to open the Course Administration. Then click “Download course content.”
- A window will pop up, click Download.
- Save the file/folder to your computer.
This will download all content from your course, including all resources and activities, not just files.
- I accidentally deleted an activity/resource on my course homepage! Can I get it back?Yes! When a resource or activity is deleted from your course homepage it actually isn't completed deleted. After about an hour it will show up in your course Recycle Bin. It will stay there fore 2 weeks before it is completely removed. During those two weeks you can restore the item to bring it back to your course homepage. For more information please see our help guide on Recycle Bin.
- Can I edit an announcement I posted in the Announcements forum?
If you set a Display Start Date for the announcement then you can't edit after posting. You will want to delete the announcement and post again.
If you did not set a Display Start date then you can edit the announcement for the first 15 minutes after posting. Click on the announcement subject and then in the lower right click Edit. You can't edit if it has been more than 15 minutes since posting. In that instance you will want to delete the announcement and post again.