CHAPTER 6

An Activity is a special purpose tool which helps a user or group of users complete a task. Activities such as List and Vote can help groups reach a consensus. The Poll/Survey activity can assist in data collection. Many of the activities are useful in establishing a classroom environment. For example, the Gradebook activity is a tool which allows a member of a group (i.e., a professor), record, store, and calculate grades for the rest of the group (i.e., a class).

An activity is stored as an attachment to a conference comment. For example, there may be a conference for all the students in a biology class. The professor could submit a comment in the biology class conference stating that a Gradebook activity was attached. The students would use the Gradebook attachment to view their grades for the class.

Please refer to the Advanced Features Guide for instructions on how to create an activity and how to use an activity that has already been created.

6.1 Accessing Activities

Activities are stored as attachments to conference comments. When you view a comment that contains an activity, the text of the item will normally include an explanation of the attached activity (this explanation is added by the author of the item, some authors may not include a description). A "Do Activity" button is displayed at the end of the text. The specific name of the button depends upon the type of activity that is attached. For example, if a Question activity is attached to a comment, the button will be called "Do Question". To have the activity presented to you click on the "Do Activity" button. Keep in mind that some activities can take a long time to complete. For example, a Poll/Survey activity may include twenty or thirty questions or more. You can do any activity at a later time; however, keep in mind that the creator of the activity may have set a deadline for the activity to be completed.

The number of activities waiting for you to complete appears on the homebase screen. You can access your waiting activities from the homebase screen or from the conference where the activity was presented.

6.1.1 Accessing Activities from Homebase

To access your waiting activities from homebase click on Activities. A list of all the activities which are waiting for you to complete are listed on this screen. ‘Status’ refers to whether the activity is available for you to complete (some activities expire after a certain amount of time). ‘Your status’ indicates if you have completed the activity. On this screen, ‘Your status’ will always be listed as undone, since this screen only lists activities that are waiting for you to complete. Date indicates the day that the activity was completed. As with ‘Your status’, the date field will always be ‘-’ because only activities waiting to be completed are listed here.

Activities which you have completed do not appear on this screen. You can view any completed activity in the conference where the particular activity was presented to you.

6.1.2 Accessing Activities From a Conference

To access an activity from within a conference, first enter a conference that has an activity in it. To determine which of your conferences have activities you can view the activities review screen (select Activities at hoembase). If you do not have any waiting activities you could join a public conference (such as the Welcome conference or Practice) which may have activities available, you may want to check with the conference moderator to be sure.

Once you locate and enter a conference that contains an activity, click on Activities. A table will be displayed listing all the activities in the conference:

All the activities which were submitted in this conference are listed on this screen. ‘Status’ refers to whether the activity is available for you to complete (some activities expire after a certain amount of time). ‘Your status’ indicates if you have completed the activity or not (done or undone). Date indicates the day that the activity was completed. A ‘-’ is displayed after activities that have not been completed.

If you wish to complete an activity click on the Comment ID# of the activity. Refer to the appropriate chapter of the Advanced Features Guide for further instructions.

Go to Appendix A, Hardware and Software Requirements

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