THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.
Well, what do you know. That old Facebook classic “Stupid Things Overheard at the U of S” is full of handy surprises.
On Nov. 30, U of S student Huy Dang posted this in-depth guide on how you can access the old style (pre-Fall 2011) course homepages, complete with functioning course members lists. This is a wonderful little trick and full credit goes to Mr. Dang for discovering it, or at least bringing it to my attention.
Students and professors alike have been lamenting the loss of the course members list, among other useful features of the old style course homepages, since the U of S implemented lacklustre Blackboard based course homepages at the end of last summer.
I’ve summarized the core components of this simple URL hack and put together a quick step-by-step guide on how to access the course members page below.
[box type=”info”]Step 1: Log into Blackboard using this link: http://bblearn.usask.ca.[/box]You’re looking for your U of S Course List on the Blackboard homepage. More specifically, you’re looking for the two numbers in parentheses separated by a period at the end of each course title (circled in yellow below).
The number on the left is the CRN ("Course Reference Number"). The number on the right indicates which year and month the class begins.
You’ll need to be logged into PAWS for the next step of the process to work. If you’ve been following the links in this article, you’re only logged into Blackboard, so you’ll need to use your NSID again to log into PAWS.
[box type=”info”]Step 3: In Blackboard, copy the numbers in the parentheses (including the period) and paste them onto the end of this link, after the = sign:http://paws.usask.ca/jsp/grouptools/group/GroupRedirect.jsp?courseID=[/box]
For example, if I wanted to look up the old style course homepage for my English 307 class, I would start by copying the CRN and start date of the class, which is “88525.201109” (without the quotation marks). Then I would attach that to the end of the above link and copy and paste the whole thing into my browser’s address bar, like so:
http://paws.usask.ca/jsp/grouptools/group/GroupRedirect.jsp?courseID=88525.201109
Assuming I’m also logged into PAWS, after pressing enter, I’ll be taken to the course homepage.
Note: after pasting a complete link into your address bar and hitting enter, the link will change as it load the page. This is normal.
[box type=”info”]Step 4: Now we’re back in familiar territory. Click on “Members” on the bottom of the “Course Tools” column on the left hand side of the page.[/box]
Let the creeping studying begin!
That’s it! You should now be able to access the long lost course members list we had all come to know and love.
The email functionality of this version of the course homepage seems to work as well, but the same can’t be said for any of the hand-in folders or course materials sections — you’ll have to stick to Blackboard to access anything your professors have posted for you.
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Images: Supplied
