Campus License Details
What is Campus Licensing?
Campus Licensing is an alternative to the existing licensing model offered for CourseForum.
The main Campus Licensing page describes the differences from the traditional CourseForum licensing model.
Getting Started
You will need to download the software, obtain a license key to activate the new Campus features, and then get started using a fresh site.
Download the appropriate version for your computer.
Visit the main CourseForum page to download a version of CourseForum for your computer. Campus Licensing uses the same binaries as the regular version, but is activated by using a different license key.
Get a Campus license key.
You will need a license key to place CourseForum into "Campus Licensing" mode. You can obtain a time-limited demonstration key by filling out the form on the right. Note that this is different than the normal CourseForum license key; using a normal key you will not be able to use the different features available in Campus Licensing.
Backup your current site.
Because Campus Licensing uses a completely different model of users than the regular licenses, you will lose all existing user information - in other words, your data will be intact, but all existing accounts, passwords etc. will no longer be there. Because this is a major change, make sure to backup your site before you begin. And of course, if you have sensitive information on your site, plan your transition to the new authentication model accordingly.
Enter your license key.
Enter your license key for Campus Licensing mode. When it is accepted, you should confirm that the system tells you it is running in Campus Licensing mode, with the correct number of registered users permitted.
Provide a master Site Administration password.
On the Site Administration page, enter a Site Administration password. Unlike with the regular licensing, you won't normally use this password, but instead will create a user account for yourself with site administration access.
However, think of it as a master password for the site, in case user accounts are all removed, etc. Once the site adminstration password is created, the site is 'locked down', so that e.g. only administrators can create courses, modify the settings in the admin pages, etc.
Setting up Accounts
Everyone, including administrators, must register an account with the system before being able to use it.
Decide if accounts are based on userid or email.
With the regular licensing, users were identified only by their full name and a password. In Campus Licensing mode, they need another piece of information, guaranteed unique to them. This will be used for example when they login to the system.
By default, CourseForum will refer to this piece of information as a "userid", which is a term used on many systems. While the userid can be pretty much anything, in practice it is normally a single word.
As an alternative, CourseForum can be told that email addresses will be used to uniquely identify the user. To change this, set the "Use email address instead of userid to login" option on the Site Administration screen. Users will then be prompted for their email address and password when logging in, rather than their userid and password.
Note that setting this option has no deeper meaning to CourseForum. It will not send mail, will not validate the format of the address, etc. This option is purely cosmetic.
Decide if users can register themselves.
You must also decide if users can register themselves (the default), or if only site administrators can register users. Use the "Users can register themselves" option on the Site Administration screen to set this.
Register one or more administration accounts.
Follow the 'Manage User Accounts' link on the Site Administration page. From this page you can register new users for the system, delete existing users, and so on.
At the very least, register a new account for yourself, making sure to give yourself site administration priveleges. At that point, you can go back to the previous page, and click 'Logout as Administrator'. You'll then want to login using your new userid/email and password. Note that you still have access to the site administration screens.
If you like, you can register other users with administration priveleges, or if other users are registered, you can give them administration priveleges.
Register other user accounts.
From the same 'Manage User Accounts' screen, you can also register other users, not as administrators. Remember, every user of the system must have an account. Of course, if you're allowing users to register themselves, you don't need to create an account for them yourself.
There are also facilities to register a number of users at once, to search for users, to change their information, delete them, etc.
Using the System
When using Campus Licensing, every user of the system must be registered.
Logging in and out.
When first using the system, they'll need to login using their userid (or email) and password. This can be done on the main directory page (Site Home).
When logged in, there is also a link allowing the user to logout, and an option to change passwords. Users with site administration privileges can also decide if users are allowed to register themselves, or must be registered by an administrator.
Because the same login information is used across the entire system, users will never be prompted for login information again (until they logout, or shut down their browser).
Available features.
As well, because the system knows what permission they have, they'll only be offered choices that are available to them. The course directory page will only show courses that they have access to, and if a user has read-only access to a forum, the 'Edit' options won't be displayed. Again, this is different than in regular licensing, where all options were usually provided, but would require the user to enter a password to access them.
Access to courses.
Courses can be created by the site administrator. Note that there is no longer a 'Course Administrator' password. Instead, the administrator should designate one or more registered users of the system as having administrative access to the course.
The password-protection options for the course in the regular licensing model have been replaced with a new mechanism allowing registered users to be added to the course. Users can be registered as administrators, normal users (full read/write), read only users, or blocked from the course completely. There is also an option to specify what access is given to users not explicitly named.
Access to projects.
Projects work similarly; there is a list of registered users who may be given particular access to the project (which may be different than those allowed access to the course). For users not mentioned, you can supply defaults for other users in the course, as well as those registered users not in the course. Again, there is no administrative password, but a user should be added with administrative permission. If the project is created by someone who does not have course (or site) administrator priveleges, they will automatically be added as a project administrator.