Managing the Membership List

Student / Instructor View of the Membership Page

Student

When a student displays a Membership page, it displays that student's information and the information of only those students who have chosen to display their personal information. (To comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Stellar keeps a student's personal information private until the student explicitly chooses to make her or his name and other information available to other class members.)

Students can choose to make themselves Visible. The "Visible" flag is meant for students to opt-in to showing themselves to their classmates on Stellar. If no one in the class has opted to make themselves visible, all the student will see when they click on the Membership link and see the list is themselves.

Student chooses to be visible

Student chooses to be invisible

Instructor

When an instructor or TA displays a Membership page, it displays the full class or section list.
Instructors can use the Membership page to:

  • Click the Edit Participants tab to add or remove students from the class list.
  • Block access by individual students who intend to drop the class.
  • Click the Access Control tab to add and remove users from user groups.
  • Click the Manage Sections tab to add, edit, and remove sections and to assign students to sections.
  • Click the Email Members tab to send an email to class members or section members.
  • Click a member's email address to send an email to just that individual.

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Adding Non-MIT users to the Membership page

Non-MIT users need to obtain a Kerberos account.

Directions to Add a Non-MIT User
  1. Select Membership in the left navigation bar.

  2. Select Edit Participants in the tabs across the top of the page.

  3. Add the non-MIT user's email address to the Add User field and click Submit.

  • You may be directed to the Add New Participants page and asked to verify the email address(es) of the person(s) you have added. Confirm and click Submit.
  • A confirmation page will appear to inform you that a Collaboration Account request has been sent to the added person(s).
  • On the class Membership page, newly added participants should appear on the class roster as "User, Provisional." You can view their email address by hovering your cursor over "User, Provisional".
  • Each newly added user will receive an email with instructions for creating and activating a Touchstone Collaboration Account.
  • Once the user activates their account and logs in to Stellar, their name will replace the "Provisional User" placeholder.

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Assigning Students to Sections

Directions to Assign Students to Sections:

Instructors who prefer to assign students manually to sections should use the following steps:

  1. Click Membership on the navigation bar.

    Note: Click the Membership link from the class website; you cannot add students to a section from a section website.

  2. Click the Change link for the student you want to assign.

    • The Change Recitation Section page is displayed. This page lists all sections for the class and their respective instructor, schedule, location, and number of remaining openings.
  3. Select the section.

  4. Click the Next button. The Verify Recitation Section page is displayed.
  5. Confirm that the student is assigned to the correct section.
  6. Click the Save and Exit Setup button.

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Assign Multiple Students to Sections

Directions to Assign Multiple Students to a Section

Instructors who prefer to bulk assign students to sections should use the following steps:

  1. Click Membership on the navigation bar.

  2. Click Batch Edit on the navigation bar.

  3. Select Students by either checking the checkbox next to the student's name or clicking the Select All button.

  4. Choose the Section from the 'Assign selected to' dropdown and click Assign.

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Automatically Assign Students to Sections based on Pre-Registration Data

Directions to Automatically Assign Students to Sections based on Pre-Registration Data
  1. Create section(s) as outlined in Setting Up Sections.
  2. Click Manage Sections on the 'Membership' page.

  3. Click the 'Import pre-reg data from WEBSIS' button.

Note:

  • The 'Import pre-registration data from WEBSIS' button is visible ONLY if section pre-reg data from the registrar is available.
  • Sections must first be set up in order for pre-registration section data to populate correctly.
  • Any (manual or bulk) section assignments will be overwritten by the pre-registration data.
  • Currently, Stellar recognizes pre-reg section data for RECITATIONS only, but not labs (or any other types of) sections.

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Blocking Enrolled Students Who Intend to Drop a Class


After a student submits his/her drop form, it may take a few days before the Registrar is able to process the "drop" and send that update to Stellar. In the meantime, 'dropped' students may still show up on your class list. While you cannot remove a dropped student from the class list, you can BLOCK that student's access to the course site. Once blocked, the student will no longer receive class email or have access to class materials.

If you block a student from the site, the student will automatically be unassigned from any section to which they currently belong. If you unblock them at a later time the student will need to be re-assigned to a section.

 
Directions to Block an Enrolled Student from the Class Website and Email:
  1. Click Membership on the navigation bar.

  2. On the Membership page, click the Block link next to the student's name.

  3. On the Block Student page, click Block.

The student's name remains on the Membership page with a Blocked label and a Unblock link. Clicking the Unblock link will restore the student's access to the class website and email.It will not however re-assign them to a section that they may have belonged to prior to being blocked. After unblocking a student they will need to be assigned to a section.

Directions to Block Multiple Students:
  1. Click Membership on the navigation bar.

  2. On the Membership page, click the 'Batch edit' tab.

  3. Select the students and click Block.

The Block and Unblock actions have no effect on a student's registration status. The student must submit paperwork to the Registrar to change his or her registration status.

 

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Sending Email

Directions to send Email:

Course Admin may send emails from the main course site or from a section. Emails can be sent to class/section participants, guests and/or selected staff. Note: Participants include registered, pre-registered and manually-added students.  (See Overview of User Groups for information on administrators and graders.)

To send email:

  1. Click Membership on the navigation bar
  2. Click the Email Members tab

  3. Select the intended group(s) by checking the boxes next to the group name (Note: Use the green show/hide recipients button to display/hide the recipient list)
  4. Enter a subject line
  5. Enter the message text
  6. (Optional) Attach a file
  7. Click the Send Email button

Tip: To send an email to an individual student, return to the Membership page and click on the individual's name. This will automatically open an email window in your default email client.

When pasting text from MS Word, we recommend using the "Paste from Word" tool to clean up the HTML and protect hyperlinks in your the message.

 

Email Confirmation: The sender will receive two(2) emails.  The first is a copy of the sent email.  The second is a confirmation email listing the recipients.  Screenshots are below:
Email (1)

Email (2)

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