myCourses, RIT's course management system, has two new features — the attendance tool and intelligent agents.

Attendance tool

The attendance tool gives instructors more flexibility in tracking attendance in a course.

This tool enables an instructor to track attendance independently of creating an attendance category in the gradebook. This can be used in on-campus and online courses and set up for different attendance groups — such as a class that has lectures and labs or special events. It also handles excused absences and flags students whose attendance is falling below a certain level (e.g. 65 percent).

Information on attendance can be shared with students or kept private.

Intelligent agents

Intelligent agents allow instructors to monitor certain course conditions and send out e-mail alerts when those conditions are met.

For example, if a student has not logged into the course for a period of time, the intelligent agent will let the instructor know via an e-mail. It can also e-mail students who scored poorly on a midterm to alert them and offer coaching or tutoring opportunities.

Multiple intelligent agents can be set up to track different things in one course.

Both features are being further developed by the courseware vendor and Online Learning is open to receiving feedback from faculty to send to the vendor to help shape their development.

For more information on these new features, view the archived webinar introducing these features or visit the Training & Events page to request a training session.