Administrators: The Administrator's Roles and Responsibilities

PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Introduction
The Administrator’s roles and responsibilities
Every MEC site needs a local administrator. Depending in the size of your school, there may be several
administrators for your MEC site. The main roles of these local MEC administrators are as follows:
Managing courses: This involves:
Setting up new courses from scratch
Editing existing courses
Adapting existing courses
Publishing and withdrawing courses
Managing classes: This involves:
Assigning courses to classes
Activating classes and withdrawing them
Making announcements: This involves:
Publishing and withdrawing announcements for all MEC users in your school
In addition to the above, MEC administrators may also find themselves playing any of the following roles:
4 staff trainer for MEC

4 local ‘champion’ for MEC
4 local ‘trouble-shooter’ for MEC
4 intermediary between MEC support staff and the school
Section 1
Administrator’s interface
When you first log on to your MEC site (see Part 1, Section 1 for details of how to log on), you’ll be brought
to the administrator’s Work Area. This has all the same features as the teacher’s Work Area, plus a link to
the Announcement Builder (see Part 5, Section 4) and a course building and course management facility
(see Part 5, Sections 2 and 3).
The rest of this section of The Guide to MEC will explain more about the features which are unique to the
administrator’s view:
4 Course set-up
4 Assigning courses to classes
4 Using the Announcement Builder
PART 5 - ADMINISTRATORS
© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005. You may photocopy this sheet.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
To find out more about the main features of the Work Area, resources and MEC in general, refer to the
earlier sections of this guide.
Section 2
Building courses
2.1 Viewing courses in the Course Overview screen
In order to do any course management work in MEC, follow this path to get to the main course management
screen:
Work Area > (click the Courses tab) > Courses > (click the Course Overview and Course Creation pane) >
Course Overview and Course Creation
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.1 continued
The main course management screen (shown below) allows you to Create, Edit, Delete, View and Publish
courses from the system. All courses currently on your school’s MEC site are listed on this screen. The title
and description of each course on the list will be in a different colour, according to its status:
4 Black for ‘in preparation’ – courses that are still being built by you or another administrator on the system.
These cannot be assigned to classes yet.
4 Blue for ‘published’ – courses that are built and are available to be assigned to classes.
4 Grey for ‘withdrawn’ – courses that have been made unavailable for the time-being and cannot be
assigned to classes.
As for all similar screens on MEC, the list can be filtered using the drop-down menus at the top of the
screen.
Click the ‘View’ option next to the course information in order to see the course in detail.
Click here to create

new courses or to adapt
existing ones.
Choose ‘Edit’ if you want

to change the existing version of
a course permanently.
If you want to keep the original
version, but create a second
edited version, then go to ‘Course
set-up’ on the red toolbar and
choose ‘adapt an existing
course’. See Part 5, Section 2.4.
Publishing a course
makes it available to be assigned
to a class.
Even when a course is published,
learners and teachers can’t see it
until it is assigned to their class.
See Part 5, Section 3.
A course is automatically
‘locked’ by the administrator who
creates it; it can only be edited by
the same administrator. Another
administrator can work on this
course only if the creator
‘unlocks’ it.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Setting up a new course
To create a new course, click on the ‘Course set-up’ button on the red toolbar. This will take you to a screen
like the one shown here:
Choose ‘set up a new course’ and click the ‘Start’ button on the red toolbar. This will take you to the first of
the four course set-up steps. The steps are:
1 Edit Course Introduction
2 Edit Syllabus Components
3 Edit Number of Units
4 Edit Syllabus Items and Resources
The steps are easy to follow, but to understand what’s happening at each stage you need to be familiar with
the names for MEC course elements: syllabus components, units, syllabus items and resources.
For more information on what these terms mean and how MEC courses are organized, see Part 1, Section
3.3.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Step 1 Edit Course Introduction
Here you create the Introduction which appears at the top of the first screen learners see when they click
‘View’ to open their course.
Here you also give the course a name and define the level and age group of the target learners.
Remember to save what

you’ve done before you move on
to the next step.
Give a title which is

consistent with the course
naming conventions your school
has decided on.
Choose the image which

will appear when learners first
open their course.
When you’ve completed all the details for your course introduction, click ‘Save entry’ button on the red
toolbar. Then click the ‘Next step’ button, or on ‘Step 2: Edit syllabus components’ in the grey box on the
left. You can clear what you have done and start again by clicking the ‘Cancel’ button.
Tip: Try to be consistent with your course naming. You should decide on certain course naming conventions
and make sure that all administrators on the system adhere to them. This will make managing courses in
your MEC much easier.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Step 2 Edit Syllabus Components
Syllabus components are used to describe the content of your MEC syllabus items. Each syllabus item in a
course is a collection of resources. The collective content of those resources, however, can be broken down
into thematic groups or ‘components’. You decide what those components are called on this screen.
Typically, these components are language areas, such as ‘Skills’, ‘Grammar’ and ‘Vocabulary’. However, you
could decide that the components of your syllabus are theme-based, e.g. ‘Culture’, ‘Survival English’ and
‘Review’. Whatever you choose, remember that the components will be the same for all units in the course.
You can include up to eight syllabus components in a course.
Also, you should be aware that syllabus components are used only to describe the content of syllabus items.
Resources cannot be physically ‘attached’ or ‘assigned’ to components, and learners cannot filter resource
lists by ‘syllabus component’.
Simply, when they view each syllabus item, the learners will see a screen which describes the syllabus
components of which it comprises. Here is an example of what learners might see when they open a
syllabus item in a course.
The names for each component (e.g. Vocabulary, Skills, Grammar) remain the same for every syllabus item
in the course, but the details (e.g. Useful food words) change from one syllabus item to another.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Step 2 continued
At this stage in the course-building process, you provide the names only. The details are added later.
Write the name of the component in the box provided. Tick the ‘invisible for students’ box if you want this
component visible only for teachers. See the Tip at the end of this section for more information on making
syllabus components invisible to students.
Decide on a title for one component and click the ‘Done’ button on the red toolbar.
On clicking ‘Done’ you will be taken back to the course set-up screen. Now you can see the component you
have just added.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
To add more components, click ‘Add new’ on the red toolbar and repeat the steps just described in order to
create up to a maximum of eight syllabus components. In the example below, the course has three syllabus
components.
These arrows allow you

to change the order in which
syllabus components are
presented on screen.
For example, click the ‘up’ arrow
once to move an item one place
higher in the list.
Notice that you can ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ components at this stage. Clicking on ‘Edit’ takes you back to the
screen where you wrote the name of the component, allowing you to rename it.
When you have named and added all your syllabus components, click ‘Next step’ on the red toolbar or on
‘Step 3: Edit number of units’ in the grey box on the left.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Tip: Why make syllabus components invisible to students?
If you create a component that only teachers can see, this will provide you with a space to add brief
teaching notes, tips or advice. For example, here is the syllabus components screen for the course you saw
above. This time, however, we see the teacher’s view. You can see that it includes an extra syllabus
component called ‘Teaching notes and tips’ with advice for extra activities for this syllabus item.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Step 3 Edit number of Units
You can choose to organize your syllabus items into larger groups or ‘units’. A unit corresponds to a unit or
module in some coursebooks.
Use the drop-down menu to choose the number of units you want for your MEC course.
If you don’t want units, choose ‘0’ from the drop-down menu. This will mean that syllabus items are the
highest level of organization for your course.
Click ‘Next step’ on the red toolbar to confirm your choice and move on to edit syllabus items or click ‘Step
4: Edit Syllabus Item and Resources’ in the grey box on the left.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.2 Step 4 Edit Syllabus Item and Resources
Syllabus items are the main units of organization for MEC courses. They are analogous to lessons in some
coursebooks and are made up of individual resources that you choose using the Resource Finder.
First, use the form on the ‘Edit Syllabus Item and Resources’ screen to give each syllabus item a title and to
describe its content using the syllabus components you created in Step 2.
These are the

syllabus component
names that you defined
in Step 2. Here you
provide details about
what the syllabus
component will cover in
this syllabus item.
The information you
provide in this form will
appear at the top of the
screen when learners
view the syllabus item in
If you have chosen to This refers to the order in their course.
divide the course up into which syllabus items are presented in
units, you need to decide the unit (if your course has units) or in
which unit you want this the course. Choose ‘1’ from the drop
syllabus item to go in. down menu if you want this syllabus
item to be the first in the list.
When you have completed the form to describe the syllabus item, click the ‘Save entry’ button at the top of
the screen. You are now ready to add the content.
To do this, click the ‘Add resources’ button on the red toolbar. This will take you to a Resources screen which
is similar to the one you access from the ‘Resources’ tab. The difference is that here there is a check box
next to each resource description (see next page).
From here you can search for resources to include in the syllabus item you’re building. To find out more
about how to search for resources using the Resource Finder, see Part 1, Section 5.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Choose the resource that you want from the results lists of resources by clicking on the check box next to
the resource you want. Then click ‘Add to syllabus item’ on the red toolbar.
Once you have added the items you want from this search, you can either search again or return to the
syllabus item screen by clicking ‘Back to syllabus item’ on the red toolbar.
Each time you add a resource, don’t forget to click the ‘Save entry’ button. Once you have populated your
syllabus item with resources, it will look something like the example given on the next page. Click the ‘Done’
button on the red toolbar to return to the main Course set-up screen.
Tip: There is no right or wrong way to find your resources for your course. Some people prefer to search for
resources first so that they have a list of resource titles completed on paper or in their Bookmarks (see Part
1, Section 7.3) before they start searching via the Course set-up screens. Other people search while they
are course-building. Try various ways and decide what suits you.
One way to build your syllabus items is to use the Word and Phrase Search to look for any resources which
fit with the theme of the item. Or you can save time searching by organizing your searches. For example,
take each syllabus component in turn and look for resources which fit. Alternatively, take each resource
type in turn and build up your syllabus item that way.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Clicking
‘View’ opens the
resource.
‘Delete’ removes it
from this syllabus
item.
Use these
arrows to move
the resource up
down the list.
In this way, you
can put resources
in the order in
which you want
learners to
complete them.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Now you can continue to add further syllabus items following the procedure just described. The course will
build up like the one shown in the example here. Don’t forget to keep saving your work as you go.
When you have completed your work, click the ‘Back to courselist’ button on the red toolbar. You will now
see the new course you’ve created included in the list. It will be in black because it has not yet been
published. To learn more about how to publish a course in your MEC, see Part 5, Section 2.5.
This drop-down
menu allows you to view the
syllabus component entry
for each syllabus item. In
this example, the syllabus
component column currently
shows ‘Grammar’.
2.3 Editing existing courses

When you edit an existing course, you make permanent changes to it. Editing a course does not create an
additional instance of the course. If you want to create a new version of an existing course, but retain the
original version, you must ‘adapt’ the course. For more information on how to adapt courses, see Part 5,
Section 2.4.
To edit a course, first go to the Course Overview screen using the following path:
Work Area > (click the Courses tab) > Courses > (click the Course Overview and Course Creation pane) >
Course Overview and Course Creation
Click on ‘Edit’ next to the course you want to change. This will take you to the first of the course set-up
screens. From here, just follow the same procedure for setting up new courses described in Part 5, Section
2.2. Don’t forget to save your work as you go.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.4 Adapting existing courses
When you adapt a course, you create a new course based on an existing one. The new course you create is
called a ‘child’ course, and the original course it is based on is called the ‘parent’ course.
In the example courselist below, you can see that there is a child course called ‘MEC Level 1 course V2’
which is derived from the parent course ‘MEC Level 1 course’.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.4 continued
To adapt a course, go to the ‘Course Overview and Course Creation’ screen and click the ‘Course set-up’
button on the red toolbar. The will take you to a screen like the one below. Choose ‘adapt a course’ and click
‘Start’ on the red toolbar.
This will bring you back to a screen which lists the courses in your MEC. Click ‘Select’ to choose a course to
adapt from the list.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
2.4 continued
You will then be taken back to the first screen of the Course set-up process. Now follow the steps described
in Part 5, Section 2.2 for setting up a new course. Don’t forget to keep saving your work.
Tip: Although MEC will automatically mark the adapted course with a version number, it’s a good idea to
give the adapted version a new title which reflects the difference between the child and the parent courses.
2.5 Publishing and withdrawing courses
One of your roles as MEC Administrator will be to decide when to make courses available, and to which
classes. Publishing a course makes it available for you or other administrators to assign to a class. See the
section on managing classes Part 5, Section 3 for information on assigning courses to classes.
Eventually you will also want to withdraw MEC courses because they have been superseded by later
versions, or because of curriculum or administrative changes in your school.
To publish or withdraw a course, click the Courses tab and the Course Overview and Course Creation pane
to go to the Course Overview screen. Click the ‘Publication’ option next to the course you want to publish.
This will bring you to a screen like the one shown here.
Either type in a date for publishing in the future or choose the ‘Publish now’ option. If you know when you
want to stop using the course, type in a date for withdrawal, or come back to this screen at a later date and
click the ‘Expire now’ option. Withdrawn courses remain on the system and can be published again at a
later date, as and when you need them.
If you want to delete a course permanently from the system, choose ‘Delete’ next to the course on the main
Course Overview and Course Creation screen.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Section 3
Assigning courses to classes
3.1 Managing classes
3.1.1 Creating MEC classes
MEC classes are created by your institution in association with Macmillan MEC support staff in a way
appropriate for your institution. The following notes assume that classes have been set up. However, if you
need help and guidance in order to do this now, please contact your institution’s MEC manager or your
Macmillan Account Manager.
3.1.2 The Class Overview screen
For any class management work you need to do, you’ll first need to navigate to the Class Overview screen
using the following path:
Work Area >(click the Courses tab) > Courses >(click the Class Overview pane)> Class Overview
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
3.1.2 continued
This will take you to a screen like the one shown here:
Clicking ‘View’ will take

you to an overview screen for this
particular course. From there you
can see the various Markbook
views to monitor learners’
progress. For more information
about the Markbook, see Part 1,
Section 8 and Part 4, Section 1.
See Part 5,
Section 3.1.3 for
information on
See Part 5, assigning a course
Section 3.1.4 for to a class.
information on
activating a class.
If you lock a class,

you will be the only
administrator on the system
who can make changes.
By clicking ‘Export
marks’ next to a class, you can
download or print a summary of
all this class’s marks for MEC
course resources. For more
information about exporting
marks, see Part 1, Section 8.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
3.1.3 Assigning courses to classes
Once classes are set up on the system, you can begin to assign courses to classes. Only one course per
class can be assigned. However, if learners or teachers are members of other MEC classes, they will have
access to other courses also – one course for every class they belong to.
Before a course is assigned to a class, the members of that class can still have access to MEC. They can
search for resources and use their Web Links and Word Lists. The only thing they can’t do is access a
course.
To assign a course to a class, first click the Courses tab and the Class Overview pane to go to the Class
Overview screen. Choose ‘Assign course’ next to the class name. This will bring you to a screen summarizing
the class you have chosen, like the one shown here. Notice that at the top of the screen there are details of
the courses currently assigned to this class. In the example here, there is no course assigned yet.
Click the ‘Assign course’ button on the red toolbar.
Note: This screen is also used to access the Markbook. For information about ‘Syllabus Item overview’ (on
the red toolbar), ‘View Record’, ‘View Markbook’, ‘Export Marks’ and the ‘Progress’ column on this screen,
see Part 1, Section 8.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
3.1.3 continued
You are now at a list of the available courses i.e. ones that have been published. (see Part 5, Section 2.5)
Choose the course you wish to assign by checking the box under ‘Select’ and click the ‘Done’ button on the
red toolbar.
3.1.4 Activating and withdrawing classes

In order for members of a class to view courses, the class needs to be activated. Before activation, learners
can view resources and compile Word Lists or Web Links, but they cannot access courses.
To activate a class, go to the Class Overview screen as shown in Part 5, Section 3.1.2. Choose ‘Activation’
next to the class name. This will bring you to a screen like the one shown on the next page.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
3.1.4 continued
Either type in a date for activating in the future or choose the ‘Activate now’ option. If you know when you
want the class to end, type in a date for withdrawal, or come back to this screen at a later date and click the
‘Withdraw now’ option. The dates you choose are likely to be the ones for the beginnings and ends of
courses, terms or semesters in your institution.
3.1.5 Exporting marks
For information about exporting marks, see Part 1, Section 8.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
Section 4
Announcement Builder
4.1 What are announcements and where do they go?
Announcements are simply short texts which you can publish in MEC. A new announcement will appear
once when a learner or a teacher logs on and the same announcement will appear in the blue panel to the
right of the current Headline News article. To see the most recent announcement, click on the Headline
News pane in the Work Area. See the example below.
Announcements allow you to keep in touch with all users of your MEC. You can create announcements
which are visible to both students and teachers, or you can create announcements which only teachers see.
Teacher announcements are useful for:
4 informing teachers when courses become active or are about to be withdrawn.

4 informing teachers of content updates, such as new Word Games or Headline News articles.
4 reminding teachers about MEC features which you think they might be overlooking.
4 providing tips and ideas on how to get the best out of MEC.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
4.1 continued
Student announcements are useful for:
4 welcoming new classes to the system.
4 informing the learners of content updates, such as Word Games and Headline News articles.
4 adding informal content, such as very short jokes or ‘did you know’ type interesting facts.
4 providing tips and ideas on how to get the best out of the system.
4.2 Making announcements

To make an announcement, click on the ‘Announcement Builder’ pane on the Work Area. This will take you
to a list of existing announcements, like the one shown here or to a blank list screen if you have not yet
published any announcements.
Notice that you can ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ existing announcements by choosing these options from the
announcements list screen.
To create a new announcement, click on ‘Add new’ in the red toolbar. You will be taken to the
announcement builder screen, which looks like the one shown on the next page.
PART 5
ADMINISTRATORS
4.1 continued
Give the announcement a title and write the text of the announcement in the box provided. Don’t forget to
indicate which audience (students or teachers) you want to address. If you choose students, teachers will
also see the announcement.
Decide on a publishing and withdrawal date, or publish instantly by choosing the ‘Publish now’ option. Either
type in a date of expiry now or come back to this screen and click ‘Expire now’ when you want to remove the
announcement.
Tip: Don’t leave the same announcement for long periods of time as the ‘current’ announcement. This gives
learners and teachers the impression that your MEC is not looked after or updated regularly. If you have no
‘news’ to announce, use the announcement space for a regular feature. This could be a ‘phrase of the day’,
for example, or interesting language facts, or ‘Today’s Word’ from the Macmillan English Dictionary Online.

Administrators: The Administrator's Roles and Responsibilities

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Administrators: The Administrator's Roles and Responsibilities

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

PART 5

4 staff trainer for MEC

Click here to create

Choose ‘Edit’ if you want

Remember to save what

Give a title which is

Choose the image which

These arrows allow you

These are the

2.3 Editing existing courses

Clicking ‘View’ will take

If you lock a class,

3.1.4 Activating and withdrawing classes

4 informing teachers when courses become active or are about to be withdrawn.

4.2 Making announcements

You might also like