UVACollab HelpUVACollab DocumentationGetting StartedCourse and Collaboration SitesHow do I create a course or collaboration site in Worksite Setup?

How do I create a course or collaboration site in Worksite Setup?

Tip: Site Builder is the recommended tool for creating new sites in UVACollab. For more information, see What is Site Builder?

If you have the appropriate permissions to create new course or collaboration sites in UVACollab, you may get started in Worksite Setup or My Sites. You will be taken to the same site creation workflow from both starting points.

Choose how to view the steps.

Video Guides

Build Your Own Collaboration Site Video

Create Course Site Using Template Video

Step-by-Step Instructions

Create a new site from Worksite Setup.

Select Worksite Setup from the tool menu in your Home site.

Select Create New Site.

Or, create a new site starting in My Sites.

Select My Sites in the top banner.

Select Create New Site in the My Sites menu.

Select your preferred site creation option.

  1. Build your own site: This option presents a workflow that lets you choose the tools and features to include in your new site.
  2. Create site from template: A template-based site comes with pre-selected tools to streamline the site creation workflow. Certain site templates come with pre-configured tools designed to facilitate development of a course portal, e.g., the Activities Grid and Activities Menu site templates. You can find descriptions of each of the templates in the Create site from template step below.

Note: You may add or remove tools from sites created by either method once created. See How do I add a tool to my site? and How do I remove a tool from my site?

Build your own site.

If you choose to build your own site, select one of the following options:

  1. Collaboration site: A collaboration site is used to support project teams, research groups, and other collaborative work.
  2. Course site: A course site is an online space for a course. Each course site is associated with an academic term, and instructors who are assigned to rosters in the Student Information System (SIS) may add the rosters to their sites.

Create site from template (default selected) option

If you are creating your site from a template, select the Collaboration or Course menu to expand and select from the list of available site templates.

Templates for collaboration sites:

  • Basic Collaboration: Includes standard tools for communication and collaboration, such as Announcements, Discussions, and Resources.
  • Basic WordPress: Includes the tools necessary to create a WordPress site and to upload and embed media on it.

Templates for course sites:

  • Basic Course: Includes standard tools for essential course activities, such as Announcements, Gradebook, Resources, and Roster.
  • Activities Grid: Includes a customizable course schedule where you can structure content and activities in your site, and link to resources, assignments, and assessments so students can access them easily from a single page.
  • Activities Menu: Includes customizable course modules for activities, which you can use to simplify the presentation of your content and direct your students to particular materials and activities. Modules for each week, session, subject, or other units, can be progressively released to students throughout the semester to guide their coursework.
  • Activities Week-by-Week: Similar to the Activities Menu, this template automatically creates modules for each week in the semester. These modules are created as subpages in Lessons (15 subpages), rather than pages. The weekly subpages can include course readings, links, activities, external tools, and other content. Weekly subpages can be progressively released to students throughout the semester.
  • School-Specific Templates: Include tools and content designed for courses in specific schools, such as Virginia Engineering Online courses offered through the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and courses offered through the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

For Course sites only.

If you are creating a collaboration site, skip ahead to Enter site information.

Select an academic term.

Select an academic term from the menu provided, e.g, 2022 Spring.

Select Continue.
Select one or more rosters to add to your site.
  1. Select one or more course rosters in the list.
  2. Select Continue.

Enter site information.

Enter the site title (required).

If a roster was selected, the Site Title field will be pre-populated with the name of the roster. In this case, you may edit the title or keep the pre-populated default title.

If no roster was selected for a course site, or if you are creating a collaboration site, enter a Site Title up to 25 characters long.

Select site language (optional).

If desired, you can change the default language for your site to any of the available languages listed. You can leave User Language (default) selected to present the site to each user based on their language preferences.

Enter a site description (optional).

Use the Rich-Text Editor to enter a description of the site that will appear on the site's home page.

Enter a short description (optional).

You may also enter a short description (with a maximum of 80 characters). This short description will display in the publicly viewable list of sites.

Accept or change the site contact information.

As the site creator, your name and email address will automatically appear in the Site Contact Name and Site Contact Email fields. To change the site contact info, enter the name and email address for the site contact. The site contact is typically the site creator, owner, or instructor.

Select Continue.

Select site tools (for build-your-own site option only).

As you select tools from the General list, they are added to the Selected tools list.

Note: The tool selection screen is not presented for sites being created from a site template.

Select Continue.

Configure site email address (if using Site Email).

  1. By default, a unique site email address based on the site title will be automatically populated in the field provided. You can customize this email address. However, it is recommended to keep the site title in the email address. This will make it easier for you and your site participants to tell which site the email relates to.
  2. Select Continue.

Configure site access.

  1. Select to Publish the site, or Leave as Draft (i.e. unpublished). Unpublished sites are only visible to site owners, not other participants such as students.
  2. Select Display in Site Browser so that anyone may search for your site from the Site Browser on the UVACollab Gateway and view certain content in the site that is set to Public access, e.g., items in Announcements, Resources, Syllabus can be set to public access. Select Do not display in Site Browser to ensure your site will not appear in the Site Browser list.
  3. Choose to make site access Limited to official course members or to those I add manually (recommended) or Allow any UVACollab user to join the site.
  4. Select Continue.

Confirm site setup.

You will see a screen which displays all of the site settings for verification. If everything appears correct, select Create Site.