Overview

Humanities provides space on their server for faculty and graduate students to use for their courses. You can use this space to create web pages and post syllabi, notes, images and helpful links. This involves a certain amount of "web design" work; for people with little experience we recommend taking a look at Carmen, a user-friendly web-based course management tool

(see also Faculty/Grad Pages vs Bio Pages)

What Should I Put on My Web Pages?

You can load anything you think would help your students, from syllabi and class outlines to PowerPoint presentations, pictures and PDF files. To get started we suggest you provide your contact information, office hours, and a syllabus.

University, Humanities and Department policy require you to observe copyright laws:

In placing files on the World Wide Web server in the Departments' directories, all persons will abide by copyright rules and "fair use" guidelines. The Library of Congress provides information about copyright at http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/. The Department directories will follow the fair use guidelines explained at: Stanford University's Copyright & Fair Use pages.

Technical Overview

Before you get started, you'll need a Humanities Account, which you can set up by clicking here.

What is a Web Page?

A web page is a document saved in a format called HTML. Many programs, including MS Word, can save documents in html. For people to be able to view your pages on the World Wide Web, a web page needs to be saved on a server (in your network web folder).

Accessing the Server

All of your files for your web site will be located in your network web folder on the Humanities server, which is essentially a giant hard drive in Hagarty Hall. Access to the server is done via ftp, which requires an ftp program such as Core FTP or a web management toll such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage. Setup instructions are provided on the H.I.S. web services pages here.

Accessing the Server from Home

You can access these files from almost any computer in the world by pointing your browser to:

https://humvpn.cohums.ohio-state.edu/

Trouble logging in? Contact H.I.S. at 292-8662.

Creating a Web Page

The simplest way to create a web page is to use Microsoft Word. Just type in the information you want and then go to file>save as and choose file type>web page (see IMAGE 1 to the right). The document is now a web page! Be sure to save this file in your web folder, and name it " default.htm "

How Much Server Space Do I Have?

Humanities allows for 256mb of files in your web folder. This is in addition to the space in your network folder

What If I need More Help?

If you're having trouble, stop by the Goldberg Instructional Center in Dulles Hall (room 207) to see if there is anyone available to help. If you would like help setting up your pages for the first time, please contact to schedule an appointment. There is more help below as well as a useful page on the H.I.S. site.

Additional Help and Frequently Asked Questions

More Help With Links

1. Create the document you want to link to.
2. Put this document in your network web folder
3. Open (in Word) the document you want to link from
4. Type in the title of of the document you want to link to
5. Highlight the text that you want to turn into a link
6. Go to insert>hyperlink on the pull-down menu in Word. Where it asks for the address at the bottom type in the following: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/name#/ followed by the file name (such as hist152 syllabus.doc):
   
   http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/name#/filename.xxx
   (xxx = htm, doc, jpg, gif, etc.)
   
   
7. Click "OK". The text you selected should now appear underlined and in blue. Repeat this for any other links you want to create. Be sure to include the full url, starting with http://
8. Save the file in your network web folder
9. You're done! Open the page in your browser and test the link (you may need to hit "refesh" to view any changes you've just made to your page)

Linking to File Folders inside your Network Web Folder

If you have created a folder inside your network web folder (a "subfolder") and you are linking to a file or page inside that subfolder, be sure to include that folder name after name#/ as follows:

http://people.cohums.ohio- state.edu/name#/foldername/filename.xxx
(xxx = htm, doc, jpg, gif, etc.)

Using Fonts

The font you choose in Word for your web pages will only display if the computer that is viewing your page has that font installed. Try using "standard" fonts like Arial or Times New Roman to ensure that your page appears the way you intended.

Using Pictures (graphics)

You can place graphics on your webpage by selecting insert>picture in Word. When you save your page, Word will automactically create a subfolder called default_files to store your images (if your page is named something other than default, the folder will be called xx_files where "xx" is the name of the file). Be sure to keep this subfolder in your network web folder or else the images will not appear when viewed on the web.

When combining text with images, keep the images on their own line without placing text around the image (to the left or right): this may confuse the browser and will not always display the way you intended.

Sharing PowerPoint (.ppt) Files

You can upload PowerPoint files and link to them, but remember that not all of your students have PowerPoint installed on their computers. We recommend that you save your presentation as a web page under file>save as web page in PowerPoint. Otherwise you can offer links to free "ppt viewer programs" to help your students view your PowerPoint presentations:

A few web pages with viewer programs:
• http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm
• http://myclass.memphis.edu/viewers/

PPViewer program (for Windows):
• http://history.osu.edu/common/files/ppviewer.exe

PPViewer program (for Mac OS9):
• http://history.osu.edu/common/files/ppt98vw.hqx

What (and Where) is my "Network Web Folder"?

Your "network web folder" (or just "web folder") is a folder on the Humanities server that holds your web files. Anything placed there can be accessed by the World Wide Web. You can access your files with your browser or you can setup an ftp connection.

I Changed Something But It Doesn't Show Up on the Web

First, try refreshing your page: go to view>refresh (or hit the F5 key). If this doesn't solve the problem, check to make sure you've saved the new version to your network web folder and make sure you are saving in the "prod" folder and NOT the "staging" folder.

I Can't Access the Server from Home

The user name and password to access the server from home are the same as your Humanities login (name# without the ".") -- please contact HIS for login help.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will not allow you to connect directly to our network through their service. Also, some configurations on certain computers will prevent direct access to our network. Unfortunately we have no way to tell in advance whether or not the connection will work, however it should work with the majority of ISPs and configurations.

Faculty (or Grad) Pages vs. Bio Pages

The pages discussed here are your "faculty instructional pages" which are designed to be instructional pages for the course(s) you are teaching. There are also "bio pages" in the faculty and grad directories, automatically created for everyone with a Humanities account. You can change the information on the bio pages by clicking on "edit the information on this page" link. If you'd like to add a link on your bio page to other web pages, you can insert the following line of code (html) at the end of your bio:

<a href="http://people.cohums.ohio- state.edu/name#">Professor XX Maintains Additional Pages</a>

More Help

Humanities Information Systems has some useful pages at http://his.osu.edu/webdev/webpeople/default.cfm

Carmen

Carmen is an online course management tools. These tools allow you to post your syllabus, quizzes, outlines, images or even teach a course entirely online. Carmen uses your internet browser and doesn't require any knowledge of html or other web design skills.