Mastershells

IU Course Master Shells

Masters are special Moodle courses that contain content which can be reused each semester. Unlike a "live shell" (generated in Moodle once courses are created in Banner and the shells in which teaching happens), no students are enrolled in them. Instead, they act as 'templates' for a specific course. Master shells create a space where content used consistently from section to section, semester to semester, may be prepared well in advance of the actual course start date. Masters also allow a program, department, or faculty member to update content (links, resources, discussion questions) in one place and then deploy that updated content to live shells.

Immaculata has several types of MASTER shells:

1. *Official University 'Managed' Master – These master shells are what we call "IU-Owned" and for courses developed under contract for the university with the appropriate academic department approvals. All course materials for IU owned master shells are developed using the university's standardized format and have been carefully vetted to meet institutional compliance standards. Such courses are managed centrally in the Office of Curriculum & Instruction (C&I).

2. *Approved Department 'Managed' Master – Some departments create masters so that multiple instructors teaching the same course have access to the same, foundational materials. The department approved/managed contents of these master shells are automatically to the live sections; however, the loaded materials do not constitute a 'complete' course. In order for a course section using a department-managed master to work for online/hybrid instruction, each instructor needs to provide the necessary content (preferably from his or her own individual personal master) to ensure the class content is complete.

3. Individual Personal Master – Such shells house materials that are unique to, and completely managed by, an individual faculty member instructor are prepared and allow he or she to store course resources and prepare all the course materials. Because these Masters will be managed entirely by the faculty, there is little or no supervisory oversight, and these are generally for use as enhancement for face-to-face courses. The instructor is responsible for making updates and overall maintenance of their own teaching material. These content of these shells are the property of the instructor and used by only this instructor listed as owner.

4. Shared Master – The shared master is very similar to an Individual Personal Master except that this type of master has several instructors collaborating and using the same content. It is also similar to - but not the same as - a department master, since they are not approved as "the" department master for a given course. As with the individual master, the content in a shared master can import the materials to an individual's live course section as needed by the any of the instructors who share the master ownership.

*Please Note: For any courses using IU-owned or department approved masters and are part of the automated content loading process, no official additions or changes may be made once a course is "live" (loaded in Moodle) and available to students without written permission from the Dean.