To-Do Manager

In To-Do Manager, you can

Add to-do lists that fit your course schedule to help keep students on track
Add and tag to-do items in each list
Tailor to-do list items to determine whether they are delivered to particular students
Migrate to-do lists from previous terms

Tips!

You can create to-do lists of any duration — a week, a month, a semester, etc. At U-M, we make lists for each week and set up the release dates so that students can always see two weeks (the current week and the week after).
You can tailor to-do items so they only appear for certain people, for example: people only in a certain section, people who have not read a certain ECoach bulletin, people who have not completed a survey, and so on.
You can tailor content in ECoach bulletins and emails based on whether people checked a to-do item.
Assign ToDoChecked: multivalue and whole numbers.

Migrating lists from previous terms

ECoach lets you copy (migrate) lists from previous terms.

Choose the term from which to migrate your to-do lists.
All the lists from the term you chose will appear. Choose the list(s) you want to bring into your new coach.
Migrating brings forward all of the items in the list, as well as the logic, titles, and descriptions, but not the dates.
Note: At U-M we use weekly lists and find that it's often easier to migrate from Fall to Fall or Spring to Spring (as opposed to just using the latest term). In winter, an exam might be in week 5, but in spring, it might be in week 6, for example.

Adding a new item tag (optional)

You can tag your to-do items with labels of your choosing (e.g., Exams, Homework, Readings, etc.)

Label: This is the actual name that appears on the to-do item (see images below). It's best to keep it as short as possible.
Color: This determines the border color for the tag you're creating. Choosing a different color for each tag creates a visual cue for students.

Adding a to-do list

You can create to-do lists of any duration — a week, a month, a semester, etc. At U-M, we make lists for each week and set up the release dates so that students can always see two weeks (the current week and the week after).

Title: This appears at the top of the list to identify what the list covers. See image below.
Source: Choose your course's source.
Connect to MTS characteristic: Choose a characteristic from your MTS Dictionary so you can tailor on whether a student checks off the item (e.g., "ToDoListChecked").
- Note: You'll need to create and publish the characteristic in MTS first.

Adding an item to a list

Title: This is the header of the to-do item.
Description: This is the body of the to-do item.
Tags (optional): Choose the tag associated with this item. See above for more about tags.
Logic: You can tailor to-do items using the same kinds of logic you would use in MTS. See "Tailoring a to-do item" below for more details.
Due date (optional): Items with dates (see image below) sort to the top of the list in chronological order. Items without dates sort to the bottom of the list.

Here's what the pieces of a to-do list item look like:

Tips!

The "next" arrow is always visible to you so that you can see the whole term's worth of lists. However, it's only visible to students if the next week's Start Date has passed.
When students go to the coach homepage, ECoach chooses to display the list first by looking for which to-do lists have start and end dates that contain the present date, then it picks the one with the earliest start date from that list. This allows overlapping to-do lists so you can show people "this week" and "next week" for example. If there are no to-do lists with current dates, it'll pick the oldest previous to-do list. If all to-do lists are in the future, it shows nothing for a student. Instructors / staff can always see future to-do lists.

Advanced tips

Tailoring a to-do item

You can tailor to-do items using the same kinds of logic you would use in MTS. Here are some common examples:

- LectureSection=="400" --> A to-do item with this logic will only be visible to students in section 400.
  - - To do this:
    - Create and publish a corresponding MTS characteristic (e.g., "LectureSection"), and you'll need to connect it to ECoach under Coach Details > Course Tailoring.
    - This logic also works for LabSection, DiscussionSection, etc.
- False --> A to-do item with False in the logic field is not visible to students. This is handy if you want to publish a list even though you're waiting on some details on a particular item.
- 612 in MessageViewed or not 612 in MessageViewed --> goes to people who have or have not read an ECoach bulletin (respectively).
  - - To do this:
    - Create and publish a corresponding MTS characteristic (e.g., "MessageViewed"), and make sure it's connected ECoach to the bulletin/email/survey you want to tailor on.
    - Find the specific ID number in the coach's Communications Manager for the bulletin/email/survey you want to tailor on.

Tailoring on to-do items completed

You can tailor emails, bulletins, or other to-do items based on whether someone has checked off a to-do item or not.

Make sure you have a characteristic published in your MTS dictionary (such as "ToDoChecked") and that you set a Source and Characteristic when you added your list. (See "Adding a new list" above.)
Locate the list item identifier at the top of the list item (see image below).
When you add your email, bulletin, or list item, use logic like 164 in ToDoChecked or not 164 in ToDoChecked to tailor for people who have or have not checked off the item (respectively).
Note: The item identifier only appears after you've saved your list.

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