Instructor guide

This section of the documentation is the reference for everything an instructor does in PrairieLearn. If you're brand-new, start with Getting started.

Returning each semester

If you've taught with PrairieLearn before, here is a quick checklist to get you back up to speed:

1. Copy your previous course instance: Course instances → open last term → Instance settings → Make a copy.
2. Update dates in the new instance: publishing dates and every allowAccess rule on assessment access rules.
3. Update your course staff for the new term.

Configure the content of your course

There are four major concepts you will need to configure in your course:

• Courses — course-wide settings: assessment sets, modules, topics, tags, course staff, sharing.
• Course instances — one term: publishing, self-enrollment, timezone, LMS, instance staff.
• Assessments — one homework or exam: zones, points, access control, manual grading config.
• Questions — the building blocks: elements, randomization, grading, resources, student interaction.

Tip

For a refresher of what these aspects are, see the PrairieLearn concepts.

Reference

• Running locally: learn how to run PrairieLearn locally on your machine.
• Access control: learn how to control when and where students can access your course content.
• Element catalog: a reference for all elements available for use in questions.
• Code autograders: learn how to automatically grade student code.
  • Python
  • C / C++
  • Java
• FAQ: find answers to common questions.
• Workspaces: learn about workspaces, which provide students with a coding environment.
• LMS integration: learn how to send grades to your LMS.
• Manual grading: learn how to manually grade student responses.
• Editing and syncing course content: understand tradeoffs between in-browser editing and local editing.