MSU Faculty Support
MSU Faculty Support
Contact Helpdesk
Submit a help request concerning LON-CAPA to Distance Learning Services at Michigan State University. You may also call Distance Learning Services 24/7 at 1-517-355-2345. Toll-free service throughout North America is available at 1-800-500-1554.
Request Course
Request creation of a LON-CAPA course using our form. If you are listed in CLIFMS as faculty instructor or supervisor, the course will be created automatically within 10 minutes after you submit the form. If not, your request will be held in a queue pending your addition to CLIFMS by your department. For more help, read the additional information on requesting a course.
Documentation
- Building a Course - quick start guide (pdf)
This quick start guide is a concise two-page document that describes the essential information needed to build a course in LON-CAPA.
- Course Coordinator Manual [pdf]
The Course Coordinator Manual explains how to carry out common course management tasks in LON-CAPA, such as creating a course from published resources in the LON-CAPA system, importing classlists, changing course settings such as due dates for homework problems, and managing grades using the LON-CAPA spreadsheet etc.
- Author Manual [pdf]
The Author Manual explains how to create homework problems, and also how to develop course materials in re-usable sequences which can then be imported into any number of different courses.
- Building exams in LON-CAPA
Information about building exams can be found in the Course Coordinator Manual [pdf]. The documentation explains all the steps involved in building, printing and scoring a randomized LON-CAPA exam which each student will complete by bubbling answers on a scantron sheet. There is also guidance for using the system to deliver an online exam, in which each student will submit answers using a web browser while logged into LON-CAPA.
- LaTeX
Training
The Libraries, Computing & Technology Training Program (LCTTP) offers the following LON-CAPA training sessions:
Enroll online (you need to use the Internet Explorer browser to enroll online) or call 517-432-0700. If a course does not work with your schedule or if you have additional training needs, please call LCTTP at 517-432-0700 to make other arrangements. Faculty Training Seminars and LON-CAPA Projects Conferences/Workshops are offered in addition to the LCTTP training.
Exams
LON-CAPA can be used to create randomized Scantron exams. For more information, read the sections concerning building exams in the Course Coordinator Manual or sign up for LON-CAPA Advanced Course Coordination and Exams Training .
Scantron data transfer form for the Scoring Office [PDF]
Course Management Transition
Courses exported from Blackboard or ANGEL as IMS packages can be imported into LON-CAPA. For more information please refer to the IMS import documentation [PDF].
Links to LON-CAPA Project Resources
The following links are resources provided by the LON-CAPA software project to users from all educational institutions running LON-CAPA.
- Overview of the LON-CAPA Project
The overview page includes links to pages describing the philosophy and history of LON-CAPA as well as information about LON-CAPA presentations, workshops and events and a list of institutions who are a part of the LON-CAPA community.
- Technical Support for Users outside of MSU
- LON-CAPA Project's FAQ-o-matic
The FAQ-O-Matic is a collection of answers provided to common questions asked by users of LON-CAPA from multiple educational institutions over the past couple of years. Answers are organized in topic folders and subfolders. The FAQ-O-Matic is a community resource, to which LON-CAPA users may contribute their own answers to questions they themselves are commonly asked about LON-CAPA.
- Report feature requests and bugs
Create an account for yourself in the LON-CAPA Bugzilla tracking system, if you wish to report bugs you have encountered in the LON-CAPA software, or if you have suggestions for improvements in LON-CAPA. Suggested improvements may include additional functionality, improved usability, or changes to wording used in LON-CAPA pages, including the embedded help system.
- Mailing Lists
The LON-CAPA mailing lists are e-mail lists to which you can subscribe to receive e-mail posted by other LON-CAPA list subscribers. There are separate lists concerned with administrative issues, general LON-CAPA usage, announcements, and LON-CAPA development.
