Olie is a web-based communications and course management tool. I wrote Olie to help me manage my online/off-campus teaching. Olie contains:

• Information Management: newsticker, announcements
• Communications: Forums, Blogs, chat room, O-mail
• Course management: class lists, session notes, course info, links manager
• Groupware: add students to cohorts, online groups, group notepad/notebook
• Organizers: a to-do list, bookmarks, notepad/notebook

Olie Interface
	Olie is written in ASP and only requires a current browser (IE or Netscape/Mozilla 4+ should work) to use. The home page displays the following modules: Left column: Blog Bookmarks Center column: announcements Right column: menu local date/time pack newsticker tasks
	The main menu, in the top-right corner of the screen, contains links to the Forum, the links database, a web-based chat room, the support forum, and instructions for downloading Olie.
	Use your "pack" to navigate the different sections. On the Olie home page, the pack is open and all links are displayed (as in the image on the left). On all other pages, the pack is closed and may be opened by clicking on the select box (see the image on the right). To move to the desired section, choose it from the list and click the button on the right (with the "-->").
	Administrators have access to the Olie control panel. From the control panel, administrators can manage annoucements, news items, blogs, forums, course settings, user settings, and overall site settings. send announcements to all users or by individual cohort add blogs or manage comments attached to blogs manage forum threads add session notes to a course
	From the administrative control panel, "site settings" allows administrators to control the look-and-feel of the Olie interface, without having to edit the database or the HTML/ASP code. Also, use site settings to turn email on/off (CDONTS supported only), set the administrative password, or create a custom skin for your site.
Information Management
	Administrators may send announcements via the Site Admin control panel. Announcements may contain HTML and hyperlinks, and can be pre-loaded and hidden/shown when needed. Also, announcements may be directed to individual cohorts instead of to all members.
	The scrolling NewsTicker is a nice tool to use for general news alerts. Administrators may set news items as hyperlinks or for particular cohorts rather than all users. The NewsTicker uses Javascript, so users' browsers must have javascript support enabled within their browsers.
Communications
	The forum is a typical web-based forum. There may be multiple forum threads, each with multiple topics and replies. The forum menu displays total number of postings, who moderates the forum, and when the last posting was. Postings may be edited (by the author only). Also, MyPosts lists only those postings the user initiated or to which others have replied. The most recent postings are listed under "Latest Posts." (note: the forum search component is not ready yet ...)
	Administrators may post to the blog. The abstracts of the most recent blogs are listed on the main page, with links to the full posting (see image on the left). Bloggers may choose whether or not to allow comments. If comments are allowed, comments are appended to the end of the blog (see image to the right). Any registered user of the site may post a comment, regardless of cohort. The Site Admin control panel allows administrators to manage blogs and their associated comments.
	Omail is an internal messaging system--somewhat like email, but more like leaving someone a sticky note. Any user may send an Omail to any other user. The number of total and unread omails is listed in your pack. Visit your omail inbox to read/respond to omail. Unread omails are listed in green--old omails in white.
Course Management
	Users may add themselves to courses within Olie by obtaining a course code from the instructor or the site administrator. Choosing "My Classes" from your pack provides links to course resources, such as: list of classmates (with email, omail, and phone numbers), the course website, and course evaluations. The course website contains course information, links to course session notes, announcements, and other course-specific resources.
Organizers
	The links database is a great way to collect, manage, and provide topic-specific links to web resources. Using a Yahoo-like category page, the links database allows all users to add, describe, view, rate, and comment on websites of interest. Websites that are visited most often are listed on the main links page as "Popular Sites". The most recently-added links are listed under "New!"
	Olie organizers help users get the most out of their time online. The Olie notepad is a way to keep brief notes when working online. Notes may be text or HTML, may contain hyperlinks, and are accessible from wherever you are, as long as you have access to the Internet and a browser.
	All NotePad notes are saved in the notebook. From within the notebook, users may read, edit, or delete their notes. Personal notes are listed first. Then, if the user belongs to any groups (explained, below ...), group notebooks are listed below.
Groupware
	Olie is group-friendly. Users may form their own groups of any size. Once a group is formed, users can "join" groups if there are available "seats." Users can click on "My Groups" to view a list of groups to which they belong, or to view a list of groups with seats available.
	Each group comes with a group notebook. Using the group notepad, users may create notes that are accessible by all members of the group--allowing for group editing and contribution. The group notebook locks groupnotes when they are opened, to prevent double-editing by mistake.