SHEilds eLearning
If you're having difficulty or simply want to find out more about the eLearning environment, take a look at the help and frequently asked questions section below.
There are a few basic requirements that must be met by students enrolled on a SHEilds eLearning course to be able to experience the full functionality of the eLearning environment. The following list outlines the main basic requirements:
All students must have access to an Internet-capable computer.
This is usually achieved through a modem connection or a broadband connection and an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The minimum requirement is a 56kbps modem connection (standard for most modems).
This is a software application which enables a computer user to explore content on the World Wide Web. An example of a web browser, and one of the most common web browsers would be Internet Explorer (by Microsoft) which comes as standard on most Windows operating systems.
There are many other different types of web browsers available. We have made an effort to ensure that our eLearning environment should be viewable in the majority of web browsers.
JavaScript is a tool often used behind-the-scenes on websites to enable interactive features and dynamic content. JavaScript is required to access our eLearning environment.
For instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser, please click here.
A cookie is a small file of information that our eLearning environment uses to identify you as a registered and enrolled student. You must have cookies enabled in order to access the eLearning environment.
For details of how to enable cookies in your web browser, please click here.
Are you having problems with logging in to your account, or with your login details? If so, you will need to check a few things before contacting technical support.
This is one of the most commonly reported issues that we receive. Before contacting the technical support team, here are a few things to check first:
Are you typing your username/password exactly?Your username and password are both case-sensitive, and must be typed exactly. As a rule SHEilds provide all usernames and passwords in lower case.
If you have since chosen your own username or password, again they both need to be entered exactly as you specified.
Are you visiting the correct website?SHEilds provide various eLearning courses, and not all of our courses are located on the same eLearning website. It is important that you visit the web address that was included in your welcome e-mail to login, you will not succeed if you are trying to login to the wrong website.
Are you being returned to the login page after entering your login details?If the eLearning environment keeps returning to the login page after you have entered your login details, the likely reason is that your computer has a firewall that is stripping "referrer information" from your web browser. To fix this, you will need to open your firewall program and add our eLearning website address to the "allowed" or "trusted" list. If this does not work, you will need to disable it. The setting you should look for is the one that disables "HTTP_REFERRER". Instructions on how to do this will usually be found in the software's help files, or on the software manufacturer's website.
Do you have cookies enabled?A cookie is a small file of information that our eLearning environment uses to identify you as a registered and enrolled student. You must have cookies enabled in order to access the eLearning environment. For details of how to enable cookies in your web browser, please click here.
If you have forgotten your username please contact technical support.
You can request a new password by visiting: http://www.sheilds-elearning.co.uk/login/forgot_password.php
To change your login details, please click here. Here you can change your username and/or password.
Your eLearning course tutor(s) are available to help you throughout the duration of your study. Any course related questions should be directed to your course tutor.
You can contact your course tutor(s) by finding the 'My Tutors' section on the 'Course Outline' (main) page of your course. From here you can send an e-mail directly to your tutor.
Alternatively, should you prefer to contact your tutor by telephone, you can call our UK Head Office telephone number on +44 (0)1482 806 805. Your tutors are available by telephone during normal operating hours. Monday to Thursday (9.00am to 5.00pm). Friday (9.00am to 4.30pm).
Your account information such as your name, location, and profile picture (optional) are populated to form your profile. Other students can view your profile, and see your basic information.
You can edit your own profile by clicking on your name (usually found at the top of the page on the eLearning website), and here you will see your profile as it appears to other students of the course.
To edit any of your profile information simply click the 'Edit profile' tab. Please note that you must save any changes to your profile before leaving the edit page by clicking the 'Update profile' button at the bottom of page.
Your tutors and other students who are enrolled on your eLearning course are the only people who can view your profile.
Your tutors can see your full profile; other students can only view your basic information, such as your name, and what courses you are studying. Anything that is entered into the "Description" box will also be visible.
By default, other students cannot see your e-mail address.
The forums are a place for open discussion with students of the same course and your course tutor(s). There are typically two forums, a 'News forum' and an 'Open Chat Forum'. Both forums are found at the top of the Course/Topic Outline (main) page of your course. The News Forum is where important announcements will be posted; these announcements usually concern examinations, updates to the course, etc.
The Open Chat Forum is a place for general course discussion with other students and your tutors.
This is because you are "subscribed" to a forum. Being subscribed to a forum means that you will receive a copy of any new posts to your e-mail address, either when they are created, or in a daily digest (there is a setting for this choice in your profile).
You are automatically subscribed to the News Forum of your course. You must choose to be subscribed to the Open Chat Forum of your course.
Unsubscribing is simple. Firstly, you will need to open the forum you wish to unsubscribe from and then click the 'Unsubscribe from this forum' link. This link can be found above the discussions list.
IMPORTANT: Because SHEilds eLearning uses the News Forum of your course to inform students of important information (often concerning examinations), we advise that you do not unsubscribe from this forum. If you still wish to unsubscribe we would strongly advise you to regularly check the News Forum for important announcements.
You are automatically subscribed to the News Forum of your course, however if you wish to also be subscribed to the Open Chat Forum of your course then follow the instructions below.
Firstly, you will need to open the forum you wish to subscribe to and then click the 'Subscribe to this forum' link. You will now receive e-mail copies of any forum activity.
You can only create a new discussion topic in the Open Chat Forum of your course, as the News Forum is reserved for important news and announcements from SHEilds eLearning.
Firstly you will need to navigate to the Open Chat Forum in your course. You will see a list of current discussions. At the top of the list of discussions is a button to 'Add a new discussion topic'. Clicking this button will open the editor, and you should enter your post here. There are various controls available that will allow you to format your post.
Before posting the new discussion topic, you will be required to give it a subject; this should be relevant to the topic that you are posting.
To reply to a forum post, simply click the 'Reply' link that is usually found at the bottom-right of the forum post.
You can only edit a forum post within 15 minutes of posting, after that time editing is locked in order to maintain the continuity of forum discussions.
If editing is available, simply click the 'Edit' link that is usually found at the bottom-right of the forum post.
In order to maintain the continuity of forum discussions, you cannot delete previously submitted forum posts.
Problems downloading and accessing course files and other downloads are usually a result of pop-up blockers on a student's computer.
AdvertisementsPop-up blocking software is getting more and more popular these days. Many websites use pop-ups to make money. These pop-ups are quite annoying, so many people install programs that will block pop-ups from opening.
This seems like a great idea, but these programs often block useful and legitimate sites too. The SHEilds eLearning website sometimes uses pop-up windows to show you extra information without you having to leave the current page. An example of this is when course documents offer a download option.
Please click here for instructions on how to deal with pop-ups.
This is probably because you do not have the correct software installed to view the video file type. You can download all of the software necessary to access multimedia content by visiting our Downloads section.
If you have the necessary software installed to view the multimedia content, but still the content will not display, please contact technical support.
This is probably because you do not have the correct software installed to listen to the audio file type. You can download all of the software necessary to access multimedia content by visiting our Downloads section. If you have the necessary software installed to view the multimedia content, but still the content will not load, please contact technical support.
Your course will include some additional resources; most commonly in the form of Word Documents and PowerPoint presentations, etc.
If you are having issues accessing these additional file types, the first thing to check is:
This is the most commons cause of not being able to download additional site files. Please click here for advice on how to deal with pop-up blocking software.
Try downloading the file manually. Some operating systems and web browsers handle functions differently and will not allow you to open the file by simply clicking on the link.
If you are still having difficulty accessing a file Please contact technical support.
Some text displayed on the screen may not be the optimum size for every user.
We have included a small widget on the top left hand side of each web page which will allow you to easily resize the text displayed on screen.
Due to a number of technical reasons we cannot guarantee that the text re-sizing widget will work 100% of the time.
At SHEilds eLearning we strive the educate our users and as such we have provided more detailed information regarding the re-sizing of text within a web page. The below applies to almost every available web browser.
It is recommended to use your built in web browsers ability to resize text as this is much more reliable than any other method.
You can adjust the text size to suit your personal needs for any web page using a built in command within your web browser.
You can increase or decrease the text size using the following methods.
First of all Internet Explorer 8 does not show you its available menus by default.
To make Internet Explorer display its menus you must first depress the 'Alt' key.
Google Chrome does not use worded menus, instead Chrome has a short-cut icon which drops down its' list of menus. You must first click on this icon to display the available menus, please see the following image which helps illustrate where this short-cut is located 
menus short-cut at the top right hand side of your web browserBy default most web browsers have the ability to increase or decrease font sizes.
The short-cut keyboard commands to achieve this are as follows :-
For more information regarding text size a very useful video has been created on the following web blog found at : http://accessify.com/news/2007/09/teach-a-man-to-fish-or-how-to-resize-text/
The Message Centre is a tool which allows students to communicate with other students and tutors by internal messaging through the eLearning environment.
Firstly, open the Message Centre by clicking the button found under the 'Messages' box on the course outline (main) page of your course.
You will first come to your 'Contacts' section. If this is your first time using the message centre, you will not have added any contacts to the list. Therefore you will need to click the 'Search' tab and find the student or tutor that you wish to send a message to.
If you have already added any students or tutors to your 'Contacts' section, you can simply select the user from your list of contacts.
Click on a student or tutor's name, enter your message into the dialogue box, and click 'Send Message'.
To add a student or a tutor to your list of message centre contacts, you will need to search for the user you wish to add by clicking the 'Search' tab and entering the name of the user.
If your search is successful you will see the user appear on the search results page, with a set of icons next to their name. Select the icon to add the user as a contact. The user will now appear in your contacts list.
Open the Message Centre and search for the user if they are not in your list of contacts. When you have found the user you will see a set of icons situated next to the user's name. Click the icon that will block the user. The user will now be blocked from communicating with you.
You should report any abuse of the internal messaging system by contacting technical support.
A blog is an online journal. A blog feature is included in your profile.
The blog feature is useful for things such as keeping a diary of study, or keeping a structured set of course/revision notes.
