01 OPAL - Overview
Why OPAL? This is certainly one of your key questions at the beginning. We have collected this and other important questions for you and answered them here so that you can get started quickly.
- Why OPAL? Which learning scenarios are possible?
- How do I or learners get into the system?
- Where can I find contacts for technical questions?
- I would like to provide content, communicate from any location or collect processed documents from learners. How can I do that?
- How do learners find the documents I provide?
- How can I technically optimise my courses to avoid long loading times? Are there any recommendations?
- Where can I find interesting learning content or courses?
- Where can teachers share their experiences?
Why OPAL? Which learning scenarios are possible?
Thanks to the learning platform, you can organize all learners in a course as a group, just like in a classroom. Within this (course) room, you can provide documents in digital form (files) and communicate with learners in several different ways (written, verbal, visual) simultaneously, synchronously or asynchronously.
How do I or learners get into the system?
| Register, user account and contact | Login pages |
|---|---|
Saxon Universities and Vocational Academies: All users of Saxon universities have a user account provided by their responsible institution. Find the relevant contact details on Contact or the website of your university. | Central login page: https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal |
Schools in Saxony Public schools: Every public school - whether for general education or vocational training - can use SaxSVS to automatically and easily create accounts for Schullogin.de for their students and teachers. An access data report can be printed out and handed over. The following pages provide support on how to create several accounts in one go:
With these accounts, you can use OPAL Schule immediately and free of charge. After you have logged in to Schullogin.de, you can start it by clicking on the icon. Independent schools: Each school that is registered in the Official Saxon School Database and thus also has an official school identification key (Dienststellenschlüssel), can use OPAL Schule free of charge. Please contact the school login colleagues at support@schullogin.de. They will gladly set up the necessary accounts in consultation with you. | Direct link school login: https://www.schullogin.de Direct link OPAL Schule: https://www.opal-schule.de Direct link general information: OPAL Schule |
Services for other institutions: Let us know what you need and we will find a solution. Simply send a message to vertrieb@bps-system.de. |
|
For general questions and information on how to log in, visit Registration and Login
Where can I find contacts for technical questions?
Please get in touch with the relevant office at your institution, university or school first. Is your local office overloaded or are you unsure who is responsible for you? We will be happy to help you. Please send an email to our support team: (support@bps-system.de). Don't forget to state your name and the organization you work for.
I would like to provide content, communicate from any location or collect processed documents from learners. How can I do that?
For all three requirements, you have many different options within the learning platform. In addition to all available detailed information on our help pages for authors and available wizards for the creation of eLearning scenarios, we offer step-by-step instructions on how to quickly implement the following key scenarios:
I would like to provide content
The easiest way to do this is with a course element of the type Folder. This page describes how you proceed: How to provide course content
Even if not all learners are registered on the learning platform, you can still provide (protected) material: How to provide course content for non-registered users
I would like to communicate from any location
Learn how to integrate a Virtual Classroom course element into your course: How to communicate in the virtual classroom
Saxon universities and vocational academies:
The Virtual Classroom course element is made available to Saxon universities and vocational academies via the Adobe Connect service provided by DFN. Because of the exceptionally high usage, there may be longer loading times on the DFN side over which OPAL has no influence.
Please note the latest Information from the DFN.
I would like to collect processed documents from learners
The simplest option would be to use another Folder course element. You should, however, request meaningful file names from your learners so that you can subsequently assign the content of the submitted files to the users. A much more convenient option here is the Task course element. How to integrate it into a course can be found here: How to collect documents with the Task course element.
I require all these options
To spare you configuration steps, we have prepared a course for all three scenarios, which you can use to get started in just a few clicks. The download link and import instructions can be found here: How to use the import template
How do learners find the documents I provide?
The fastest way to do this is by providing a direct link to the course if you know the learners concerned.
Where do I find the direct link to the course? ...
Copy the displayed URL from your browser's address bar and share this link with your learners. As an alternative, provide the exact course title or course ID (= multi-digit number in the URL, e.g. 23027974158). With this information, the course can simply be found by using the Search function within the learning platform.
|
|
Some learners are not yet registered and have a user account:
- How you still can provide material is described on this page: How to provide content for non-registered users
How tutors can enrol learners:
- This page describes one way of organizing learners in a course into a group or class: How to inform users via direct link
How learners can enrol themselves:
- In higher education, it is common for students to enrol in the courses they require themselves. You can find out how to realize a corresponding option in your course with an Enrolment course element on this page: How to prepare self-enrolment in a course
- Learners have to find and register for the courses that are relevant to them. This requires that you enter your course in a central location in the catalogue or inform learners in other ways that relevant content is available. Instructions on how to add your course to the catalogue can be found on the Add course to the catalogue help page.
How can I technically optimise my courses to avoid long loading times? Are there any recommendations?
Yes. They can be found here: Successful enrolment scenarios.
Where can I find interesting learning content or courses?
First search for course offerings in the catalogue. Some universities or schools have made courses publicly available.
Where can teachers share their experiences?
- OPAL for universities:
- OPAL Schule: