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Getting Started for Instructors

Getting Started for Instructors

Jul 21, 2025

Access

If you had access to the "old" Weblab environment you will retain access in the new one. – (Jan, 2021)

If you are an instructor who has not used Weblab before, please submit a request in Service Hub. One of the tech administrators of the service will create a profile for you on the server. Once this profile is created you will be able to log in and see your classes.

How does student access work?

Class information is pulled from the registrar multiple times per day. This includes the Class ID – ex: test-9999-03-fall and official instructor as well as all the students current enrolled in the class. Students will be added/removed should they need to be. Please submit a ticket if you need a student or co-instructor added (this is a built-in functionality!)

When you see a class listed in the table at login, the students enrolled in the class can already log in and interact with the class. All access in Weblab is tied to instructors already having access.

 

Creating Student Accounts

Student with access to classes in Weblab
Student with access to classes in Weblab
Student without access to classes in Weblab
Student without access to classes in Weblab

Student accounts are set up automatically on Weblab. Shortly after a student is registered in a class whose instructor is in Weblab they will see the class when they log into Weblab (see above, left). If a student's instructor isn't configured then none of their classes will be configured to use Weblab and they will not have access (see above, right).

Setting up services for students

For the most part everything should be pre-configured. In many cases instructors do not need to do anything to get students access to services.

MySQL:

There are three ways for student database accounts to get created:

  • A database is automatically created for students when they choose to MySQL Password Reset in the main menu.

  • An instructor uses the Create MySQL for Class option under the class Manage dropdown. Full database permissions will be granted to course instructors at the same time. This means the instructor can see all student databases. This can be used after students create database accounts using the password reset tool, it will not have any negative effects.

  • Databases and relevant database accounts are created for WordPress deployments. These are structured as catid_wordpress<_###>.

Students and instructors both are limited to creating databases formatted as such:

catid_% # Example: tcpanther_learning01

The standard way for instructors and students alike to gain access to MySQL is to use the MySQL Password Reset tool in the main menu. This will generate a new password and email it to the student. With this password they can access https://weblab.uni.edu/phpmyadmin or use MySQL CLI through the command line or another tool.

https://weblab.uni.edu/phpmyadmin requires CAS Authentication to connect to. This is the standard CatID you are used to use for email and other UNI services. Once you've logged in you can then get to the phpMyAdmin login page. In some cases, your browser will already be authenticated with CAS so no login will be shown.

If a student or instructor has WordPress or another service configured using a MySQL database, they need to be careful when changing their MySQL password manually either through the CLI or phpMyAdmin. The connection for these services will be broken and often manually reset. If you ask your students to reset their passwords in phpMyAdmin please be aware they may be breaking this configuration for other classes they currently have on Weblab. The MySQL Password Reset tool handles the updating of the password in the Wordpress configuration.

Students will soon be able to download backups of their databases from Weblab. They can mange those today inside phpMyAdmin.

Wordpress:

There are two ways to launch a Wordpress site installation.

Instructor Deployment

Instructors can initiate this process by using the Class Manager tool. Simply select Manage > Class Manager on a class. From there select the students you wish to deploy a Wordpress site to and then hit Action > Deploy Wordpress. The deployment will occur in the background and students will receive an email with information on logging into their Wordpress site. After a few minutes if you refresh your page you should see students' sites in the Course Sites column.

Student Deployment

Students can deploy their own Wordpress sites. When they log in they can select Manage > Create Wordpress from their Class list.

For more information about student configuration please review Getting Started for Students.

Web Directory (Static Sites, HTML/CSS files):

Access to a web folder for display files on the web is granted by default to all students and instructors with access to Weblab. There are some advanced options available to instructors to make this process easier in the classroom.