This
reference is for students and instructors who have questions about how to
complete certain tasks in the LegSim environment. Your instructor may also
choose to use these tools differently than is described here.
If you have a problem, question or
suggestion (including
with these tool tips), please send us a quick note at helpdesk@legsim.org You will be doing other students a favor. Be
as specific as possible (including copying and pasting the error message if
possible) so that we can easily isolate the problem. Thanks!
Joining
the Parliament and Council
Placing
students into sections
Communication
with the other chamber
Chamber
and Committee Leader functions
Managing
legislation in committee
Reconciling
inter-chamber differences
An EU bicameral simulation requires two separate LegSim
simulations that must be joined. After setting up the sessions, go to administration/system/join sessions in
one and select the invite option. To
complete the join, you must now log in to the other session, go to the same
location, and accept that invitation.
Commission
You must also create two Commissioner (executive) accounts,
one in the Parliament and one in the Council, that contains identical
information (same user name etc). After this has been set up, you can use
either account to communicate and submit legislation simultaneously to both
chambers.
Setting up an assignment
On-line assignments are created by the Administrator or
Instructor at Instruction/Assignments.
Assignments are automatically distributed to students (along with a message) at
the time specified by the instructor. The instructor specifies what types of
files can be uploaded by students (e.g. .doc or .pdf or both), and when the
assignment will be distributed, when it is due, and the last date when they
will be accepted.
Students may not use the tool correctly the first time, so
you may want to encourage them to double check that their assignment has been
uploaded, AND that it has been submitted to you.
Grading an assignment
Submitted assignments can be viewed by Section on the
Instructors or Administrators Desk.
Click on the Assignments tab to view
responses by student. Click on the file icon to open or download the file the
student has uploaded.
When you assign a grade on-line, the student is able to view
it along with any comments on her own assignments page. In addition, grades are
archived on an instructor spreadsheet that can be accessed via the adjacent Download Data tab.
Completing an Assignment
Students find assignments posted by their instructor at members/my assignments.
There are 2 steps to the assignment submission process. The
first is to UPLOAD the document containing your response. Once you have
CONFIRMED that the document has been uploaded (and you have opened it to
confirm that it is not empty), then you must SUBMIT the assignment to the
instructor. Do NOT click submit unless the file that has been uploaded is the
one you want the instructor to grade. You cannot upload a new file after the
assignment has been submitted
If you login as the administrator, you can assume any other
account in the session. When you want to
return to administrator status, click on the revert button near the top of the
page.
Provide a student with a new password at administration/users/change password
To find a lost user name, assume the students account. The login successful page will briefly
display the students login name.
Some classes have multiple instructional sections. The
administrator can assign students to different sections under administrator/groups. These sections
can be assigned to different instructors (teaching assistants) if desired, who
then have grading access for their students only. Students cannot be assigned
to sections until they have created their accounts.
The constituencies students represent can be selected by
students or assigned by the instructor. The EuropeanUnionQuick Guide discusses
considerations related to these assignments. The tools available to the
administrator can be found at administration/profiles
Mail distributed through the LegSim Dear colleague system is archived in
each users mailbox (under the members
link on the sidebar). Members can manage their mail by assigning it to
different folders based on its important etc.
Mail problems. If someone is not receiving LegSim
emails via his or her email account, it is possible that the e-mail server is
not working properly. The first thing to do is to confirm that the missing email
is in the mailbox. If it is there, then
we know that LegSim sent it and it got lost. Next, check to make sure that the
e-mail address displayed on the member profile page is correct. If the e-mail
address is correct, then have the student check the junk folder in his or her e-mail
account (although some systems delete junk mail daily so this is not foolproof).
If it is there, the (hotmail, yahoo etc) spam filter needs to be configured to
accept mail from legsim.org. If it is not there, try sending another email to
that student’s account and see if s/he receives it within a few moments.
If there is still a problem or if it is obvious that many students are
not getting LegSim e-mails, send us a bug report at support@legsim.org explaining the problem in as much detail as
possible.
If desired, the administrator can limit which committees are
available to certain sections at administration/groups/manage
committee requests. This option facilitates in person committee meeting
when sections meet at different times during the day.
Chamber leaders are assigned by the administrator at administration/groups/assign leaders.
The Chamber leaders then assign committee members, including chairs, using
tools available at floor/leaders desk
See members/edit
profile
See members/change
password
See floor/submit
legislation. Also see
instruction/sample bill
Click on the desired bill and scroll to the bottom of the
page. If amendments are in order, there will be a submit amendment option.
See clerk/search
legislation.
Click on the bill and scroll to the bottom. If amendments
are in order, there will be a cosponsor
legislation option
You must be a member of the committee to participate in its
activities. Check that you are a member first at committees/list committees (select your committee). To participate,
click on your Committee members desk and select the desired activity. A bill
cannot be reported from committee until a hearing has been scheduled, the
committee has voted to pass the bill from committee, and a committee report has
been prepared. The committee chair is responsible for scheduling these
activities, but can also delegate responsibility to other committee members.
A member of one chamber can observe activities in the other
chamber, and send mail by using the switch
chambers option. Switch chambers again to return.
Committees can choose to ignore or consider bills referred to them for
review. If the committee would like to see legislative action on a bill, it
must report it to the chamber. The process of committee consideration is
controlled by the committee chairman, but a bill cannot be reported without the
consent of a majority of committee members.
The committee chair must be formally appointed by the chamber leader (or
administrator). The chair has a chairmans
desk on the committee page. This is where the committee chair is able to schedule hearings on bills that have
been referred, schedules votes on
bills and amendments (but only after a hearing has been scheduled), and prepares reports (but only after the committee
has formally voted to report the bill).
If a bill does not appear in the selection box at any one of these
stages, it is probably because the previous step has not yet taken place (e.g.
a vote is not allowed until a hearing has been scheduled).
The substance of votes. In committee as well as on the
floor, the leader who schedules the vote is responsible for providing the
content of what is being voted on. For example, to schedule a vote on an
amendment, the leader selects the amendment from the drop down box. The text
box then includes the amendment as originally introduced. The leader can leave
the amendment as is or modify it (for example to reflect an earlier amendment
to the amendment). The same applies to final votes on bills. When a bill is
selected from the dropdown box, it appears as originally introduced. If the
chamber has previously adopted amendments, then the leader must revise the text
of the bill to incorporate those changes.
The chair will also notice additional tools that enable him or her to delegate
responsibility for preparing a report, or to invite non-committee members to participate
in a committee hearing (submit on line comments).
Once reported, the Parliamentary or Council President places
it on the calendar at floor/leaders
desk/calendar. At this point the bill can be debated on-line and additional
amendments proposed at floor/debate and
voting. The President schedules floor votes in accordance with
parliamentary procedure.
The substance of votes. In committee as well as on the
floor, the leader who schedules the vote is responsible for providing the
content of what is being voted on. For example, to schedule a vote on an
amendment, the leader selects the amendment from the drop down box. The text
box then includes the amendment as originally introduced. The leader can leave
the amendment as is or modify it (for example to reflect an earlier amendment
to the amendment). The same applies to final votes on bills. When a bill is
selected from the dropdown box, it appears as originally introduced. If the
chamber has previously adopted amendments, then the leader must revise the text
of the bill to incorporate those changes.
If you have made it this far, congratulations!
In LegSim, the process of conciliation (meeting the
requirement that each chamber pass an identical bill) works as follows. There
is no passing of legislation between the chambers. Each chamber is responsible
for producing identical legislation, and the chamber leaders are responsible
for enrolling the legislation (the clerk would normally do this), thus ensuring
that the two versions are identical and a bill is ready to be sent to the
President.
The bills to be reconciled must be joined (see above). Conciliation
works as follows. When a joined bill passes out of the Parliament in first
reading, LegSim automatically sends a message to the Council (stuff happens
though, so it would be a good idea to confirm that the other chamber is aware
of developments!).
After the Council issues its common position, both versions
of the bill are automatically referred to Floor/Leaders
desk/Reconcile legislation. Both versions are displayed side by side so
that the President of each chamber can evaluate their similarities and
differences. The chambers then work to resolve their differences in second
reading. When there are no discrepancies, both leaders enroll the bill.
The floor/leaders
desk/schedule vote includes an option for entering a vote that occurred in
class, whether it was a voice vote or recorded. The administrator has the
ability to edit previous votes if necessary.