Help Topics
This ELN for the ESRM project combines a simple social network with the ability to store your soil sample data and view soil sample data from other researchers. Soil sample data is displayed on a map and in a directory of the soil samples. This ELN also has videos that explain basic lab procedures, how to work with your soil sample, and and how to prepare media for the experiments. Each of these features is available from the top menu item and is described below.
Directory
The Directory displays a brief summary of the soil samples that have been collected since 2009 for this research study. The filter at the top of the page allows you to filter the soil samples by various criteria. The pins on the map on the right side of the directory correspond to the soil samples on the page. You can change the number of samples per page in the page control at the bottom of the page. Clicking on either the soil sample description or the pin on the map will show additional details about the soil sample.
Soil Sensing Map
The Soil Sensing Map shows a map with pins for all of the soil samples with a specified location (there are some soil samples that do not have a specified location and so will not show up in this map). The filter for the Soil Sensing Map has more facets to filter with. The filter can be set by clicking the button titled “Click to toggle filter display”.
Groups
The Groups area is part of the social network features of the site. The faculty, lab admins, and students for a given semester should be part of the group that corresponds to their institution. The faculty and lab admins can post documents particular to their courses or send group messages to everyone in their group.
Members
The members section lists all of the faculty, lab admins, and student researchers for a given semester or quarter. On the right side of the page your can filter by name and/or organization and/or year and/or term (semester or quarter).
Help
You are reading the main Help page that describes the overview of the site. In addition to this main Help page, there are Help menus for Basics or Media Preparation. These other Help menus link to videos that explain how to collect and process the soil samples, use the lab equipment, and prepare the media (media preparation is usually for lab managers).
Learning Management System
The free version of the Lifter LMS is also included in this free ELN. We use it to explain the basics for Building Your Own Free ELN. This course is accessible as the child sub-menu of the Help menu.
Profile
The Profile menu item is not on the main menu items, but it is accessible from the personal menu item when someone is logged in. The personal menu item on the upper right has a drop down menu. From the drop down menu, one option should be “Profile”. The Profile area for a member should have “My Soil Samples” as one of their tabs. By clicking the “My Soil Samples” tab, the member should be able to edit the soil sample form that has been created for their soil sample data. If you do not see a “My Soil Samples” tab for your profile, then please contact the Site Admin at the Site Admin profile.