Use of organizations and departments is optional. If your initial deployment is small, and your institution does not need that level of compartmentalization, you do not need to create them right away. As your deployment grows, you can add them and categorize your courses accordingly.

Furthermore, organizations can exist without departments, and departments can exist without organizations.

The location for viewing, adding, deleting, and editing your organizations and departments is the Institution Settings page available from the Settings menu, accessed as shown in the below figure.

Institution Settings provides at-a-glance access to the hierarchical structure in your institution.

Basic Info, under General, is displayed by default. From here, you can manage all the necessary items at the Institution level.

Below General is Organizations and Departments. The below figure shows several organizations, and one of the organizations expanded to see the Departments within it.

Organizations are shown with an icon to the left, indicating they are expandable, to show the departments associated with them (and to create a new department for that organization if necessary).

Clicking the Options icon reveals action icons allowing you to add a department (plus sign), edit the organization or department (pencil), or delete (trash can) the item. These icons appear in the above figure.

Departments that are not associated with an organization appear under Standalone Departments. This is shown in the below figure.

Create an Organization or Department

Typically, organizations exist as sub-divisions of the Institution, such as a medical school or school of journalism. Departments typically exist as sub-divisions of the organization. But you can apply these segmentations as needed to your institutional structure. You may want to refer to Defining the EchoVideo Hierarchy for information on how the organizational structure is often used in the system.

To create an organization or department

1. Log into EchoVideo as an administrator.
2. Click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
3. From the Settings menu, select Institution Settings.

   General settings appears and Basic Info is selected by default.

4. Click Organizations and Departments.
5. Click New Organization, then enter a Name for your organization and click Add.
   
6. Click New Department then select an Organization for your department or select Standalone Departments.
   
7. Click Add.
8. ALTERNATELY, if the department is to reside under an existing organization, you can click the Options icon for the organization in the list and then Add Department.
   
9. Enter a Name for your department. Department names MUST BE UNIQUE to the Institution, regardless of whether or not they reside under an organization.
10. Click Add.

Edit an organization or department

Editing an organization involves editing the name of the organization.

Editing a department allows you to edit the name of the department, and/or select a different organization for the department to reside in.

To edit an organization or department

1. Click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
2. From the Settings menu, select Institution Settings.

   General settings appears and Basic Info is selected by default.

3. Click Organizations and Departments and scroll through the list to find the organization or department you want to edit.
4. Click the Options icon (it looks like a vertical line of dots) and then the Edit Organization icon (it looks like a pencil).
   
5. In the Rename Organization dialog box, edit the name of the organization and click Save.
   
6. Find the department you want to edit, and click the Options icon and then the Edit Organization icon. If the department resides under an organization, you will need to expand the organization to find it.
   
7. In the Edit Department dialog box, you can select a different Organization to which the department belongs, and/or edit the Department name.
   
8. When finished, click Save.

Delete an organization or department

Deleting an organization or department simply removes that item or level from the hierarchy. It does not delete any associated objects. Departments and/or Courses that belonged to a deleted object are changed to "None" for the department or organization as it applies.

To delete an organization or department

1. Click the Settings icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
2. From the Settings menu, select Institution Settings.

   General settings appears and Basic Info is selected by default.

3. Click Organizations and Departments and scroll through the list to find the organization or department you want to delete.
4. Click the Options icon (it looks like a vertical line of dots) and then the Delete Organization icon (it looks like a pencil).
5. Click the delete icon (it looks like a trash can).
   
6. A Warning message appears. Click OK to delete the Organization and all Departments within it.

   Any departments in the organization will move to Standalone Departments and are functional and able to be edited.

7. Find the department you want to delete, and click the Options icon and then the Delete Department icon. If the department resides under an organization, you will need to expand the organization to find it.
   
8. A Warning message appears. Click OK to delete the department.

Any courses in the department are now only associated with the organization in which the department resided, OR if the department was not within an organization, the courses exist with "None" as their organization and department.