On CDF's web server we are assembling a suite of tools and documents that we hope will be useful aids to instructors in managing their courses and assignments.
Since much of the material presented is either of a sensitive nature or should not be available for general distribution, access to this portion of the website is restricted; a CDF instructor account and password will be required to gain access. Furthermore, the instructor material is served using the HTTPS protocol, which in turn uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for secure communications. This means that all information sent to and received from the web server is encrypted. This includes any form data (such as your user name and password).
To make use of the secure portion of CDF's web site, it is first necessary to configure your browser to recognize CDF as a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). If you have already done this, and wish to proceed to the instructor resources, click on the following: https://www.cdf.toronto.edu/instructors/. Otherwise, please continue reading below.
At the beginning of each HTTPS request, CDF's web server sends your browser its public encryption key as part of the security certificate. Among other data, the certificate contains signature of a Certificate Authority (CA) that certifies that this public key indeed belongs to CDF's web server. Upon verification of both the server's, and the CA's certificates, you browser can be ``sure'' that the secure connection can be trusted.
For that purpose, you need to install CDF's Authority certificate into your browser. It should be as easy as clicking on this link ca.crt, and following the dialogue presented by the browser, to permanently add the certificate to the collection of recognized certificate authorities (which came packaged with your browser). Exact procedures differ from browser to browser. Alternatively, you can right-click on the link, save it to a file on your computer, and install it into the browser manually.
Once you have installed CDF's CA certificate, your browser is configured to use the secure web site.
One further note. In order to use the system you need to have cookies enabled in the browser. Most browsers accept cookies by default, so if you haven't disabled that feature, you don't need to do anything to enable it.
To access the instructor resources, go to: https://www.cdf.toronto.edu/instructors/ and use your UNIX user name and password to log into the system.
Please refer to the CDF Online Software Tools FAQ for discussion of supported browsers and common problems.