Creating Custom Navigation Bars and Homepages in elearn

Transcription

1 Creating Custom Navigation Bars and Homepages in elearn For all Fall 2014 courses, Mohawk College introduced a new default navigation bar and a new procedure for adding and removing links and tools. This is, in part, to standardize the navigation bars for all courses and help provide common interfaces for students. New courses in elearn are still created with a default navigation bar and homepage that cannot be edited, but can be copied. However, the new navigation bar allows you to add most tools as needed, without needing to edit the navigation bar. As with the pre Fall 2014 configuration, you can also create a new componentnavigation bar or homepage and include the tools and widgets that you choose, or you can activate components that you have copied from another course. The new navigation bar also introduces a possible workflow change when copying materials from other courses. Adding & Removing Tools from Navigation Bars All new courses on elearn include what is known as the default navigation bar, containing a common set of tools. The new fall 2014 navigation bars include most of the available elearn tools, contained within three new link groups: Communication, Assessment, and Resources. The default navigation bar including the default links/tools and the three link groups Only the tools that are required for all Mohawk courses are activated (turned ON), and most of the full complement of tools are turned OFF by default. As tools are activated, they appear under the appropriate link group on the navigation bar. For some Instructors, the default navigation bar will be appropriate for their courses and will require no modifications. The three expanded link groups, showing the default activated tools The three expanded link groups, showing all activated tools Many Instructors will want to add additional tools to their courses. To add a tool to the navigation bar and make it available to the course, go to the Tools Administration function under Edit, and turn the tool ON.

2 To activate or de activate Tools, open the Tool Administration panel Similarly, to remove a tool from the navigation bar, go to Edit Course > Tools and turn the tool OFF. For example, to add the Dropbox and Quizzes tools to the navigation bar, go to Edit Course > Tools, and turn on the two tools. Once activated, the tools will be available to users under the Assessments link group. Similarly, adding the Links or FAQ tools will make them available under the Communication link group. Activate a tool by clicking the switch beside the tool name Implications When Copying Components from Other Courses The new navigation bars and specifically the fact that new courses come with most course tools turned ON (deactivated) introduce a potential new workflow when copying materials and components from one course into a new course. In elearn, Instructors use the Import/Export/Copy Components (IEEC) tool to copy components from course to course. If your normal practice includes clicking Copy All Components when copying materials, then all the course components will copy as expected. The two options when using IECC to copy course materials If it is your practice to click Select Components and to refine the selections on the resulting screen, you will need to turn ON (activate) the tools that you intend to employ in the course before the copy process is initiated. Otherwise, course components and content will not be available for selection and will not be copied. For example, if an attempt is made to copy the quizzes into a fresh course shell from an earlier version of the course by selecting Select Components in IECC, the quizzes will not show on the selection screen. Once the Quizzes tool is enabled in Edit > Tools, the quizzes will be selectable on the Select Components screen.

3 Creating a Custom Navigation Bar There are certain tools and links that are not available in the Tools Administration function, including Groups, MH Campus, and others. The procedure for adding these links and tools to the navigation bar is identical to the pre Fall 2014 method: Copy the default bar, Activate it, and then add or remove tools/links as desired, to the right of the existing three link groups. An Instructor requiring both the MH Campus link and the Dropbox tool will need to copy the default navigation bar, activate it, and add the MH Campus link, in addition to turning the Dropbox tool ON in Tools Administration. To create a custom navigation bar, roll your mouse over the elearn@mohawk logo in your course to display the Manage (gears icon) and Editing (pencil icon) functions for the navigation bar. Note: The Edit feature is not functional for the default navigation bar. Click on the Manage icon to display the Navigation Bar selector. With the Navbars tab open, find the Course Default navigation bar in the list, and click the triangle drop down selector beside the name. Choose to Copy. Once the page refreshes, you will see the new Course Default Copy appear as a new navigation bar. To make the new bar Active that is, to make it the one that the course uses you now need to select it in the Active Navbar drop down selector, and click the Apply button. This sets the new navigation bar as the one in use by the course. Now that you have created an editable navigation bar, you can edit it by using the Navigation Bar Editor. In the Editor, you can remove links, add links, resequence links, create links, or customize the look of links. You can launch the Editor by clicking on the navigation bar s name in the list, or you can return to the course homepage and click the Edit function (pencil icon) on the upper left area of the navigation bar.

4 Navigation Bars Requirements All courses are required to contain the Essential Elements, which dictate the default tools in all courses. Those default tools Content, News, Discussions, and Grades should not be removed from any standard courses. In the same way that certain tools are a basic requirement for all courses, it is also a Mohawk requirement that links available on the navigation bar lead to configured tools. For example, if the Dropbox link is enabled on the navigation bar, it must lead to at least one configured Dropbox; if the Quizzes link is enabled, it must lead to at least one configured Quiz. If tools are not being used in the course, it is important to remove them from the navigation bar by turning them off in Edit Course > Tools. Note: Due to a scheduling discrepancy, most of the Fall 2014 Continuing Education and Apprenticeship courses were created with ALL the tools enabled by default. It is important that the Instructors of these courses turn OFF the tools (under Edit Course > Tools) that they are not planning to use, so that their links do not appear on the courses navigation bars. Customizing Homepages All new courses on elearn include the Course Default homepage. This homepage includes all the essential widgets and is appropriate and adequate for many courses. Similar to navigation bars, many Instructors will want to make changes to the default homepage to add, remove, or resequence widgets. The Course Default homepage does not display the Manage function (gear icon) or Edit function (pencil icon) at the bottom right corner of your homepage. Only a custom homepage will display those two icons. Instructors can only edit elearn components that they own, and the ownership of the Course Default homepage is with the system. Therefore, the first step to editing the homepage is to make a copy of it. To make a copy of the Course Default homepage, you must first open Edit Course > Homepages. On the Homepages screen, click the drop down menu beside the Course Default page and select Copy. Once the page refreshes, you will see a new homepage called Course Default Copy appear in the list. Under Active Homepage, select the Course Default Copy homepage and click Apply. This sets the new homepage as the one in use by the course. You can now choose to edit the homepage by clicking on its

5 title in the list, or return to Course Home via the navigation bar link. You ll now see the Manage and Edit functions at the bottom right corner of your homepage. You can follow the Manage icon to return to the Homepages screen, or follow the Edit function to make changes to the current active homepage. When you click the Edit function (pencil icon) at the bottom right of your homepage (or access the Homepage Editor via Edit Course) the Edit Homepage screen will appear and allow you to: delete widgets by selecting them and clicking the X add widgets by clicking Add Widgets and selecting from the list resequence widgets by dragging widgets from one column or area to another Finally, if you want to change the layout of the homepageperhaps you d prefer three equal width columns, or two similar width columns, or two columns, one wider than the other you can click on Change Layout and select a different layout. Always remember to click Save or Save and Close at the bottom of the page to save your changes.