Homepage & Widget Design Faculty Support Guide

Transcription

1 Homepage & Widget Design Faculty Support Guide D2L Services West Chester University of Pennsylvania , option 2 Anderson Hall, room 20 d2l@wcupa.edu v10.3 July

2 HOMEPAGE & WIDGET DESIGN The course homepage is the first page you see when you navigate to a course in D2L. It contains widgets which are sections of content that provide information and links to tools, courses, and personal settings. Homepages point to Learning Environment tools, such as News or Content, or an external URL. Widgets are the building blocks of homepages. You can create, edit, delete, customize, and preview the widgets in your course. There are two types of widgets available for your homepages: System Widgets Custom Widgets ACCESSING HOMEPAGE MANAGEMENT PAGE 2. Under Site Setup, click Homepages. HOMEPAGE MANAGEMENT PAGE 2

3 COURSE HOMEPAGE All courses are initially set up with a default WCU course homepage. The default homepage cannot be changed. In order to update your course homepage, you will first need to make a copy of the default WCU course homepage. You can then add or remove widgets, customize their appearance, and create custom widgets to expand the functionality of your course homepage. Once your new homepage is updated, you can then save it as your new course homepage. MAKE A COPY OF DEFAULT COURSE HOME PAGE 2. Under Site Setup, click Homepages. 3. Select Copy from the dropdown menu next to the Default Course Home page. The newly created page title will end in - Copy. 3

4 UPDATE COURSE HOME PAGE 1. On the course Homepage Management page, click on the name of the newly created homepage. 2. From here, you can change: a. Name of the homepage b. Layout c. Add or move widgets 3. When your updates are complete, click Save and Close. 4

5 ADD AND MOVE WIDGETS ON YOUR HOMEPAGE 1. From the course Homepage Management page, click Add Widgets in the Widgets section to view all widgets available for use. Each panel has its own corresponding Add Widgets button. 2. Select the check boxes beside the widgets that you want to add to the homepage panel, and click Add. 3. Click and drag a widget to: a. Change its vertical placement on a panel. b. Move it to another panel. 4. Click Save and Close to apply the changes. SETTING YOUR COURSE HOMEPAGE Note: Your new course homepage is not viewable until you set it as the active homepage for your course. 1. From the Homepage Management page, select the homepage you want for your course from the Active Homepage drop-down list. 2. Click Apply. 5

6 SYSTEM WIDGETS System widgets are defined by the Desire2Learn platform. You cannot modify the contents of system widgets or delete them, but you can change where the widgets are located on your course homepage and customize their display options. CUSTOM WIDGETS Custom widgets allow you to expand the functionality of available content in your homepage to suit your specific course needs. ACCESSING WIDGET MANAGEMENT PAGE 2. Under Site Setup, click Widgets. WIDGET MANAGEMENT PAGE 6

7 CREATE A CUSTOM WIDGET 2. Under Site Setup, click Widgets. 3. Click Create Widget. 4. Properties tab a. Enter a Name for the widget. b. Enter a Description for the widget. c. Click Save or Save and Close. 5. Release Condition tab (optional) a. Attach Existing or Create and Attach. b. Click Save or Save and Close. 6. Content tab a. Utilize the HTML editor to insert videos, images, files or content within the course, etc. b. Click Customize Widget Style to update background colors, borders, etc. c. Click Save or Save and Close. 7

8 EDIT A CUSTOM WIDGET 2. Under Site Setup, click Widgets. 3. Click the Edit icon beside the widget you want to edit. 4. Make your changes and click Save and Close. 8