Explore the Layout of My Home and Course Home Pages
My Home
The first page you see after you click the course title to enter a course is the "My Home" page. The page is designed with two columns. The various sections are called widgets. The D2L administrator manages all content on this page. Think of the content on this page as schoolwide information.
A minibar displays across the top of the screen. It includes icons for links to:
- My Home--Click the link from any location in the course management system to return to this page.
- Select a Course--Click on the "select a course" dropdown list to enter a course. Alternatively, click on the name of a course from the "My Courses" widget in the left column.
- Message Alerts--Notifies users of unread email messages in all courses. A red dot on the icon indicates new messages.
- Update Alerts--Notifies users of updates to news, assignments, grades, and quizzes for all courses. A red dot indicates new updates.
- Subscription Alerts--Notifies users who have subscribed to Discussions that they have new unread discussion postings.
- Personal Settings--This is an area where users can create a profile, set up mobile notifications, change account settings, view progress, and logout
- Admin tools (gear icon)--Provides links to user, organization and course related information.
Navigation bar links and groups display below the minibar:
- Links are provided to News and Email.
- Groups include links for Student Services, Resources, and Help. The Help links from the navigation bar are for student help.
- Student Help Guide--Instructions for using D2L (NS Online)
- Technical Support--Link to Computer Help Desk webpage.
- Online Course Support--Information for contacting the Coordinator of Online Learning.
Widgets at the left side of the page:
- News--News from the D2L administrator--schoolwide news announcements.
- My Courses--Provides links where faculty can enter courses. Lists classes by semester if an instructor has access to 25 or fewer coures. Provides a search box and lists courses by last 10 accessed if an instructor has access to more than 25 courses.
Widgets on the right side of the page:
- Updates--Updates to all email.
- Calendar--Schoolwide events. This minicalendar does not display course events entered by the instructor.
- Faculty Support Services--Links to D2L faculty guides, the Instructional Services support site, and Lynda.com (online training for software packages).
- Role Switch--Allows faculty to switch roles and view a course as a student.
The widget at the end of the page is a Disclaimer and addresses standards of conduct, academic dishonesty, disclaimer of offsite content, and students with disabilities.
Watch the video below to take a tour of "My Home."
Course Home
Once you click a link to enter a course, the "Course Home" page displays. The content in widgets on this page apply to the course.
Faculty members can add News announcements to this page. The other content is managed automatically by D2L widgets. The information displayed in the widgets refers to the current course named at the top of the screen. For example, if there are items in the Updates widget indicating that there are "6 Unread Discussion Messages," it means there are six unread discussion messages for this course.
Refer to the description of the minibar in the "My Home" section of this document.
Navigation bar links and groups display below the minibar:
Links are provided for:
- Edit course--for faculty only. Students do not see this link. Faculty click on this link to edit and copy course content as well as perform other course design functions.
- Content links to the main course content.
- LOR (Learning Object Repository) for faculty only. This links to a repository where content can be stored. Students do not see this link.
Link Groups include:
- Evaluation--links to areas of the course that may be evaluated.
- Communication--links to areas of the course where users communicate.
- Resources--links to resources that students can access for academic support.
- CourseTools--links to additional course tools that are available in the course management system.
- Help--links to student help.
- Student Help Guide--Instructions for using D2L (NS Online).
- Technical Support--links to the Computer Help Desk support page.
- Online Course Support--Information for contacting the Coordinator of Online Learning.
The next portion of the page is designed with two columns consisting of widgets.
The widgets in the left column are:
- Updates--Reminders when there are unread discussions, new dropbox submissions, new emails, ungraded quizzes, etc. Students have similar reminders when discussions, email, quizzes, and assignments are due.
- Calendar--This calendar is a minicalendar for the course.
- Bookmarks--Displays links to content that has been bookmarked.
- Faculty Support Services--Links to D2L faculty guides and the Instructional Services support site.
- Scheduled Course Copy--An option for copying a course from one D2L course to another. This widget copies complete courses, not selected items in a course. It is best used to copy "very" large courses.
- Role Switch--Switch roles to view content the way a student sees it.
The widget in the right column is:
- News--Publish class announcements in the News widget.
The widget at the end of the page is a Disclaimer and addresses standards of conduct, academic dishonesty, disclaimer of offsite content, and students with disabilities.
Watch the video below to take a tour of the "Course Home."