Homepages and Widgets Tool

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Desire2LearnQuickguide: Homepages and Widgets

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OverviewThe Course Home page is the first page that you and your students will see when you enter your course. It

is comprised of boxes of content called widgets. (See Figure 1 for a description of the default widgets.) You

can add, remove, and customize these widgets and create custom widgets, which can contain any information,

multimedia, or quicklinks you want to display to students as soon as they enter your course. You can also set

your homepage to display another section of your course or an external website instead of widgets.

How to Access Homepages and Widgets

1. From any page in your course, clickEdit Course.

2. Click Homepages.

In This Guide

Creating a New Course Homepage

Setting Your Homepage as Active

Creating a Custom Widget

Editing Custom Widgets

Setting Your Homepage to Redirect

Creating a New Course Homepage

The default course homepage is shared university-

wide and cannot be edited directly by instructors.

You must create a copy of the homepage in yourcourse and edit the copy.

Note: Your new homepage will not appear in your

course until you make it active. See the instructions for

setting the homepage as active below.

1. From any page in your course, clickEditCourse on the right side of the navbar.

2. Click Homepages (Figure 2).3. Click the Copy icon beside the Course

Default homepage (Figure 3).

4. ClickCopy in the confirmation pop-up. You willsee a new homepage added to the list.

5. ClickCopy of Course Default to edit your newhomepage.

6. Give your homepage a name (required) anddescription (optional).

7. ClickSave.

News: Allows you to write course announcements that

students see as soon as they enter your course.

Updates: Automatically shows course activity you have not

looked at yet. For example, you will see a notification for

unread discussion posts and ungraded dropbox assignments,and students will see a notification when you have entered

feedback.

Events: Shows any events you have entered or deadlinesand start dates you have selected to show in the calendar.

Role Switch: Allows instructors to see the course as astudent. Students do not see this widget.

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Desire2Learn Quickguide: Homepages and Widgets (Page 2 of 5)

8. Click the Content/Layout tab to add, remove,and rearrange widgets (Figure 4).

A homepage is divided into three columns in themiddle and a header and footer that span the width

of the page on the top and bottom, respectively.

Widgets can be placed in any of these five areas.

Add a Widget

Note: Do not add the LOR widget to your

homepage. It will cause a system error when you or

your students try to access the course.

1. In the area you want to add a widget, clickAddWidget (Figure 5). You will see a list of all of

the widgets available to your course, includingDesire2Learn system widgets and custom

widgets that you have created, listed inalphabetical order.

Note: See the Creating a Custom Widget section

below for directions on creating your own widget.

2. Select the checkboxes next to the widgets youwant to add to the selected area.

3. ClickSave.Remove a Widget1. Click the down arrow next to the widget you

wish to remove.2. ClickRemove from Homepage (Figure 6).Note: This will not delete the widget from the system.

You will still have access to the widget if you want tore-add it to your homepage or copy it to another

course.

Move a Widget1. Click the down arrow next to the widget you

wish to move.

2. ClickMove Up or Move Down to move thewidget above or below other widgets in the samearea. ClickMove To to move the widget to

another area.

Modify Widget-Specific Display SettingsCertain widgets, such as the Events and Newswidgets have specific display settings you can accessthrough the Homepages tool. These allow you to

control how much content is displayed in thewidget.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6


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1. Click the down arrow next to the widget youwish to modify.

2. ClickEdit Display Options (Figure 7).Note: If the Edit Display Options option does not

appear, it means there are no display options for this

widget.

3. Modify the display options. For example, youcan change how many items to display in theNews widget.

4. ClickSave.Customize Widget AppearanceYou may want to modify the appearance of the box

around your widgets if you want to visuallyemphasize a particular widget or apply a distinct

visual style to your homepage.

1. Click the down arrow next to the widget youwish to modify

2. ClickCustomize (Figure 8).3. Customize the widget border. By default, widgets

have a one-pixel border.

To remove the border, deselect the Displaywidget as a box checkbox.

To add a thicker border, select 2 px solid fromthe Box Style drop-down menu.

4. Customize the widget title bar appearance. To hide the title bar for the widget, deselect the

Show the title bar checkbox.

Select the title bar background color. To seemore color options, select Custom Color and

click the down arrow (Figure 9).

In the widget title text box, enter the widgettitle to be displayed to students.

From the Title Color drop-down menu,select a text color.

5. ClickSave.Setting Your Homepage as Active

When you have finished editing your homepage,you must set it as active in the main Homepages

page. To return to the main Homepages page,clickHomepages at the top of the page.

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Figure 8

Figure 9


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1. ClickSet next to the homepage you want to setas active (Figure 10).

2. In the confirmation pop-up, clickSet Active.Note: After you have set your homepage as active, any

changes you make to the homepage will be immediately

visible to students.

Creating a Custom Widget

1. From any page in your course, clickEditCourse on the right side of the navbar

2. Click Widgets (Figure 11).3. Click New Widget.4. Enter a name (required) and description

(optional).

Note: This description appears in the Manage

Widgets page and is not visible to students.

5. ClickSave.6. Click the Content tab (Figure 12).7. In the contents text box, enter the content you

want to display to students. This can be text,

images, links, or content embedded from an

external website. See the HTML Editorquickguide for more information on creating

content in D2L.

8. ClickSave.Editing Custom Widgets

Edit a Custom Widget1. From any page in your course, clickEdit

Course on the right side of the navbar

2. Click Widgets (Figure 11).3. Click the edit icon next to the widget you want

to edit (Figure 13).

4.

Use the tabs to edit the widget properties andcontent.

5. ClickSave on each tab on which you makechanges.

Delete a Custom Widget

Note: Deleting a widget removes it from all homepages

created within the current course.

1. Go to the Manage Widgets page.

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12

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2. Click the delete icon next to the widget you wantto delete (Figure 14).

Setting Your Homepage to Redirect

You can set your homepage to redirect to another

page so that when students enter your course orclick Course Home from within your course, they

will be taken to a different page. You can redirect

students to another D2L tool or to an externalwebsite.

1. From the Manage Homepages screen, clickNew Homepage (Figure 15).

2. Give your homepage a name (required) and adescription (optional).

3. Select Set my homepage as a tool or URL.4. Select the site you want your homepage toredirect to. To set your homepage to redirect to another

D2L tool, clickMake this homepage a tool.

Then select the tool you want to redirect to

from the Tool drop-down menu (Figure 16).

To set your homepage to redirect to an externalwebsite, clickMake this homepage a web

page. Then, enter the address of the website inthe URL field (Figure 17).

Note: The website you enter will appear in a frameunder your course navbar. Students will still be able to

use the navbar to navigate the course.

5. ClickSave.

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Figure 17

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Homepages and Widgets Tool