Creating a Home Page

Home Page Layout Options

When you enter a course the first thing you (and students) will see is the course Home page Links to an external site.. The content of this page can be customized by the instructor. The default for this page is the Course Activity Stream, but other options are probably better for you and your students. In most cases the recommended Home page layout is the Pages. which allows you to provide a personal invitation to the course and instructions on how to use the resources, the next best is probably the Syllabus.

From the home page layout list select the layout of a course from the following options:

• Course Activity Stream lets participants see the most recent notifications and interactions for this course. It is very similar to the dashboard page where users first log in, but only shows content for the specific course.
• Pages Front Page gives instructors an editable page that they can use to create anything they want including links, images and video. To use this feature you will need to designate a "Page" as your Homepage first. To do this see the following page for more information - How do I set a Front Page in a course? Links to an external site.
• Course Modules literally makes the Course Home Page the Modules for the course (where all course content, assignments, etc. are located). This could be useful because students would not need to search for course materials.
• Assignments List view simply lists groups of assignments and their due dates.
• Syllabus allows instructors to write up a description of course expectations or introduce the course with links, images, etc (this would be the syllabus). It then shows a calendar view of all assignments and course events. The calendar of assignments and course events can not be edited and is populated automatically when you add assignments, events, and due dates. It is not recommended that you copy and paste your entire syllabus here, rather provide a link Links to an external site. to your printable syllabus, and use the text space to let students know about the class, how you are and how to contact you.

Try out some of the different options and select the option which best suits your needs. It's probably a good idea to come back to this after you're done building your course to make sure it still looks the way you want it to look.

For more information also see the following guide - What layout options are available in the Course Home Page? Links to an external site.

Change Your Course Home Page

To change your course home page, go into a course that you have instructor rights. On the first page (this is the Home page) you will see the option at the right side of the screen to "Choose Homepage." Click on this link and then select a layout option.

For more information also see the following guide - How do I change the Course Home Page Links to an external site.