Let's return to your course's home page, which is not the same as your front page or portal. Instead, we're focusing on developing the course itself.
Are there a few items that we need to include that we were not able to customize when we edited the course page? This section discusses a few items you may wish to include.
Including a calendar which demarcates course events can help your students stay on track. To add a calendar, you will first add a Calendar block as shown in the following steps:
- Click on the Turn editing on button.
- In the Add a block menu, click on Add….
- Click on Calendar in the drop-down menu. A Calendar block will appear on the course page.
- Click on the Actions icon in the Calendar block and select Configure Calendar block to configure the options you wish to have displayed.
- Click on the Save changes button.
To add events, just click on the month of the event in the Calendar block, and then click on New event. The new event can apply to the course, the user, or the website.
If you use a calendar, you may wish to include the following items: course start date, course end date, key due dates, and also any administrative issues that could be of value. You can add each of these items in the individual course calendars for courses.
Instead of incorporating a large graphic of your institution along with the institution's mission and vision statement, you may wish to use an HTML block to include a quick link to the institution's web page; this is most useful for your purposes.
You may also wish to include a link to the instructor's contact information, if it is an instructor-led course.
To keep your website very neat, it is often useful to gather all student support sites in a single place. So, you may wish to create a Page resource or, if the list is short, another HTML block that includes resources such as links to the Help desk, the Online Library, the Writing Center, and other support areas.