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From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 15:11, 3 November 2010

Overview

The Home Page is, by default, the page where your students land when they first open your course. They will see any current Announcements, Calendar Postings, Mail and Discussion Messages (if you have enabled those tools). You are also provided with a space to create your own Home Page information under "Site Information Display."

The Best Practice is to use this space to inform students about how to use the course. Is this a totally online course? Is it supplemental information for a face-to-face class? How will you communicate with them? How do you want them to use the tools you've provided? Give them contact information for the UF Computing Help Desk to address any computer-related problems - http://helpdesk.ufl.edu, 352-392-4357.

There are two options for adding content to your "Site Information Display"

Add Home Page Content Using "Options"

If you click Options directly under the words "Site Information Display," the Content Editor opens and allows you to create the content for your Home Page. If you want to insert images, you will need to upload them to Resources before you can add them to the content.

NOTE: If you use this option, your Home Page content will not copy from one semester to the next, though it is easy to copy the content into your new course. If you used links to files and images within Resources, you will have to re-insert the links into the text in the new course. If you have multiple links, you are better off using the "Add Home Page Content Using Resources" and Relative Links.

Add Home Page Content Using Resources

If your Home Page contains images or links to files in Resources, you will want to use this method instead of using the Content Editor under "Options." When content is copied from one semester to the next, links to items within Resources will be broken if you do not use "Relative Links." Creating your Home Page document within Resources and using Relative Links will eliminate this inconvenience.

Go to Resources and create an HTML file to be used as your Home Page. If you are linking to images and/or files in Resources, use Relative Links. When the file has been created:

1. Click Options beside the name of the HTML file in Resources.
2. Click Edit Details
3. Beside the heading "Web address (URL), click Select URL (for copying)
4. The URL is highlighted. To copy it, hold down the CTRL key while hitting "c."
5. You now have the URL copied. Click Cancel at the bottom of the screen.
6. Click Home in the left menu bar.
7. Click Options at the top of the page.
8. Beneath the Content Editor there is a box labelled "Site Info URL." Click inside the box and while holding down CTRL, hit "p." The URL of the HTML file in Resources is pasted into the box.
9. Click Update Options