3. Course Home Page

The Course Home page is displayed when user clicks a link of a necessary course on the Home Page.

 

Fig. 'Course Home Page'

 

The Course Home page displays general description of a course, and gives a user an access to basic modules of the course. To access course modules, click a corresponding icon in the Course Tools menu:

 

Name	Description
Announcements	Allows managing course announcements
Calendar	Allows posting events to notify other users
Documents	Allows working with course documents
Learning Path	Allows managing course learning paths
Links	Allows managing course links
Quizzes	Allows managing course quizzes
Drop Box	Allows managing files for shared usage
Plagiarism	Allows checking items for plagiarism
Assignments	Allows setting course home tasks
Attendance	Allows registering student’s attendance
Discussion Board	Brings users to the course forum
Chat	Brings users to the course chat room
Conference	Allows entering Online Video Conference
GradeBook	Allows setting grades for course students
Tracking	Allows tracking statistics within course modules
Wiki Page Library	Allows creating documents users want to share with other course members
Seating Chart	Allows creating a class seating chart
Reports	Allows scheduling report on attendance and time spent by learners in each course section
Mailbox	Allows managing message sharing
Learners & Groups	Allows managing the membership of course groups
Staff	Contains information about course teachers, administrators, faculty staff etc
Roster	Contains information about course learners
Help	Displays online SharepointLMS documentation
Podcasts	Allows integrating podcasts into site collections

Items of the Course Tools menu are enabled on the Course Options page. To enter Course Options, go to Site Actions > Course Settings > Course Options.

The Course Home page may display main modules of the course, i.e. Web Parts so that users can have easy access to them.

More information about Course Web Parts you can find in the Web Parts on the Course Level section.

 

Customizing Course Home Page

You can customize the visual representation of the Course Home page. To be able to make changes:

1. Open the Course Home page.

2. In the Site Actions menu, select Edit Page. You will be switched to the edit mode:

 

Fig. ‘Editing Course Home Page’

 

3. Make the necessary changes to the page:

- At the top of the page enter the page name

- Use the HTML editor to create description of the course. This description will be displayed at the top of the Course Home Page.

- Also you can insert a multimedia content at the top of the page using the Insert/edit embedded media tool:

 

Fig. ‘Insert/Edit Embedded Media’

 

The Insert/edit embedded media editor window will open:

 

Fig. ‘Insert/Edit Embedded Media Editor’

 

 

Select the file type depending of the extension of the required file:

 

File Type	File Extension
Flash	.swf
Quicktime	.mov .qt
Shockwave	.DCR
Windows Media	.wmv .avi
Real Media	.rm

 

Enter the URL of the file or select the file from the library using the Browse button ()

Specify the file dimension. Click Insert.

 

You can see that the page is divided into panes: Right, Top Left, Top Right, Center Left, Center, Center Right, and Footer. You can find information about Web Parts managing in the Managing Web Parts section.