Course widgets can help you engage with your students by featuring useful tools on your course homepage. The first step is to create a widget-based homepage. Widget-based homepages display a standard homepage that contains various widgets. After you create the homepage, you can add or remove widgets, customize their appearance, and create custom widgets to expand the functionality of your course homepage.
Note: In addition to widgets included in Brightspace Core, you can also access a catalogue of homepage system widgets to provide a more customized learning experience for your homepages. Refer to the Homepage Widget Expansion Pack topic for more information.
Create a widget-based homepage
- On the navbar, click Course Admin > Homepages.
- From the Homepages tab, click Create Homepage.
- From the Create Homepage page, do the following:
Figure: Customize your homepage on the Create Homepage page.
- Enter a Name and Description for your homepage.
- In the Type drop-down, select Widget-based.
- To add a header to your homepage below the navbar, select Include homepage header. and enter the replace string of the information that you want it to display.
Note: Replace strings are placeholders that refer to information in Brightspace; the system replaces these placeholders with the corresponding information when you apply them to a homepage header.
- To choose a layout for a widget-based homepage, click Change Layout.
- To add widgets to your homepage, click Add Widgets. For example, the My Courses widget. Style your added widgets by adjusting their properties.
- Click Save and Close.
From the Active Homepage drop-down menu, select your homepage and click Apply.
Change the My Courses widget default image
In the My Courses widget on your homepage, the courses display a default image assigned from the curated image library. You can also select an image that is more representative of the course from the library provided by D2L, or add your own image for the course tile. Any images that you include with the My Courses widget are available to include in the course components that you export, copy, or import.
To change the default image
- Navigate to your course homepage by doing one of the following:
- If your My Courses widget appears on the My Home page, click the My Home button.
- If your My Courses widget appears somewhere else, navigate to the location of the widget.
- Hover over the course image and click the More Options menu.
Note: If you are using assistive technology or keyboard-only navigation, press Tab to access the More Options button and press Enter to view the menu items.
Figure: Click the context menu to access customization options for course images.
- Select Change Image or press Enter.
- Search or browse the list of available images.
- Hover over the image you want to use and click Use this image. If you are using assistive technology or keyboard-only navigation, press Enter to select the image.
Figure: You can choose from a variety of images for your course.
To help instructors and course designers to create great visual experiences for their learners, the My Courses widget course tiles now include an instructor-chosen photograph. D2L provides an image library of over 3000 images which are licensed for use within the Brightspace Platform. Instructors and course designers can also upload their own image.
Be aware of the following image size recommendations:
- For logo images used on navbars, ensure that your image is a maximum size of 260 pixels by 60 pixels, and saved as SVG filetype.
- For course images, it is recommended that images are 2400 pixels by 960 pixels. Keep in mind that the display height and width of these images may vary in different tools and on different screens and devices. Ensure that any images that you are using appear correctly at different sizes and crop points on laptop, tablet, and mobile device screens.
Note: To maintain security, ensure any .jpg images are clear of EXIF (exchangeable image file) data.
Customize the My Courses widget
The My Courses widget can display information about your course, such as the course code.
Display the course code
- From your organizational or course homepage, navigate to the My Courses widget.
- From the My Courses context menu, select Customize this widget.
Figure: Click Customize this widget in the My Courses context menu.
- From the Customize Widget dialog, do any of the following:
Figure: Customize the My Courses widget in the Customize Widget dialog.
- Select Show Course Code.
- Select Show Semester.
- Under Group Courses By, do one of the following:
- Select None to remove course grouping tabs from the widget.
- Select Semester, then select an alphabetical sorting option from the drop-down menu.
- Select Department, then select an alphabetical sorting option from the drop-down menu.
- Select Role.
- Under Updates, select Show course updates, and choose which updates you want displayed:
- Unread Discussion Posts
- Unread Quiz Attempts
- New Assignment Submissions
- Click Save.
Change a custom widget style
All widgets adhere to the Widget container style by default. You can edit the settings of custom widgets to customize the widget style on homepages.
Note: You cannot change a system widget style.
To change a custom widget style
- From your organizational or course homepage, navigate to the My Courses widget.
- From the My Courses context menu, select Style this widget.
Figure: Click Style this widget in the My Courses widget context menu.
- From the Widget Settings dialog, do any of the following:
Figure: Change the My Courses widget settings.
- To hide the title, clear Display a Title.
- To prevent users from collapsing the widget on the homepage, select Prohibit minimizing widget.
- Under Widget Name, do select one of the following:
- To maintain My Courses as title, select Default.
- To set a custom title, select Custom and enter a title.
- Click Save.
About the Work To Do widget
The Work To Do widget provides learners with a summary of assigned learning activities from all their courses that are overdue or have an upcoming due date or end date. The widget can be added to Brightspace homepages to aggregate data from all courses, and to course homepages to show only due and overdue learning activities from the course.
The Work To Do widget displays the following learning activities:
- Assignments
- Checklists
- Content
- Courses
- Discussions
- Surveys
- Quizzes
Important: To view the Work To Do widget, student roles require the View Work To Do Widget permission set at the Organization level and/or at the Course Offering level to access the widget from the organization homepage or from course homepages. Learning activities only appear in the Work To Do widget when the activity has a defined due date or end date. By default, the widget displays activities due or ending in the upcoming 2 weeks, and overdue work from the previous 12 weeks. For more information about how to change this date range, contact your administrator.
Add the Work To Do widget to your course homepage
Before you begin: The Work To Do widget must be enabled for your organization in order to access it from the System widgets list. You must have a widget-based homepage set up for your course and permissions to edit homepages. Ensure you have set due dates for all learning activities in your course that you want to appear to learners in the Work To Do widget.
To add the Work To Do widget
- At the bottom of your course homepage, click the Homepage Actions Menu.
-
Click Edit this Homepage.
Figure: Click Edit this Homepage on the Homepage Actions Menu.
- Under Widgets, click Add Widgets.
- Click System Widgets. Select the Work To Do.
- Click Add.
- Drag and drop the widget to the desired location on your homepage.
- Click Save and Close.
You have added the Work To Do widget to your course homepage.