Administrator Documentation

Set up your course homepage

Create organization level homepages

On the My Home page, click Course Admin > Homepages.
Click Create Homepage.
Enter a name and description for your homepage.
To display this homepage as an option in child org units, select Share with child org units.
To add a header to your homepage below the navbar, select Include custom homepage header.
- To add the org unit name below the navbar, choose Org Unit name.
- To add a custom header below the navbar, choose Custom.
Choose between the following homepage type options:
- Design a widget-based homepage - Displays a standard homepage with various widgets.
- Make an existing tool the homepage - Displays a system tool, such as Content, as your homepage.
- Make an existing URL the homepage - Displays an external web page as your course homepage.
For a widget-based homepage, click Change Layout to choose a layout for your homepage.
To add widgets to your homepage, click Add Widgets.
Style your added widgets by adjusting their properties.
Click Save and Close.
To make this homepage active for an org unit, select the homepage from the Active Homepage drop-down list and click Apply.

Enforce a default homepage on child org units

Enforcing a homepage prevents instructors from assigning custom homepages to individual courses. This enables you to manage all of your organization’s homepages from a single source; when you update the enforced homepage, all child org unit homepages reflect that change.

Enforcing homepages enables you to create and implement organization-wide branding and content. As a result, learners and instructors experience consistent organization-wide homepages for courses and consistent navigation that focuses on branding, color, and discoverability.

On the My Home page, click Course Admin > Homepages.
From the context menu of the homepage you want to enforce for all child org units, click Force Homepage. This option is only available for the homepage you've set as default.
Click Enforce.

If you click Don’t Force Homepage from the context menu of the enforced homepage, the default homepage for all child org units returns to the course default.

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.

On the navbar, click Course Admin > Homepages > Create Homepage. Or, from the ... [Homepages Action Menu] at the bottom of the homepage, click Manage Homepages.
Click Create Homepage.
Enter a name and description for your homepage.
In the Type drop-down list, select Widget-based.
To add a header to your homepage below the navbar, select Include homepage header.
Enter the replace string of the information that you want it to display. 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.
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.

Add an optional course banner to a widget-based homepage

It is possible to add a course image banner below the navigation bar on widget-based homepages for courses (and other org units, such as departments, in the Brightspace Daylight Experience). The banner provides a venue to personalize the look and feel of homepages and provide a connection between the course tile in the My Courses widget and the homepage.

Administrators control the prominence of this feature in the Brightspace Daylight Experience. If the feature is turned on, the banner appears at the top of the course homepage by default. If you have the appropriate permissions, you can change or remove the course banner using the Options menu on the banner, the Edit Homepage menu at the bottom of the homepage, or the Homepage Banner setting on the Course Offering Information page.

Create a tool-based homepage

A tool-based homepage displays a system tool, such as Content as your homepage.

On the navbar, click Course Admin > Homepages > Create Homepage.
Enter a name and description for your homepage.
In the Type drop-down list, select Tool.
Select the tool you want to use as the homepage.
Click Save and Close.

Create a homepage with an external URL

An external URL homepage displays a web page external to your organization as the course homepage.

On the navbar, click Course Admin > Homepages > Create Homepage.
Enter a name and description for your homepage.
In the Type drop-down list, select External URL.
Enter the URL location you want to use as your course homepage.
Click Save and Close.

You can use a replace string to populate an external URL for an org unit. If you configure a homepage URL as follows: https://www.bing.com/search?q={OrgUnitId}, the replace string is populated with the users current OrgUnitId when the homepage is accessed.

Set a default homepage

Each org unit must have a homepage. You can set up a default homepage for your organization that you can apply to any org unit that does not use a custom homepage. The homepage you set as the default at the organization level becomes the default homepage for all new course offerings. If you update the default at the organization level, any courses using the default homepages will also change.

On the My Home page, click Course Admin > Homepages.
From the context menu of the homepage you want to set as a course default, click Make Default.

Updating the default settings across all homepages that use a widget

On the Admin Tools > Homepage Management page, select Widgets.
Select the Custom Widgets tab or System Widgets tab.
Click Customize for the selected widget and make the required changes.
Click Save.

Make your course homepage active

All courses are initially set up with a default course homepage by your system administration. You can use the Homepage Management tool to create a new homepage and set it as the active homepage for your course. Course homepages might be enforced by your organization. If so, the homepage listed on Homepages displays an Enforced status, and you cannot change your active homepage.

There are three types of course homepages you can use: Widget-based (Displays a standard homepage with various widgets), Tool (Displays a system tool, such as Content, as your homepage), and External URL (Displays an external web page as your course homepage).

To make your newly created homepage the active homepage of an org unit, on the Homepages page, from the Active Homepage drop-down list, select the homepage
Click Apply.