WebCT First Steps

Organizing Your Course

There are many strategies for organizing your course. We will present some basics.

One Page Reference Guides (Link to McMaster University WebCT resources)

Left Menu Structure

Using the Organizer Page

Creating a Table of contents

1. We will discuss two ways to provide navigation for your students, the left hand menu and the the organizer page.
   
   
   
2. The Left Menu | Top
   We will begin with a discussion of the left course menu. The Course Menu can be hidden on individual pages by clicking the triangle icon next to Course Menu. When this option is used, the Course Menu collapses into a drop-down menu.
   
   
   Clicking the triangle icon again reveals the Course Menu.
   
3. You also have the option of not displaying the course menu on the left at all. From the Control Panel, click Course Settings. The Course Settings screen appears. Under Course Menu, select Hide Course Menu frame. Click Update. The Course Settings screen refreshes and the Course Menu is now hidden on all screens in your course.
   
   
   
4. You can hide a link from students if you have prepared something in advance, and you don't want students to access it yet. From the Control Panel, click Course Settings. The Course Settings screen appears. Under Edit Course Menu, click Edit Course Menu.
   
   
5. The Edit Course Menu screen appears. Under Course menu links, select the link that you want to hide. Under Options, click Hide link. The Edit Course Menu screen refreshes and the link you selected now displays an "H" next to it. The Course Menu in designer view continues to display the link; an "H" next to the link indicates that it is hidden from students.
   
   When you want students to see a previously hidden link, you can reveal it. Under Options, click Reveal link. The Edit Course Menu screen refreshes and the link is no longer hidden.
   
   
   
6. Organizer Page | Top
   The steps to create an Organizer page are below, but first let's talk about what an Organizer page does.The Organizer Pages allow you to group course tools into subsets to help you organize the elements in your course. For example, you may want to group all your communication tools or study tools together. Links to Organizer Pages can appear on the Homepage and on the Course Menu. Each Organizer Page contains links to the tools in the grouping.
   
   

   From an Organizer Page, you can:

   1. Access any of the tools listed on the Organizer Page.
   2. Add links to pages or tools that you want to add to the grouping.
   3. Modify the links.
   4. Change the appearance of the Organizer Page.
   5. Create textblocks on the Organizer Page .
   6. Add the Organizer Page and its elements to the Course Menu.
   
7. The Homepage is an Organizer page that has already been created for you. You can edit it by adding text and creating links. Use the menu on the right to add and edit text and create or delete links.

8. To create a new organizer page, from the Control Panel, click Add Page or Tool. The Add Page or Tool screen appears. Click the page or tool you want to add. The Add screen appears. Click the Organizer Page link under Pages.

9. Enter a title, decide wher you want the link and click Add.