Course Homepages
Instructors can choose between several layout options for a course site’s homepage. Each choice is made up of an arrangement of Widgets and has been designed to highlight different site elements: focusing on content, course structure, or communication.
Unfortunately, customization is limited to these selections.
It is possible to change the active homepage layout at any time through the ellipsis button in the bottom-right of any homepage.
Contents
Related
Homepage options and widgets
All homepage options consist of a combination of the following widgets:
The look and feel of the different options will change as more content is added. It may be best to toggle between the options once the rest of the site is set up.
The default option (#4+Teams) has a balanced and familiar set of widgets in Announcements, Visual Table of Contents, Calendar, Multi-Profile, Updates, Syllabus, and Teams Course Connector.
Activity Feed
An interactive hub for site members to post messages that are visible site-wide. Instructors can also link to assignments, quizzes, and other tools.
Add an Instructor or Teaching Assistant
A tool dedicated to quickly adding teaching assistants or co-instructors to a site’s roster. This widget is not visible to students. Further information is available in the guide for adding TAs or co-instructors to a site.
It is also possible to further adjust enrollment (e.g. assign a TA to only specific sections) through Classlist.
Announcements
A communication tool that allows instructors to create course announcements using the full text-editor. These can be targeted at specific roster sub-sections and by default prompt email notifications. Detailed instructions are available in the guide for creating and managing Announcements.
Calendar
A monthly course calendar that will display upcoming events within the site, including date-dependent assignments, quizzes, discussions, etc. It is also possible to create events directly in the Calendar widget.
Course Connector for MS Teams
The Brightspace-Microsoft Teams integration that is used to create a Teams site based off the membership of your Brightspace site’s Classlist in a few simple steps.
Homepage types one, two, and four include a plus version with the Teams Course Connector widget.
Full details are available in the guide for using the Teams Course Connector in Brightspace.
This widget is not visible to students.
Syllabus Widget
A place to quickly and directly upload a course syllabus. Doing so will create a new Unit (named “Syllabus”) in the Content area that contains the uploaded file. The widget will also find and link to any previously uploaded document named “syllabus” in the Content area.
For students, the widget offers a convenient link to the course syllabus from the homepage.
The Syllabus widget provides a consistent location for students to access the course syllabus and for instructors to deposit it with their Dean. The widget makes use of the Content area.
Updates
The updates widget provides an intelligent summary of the activity in the site.
Course Instructor Information Widget (Teaching Team)
The Course Instructor Information widget offers profile cards that share information about the course instructor(s) and/or teaching team and include images that are retrieved from Brightspace Profiles when available. Only site members in the Instructor role can edit the Multi-Profile Widget.
The Single Instructor Profile was replaced by the Multi-Profile Widget (a.k.a. Course Instructor Information) on October 9th, 2024. The new widget offers more flexibility including the ability to include a full teaching team.
The initial setup window offers instructors the ability to just display their profile, or they can Update User Settings, which provides control over which members of the teaching team are visible, how they are labeled (which can be different from their actual site role), and in what order they appear.
The drop-down arrow next to Course Instructor Widget offers the following options:
Configure this widget provides control over which members of the teaching team are visible, how they are labeled (which can be different from their actual site role), and in what order they appear.
Collapse this widget closes the widget so it doesn’t take up space on the homepage. This does not apply to other users of the site, they still see the widget.
Visual Table of Content
An interactive tiled list of content items that links directly to course material and provides students with a progress bar to track what they have read. Each item is tied to a Content Unit and all changes are managed within Content itself (including the display image, which can be changed from the default by adding another image to the first page in the Content item). Other configuration details can be changed (e.g., default image, text colour, and progress bar colour)--reach out to edtech@brocku.ca for more information.
Change a course site’s Homepage
Navigate to a course site’s homepage or click the Course Home tab in the navbar.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the ellipsis button in the bottom-right corner.
Select the Manage Homepages button to view and choose between the different layouts.
Remove the Banner will eliminate the image across the top of a homepage, along with that instance of the course name. More details can be found on the Navbars and Banners page.
The Manage Homepages page will show a full list of homepage options with a brief description. Note that Widgets are positioned differently in the various options and it may be worth toggling between them to compare. Select from the Active Homepage dropdown menu and click Apply.
Departments, Programs, or teams interested in a custom homepage can reach out to edtech@brocku.ca to discuss options.
Please contact CPI at edtech@brocku.ca with any questions or comments about the contents of this site.