Accommodations, Dates, Groups, and Release Conditions

As we alluded to on the previous page, you can use dates four ways:

1. On Modules

2. Course Activities in the Content Area/in Modules

3. D2L Tools (Quizzes, Dropboxes, Discussions)

4. Course Start and End Dates

Keep in mind that students will only get notifications for modules and activities that have Due Dates on them. If you simply add a Start and End date, students will not get any notifications.

A module is akin to a folder on your computer. This is an over-arching space where you can put your course activities. Many instructors use modules to break course content into weeks or into units.

Behavior: Adding a Start or End date to a Module will prevent a student from accessing it before the Start date and after the End date and gives notifications of when the module is coming due if you add a Due Date (which can be extrapolated by students to also include the materials in the module).

It will also prevent a student from accessing almost any Content Item (i.e., course activity located in the Content area of D2L) in that module. 

The exceptions are D2L Tools (Discussions, Dropboxes, and Quizzes), and links to outside resources (like Panopto videos, websites or databases, Google Drive, etc.). This is because these items are easily accessible to students outside of the module. Students just won't be able to access these resources from the module itself. However, if you upload a file (like a PDF, Word Document, Slideshow, etc.) or create a file directly in D2L and apply a Start and End date to the module, students will be unable to access these files before the Start and after the End Dates of the module.

To clarify, we mean by Content Item is any Course Activity located in the Content area of D2L. These may also be referred to simply as "topics". We may use Course Activity and Content Item interchangeably throughout the rest of this self-paced training. A Course Activity can be any D2L Tool (Discussions, Dropboxes, Quizzes), uploaded files, linked webpages or online videos, etc., or any other educational materials you provide to your students. Adding dates, especially a Due Date, on a course activity can be beneficial. This is because students will get notifications of upcoming due dates. An example of this is if you want to help make sure that students read a particular PDF before the next class. Adding a Start Date will also help you prevent students from accessing materials from topics until you have a chance to go over those topics or are ready to introduce those topics.

Behavior: Adding a Start or End date to a course activity will prevent a student from accessing it before the Start date and after the End date and give notifications when it is coming due if you add a Due Date. If you add a D2L Tool (such as a link to a Discussion, Dropbox, or Quiz) to the module and add a Start/End/Due date, it will affect these tools as well. However, it you add a link to an outside resource, it will only prevent the student from accessing it from the module and not by some other means.

D2L Tools include Discussions, Dropboxes, and Quizzes. You can add Dates to a D2L Tool from if you add the Tool to a module by going to Add Existing Activities and choosing the appropriate Tool. However, many faculty do not add these Tools to a module and instead opt to have students access the Tool from the appropriate Tab in the Course Navbar. You can add a Date to a Tool by going to that Tool's Editor Screen. Additionally, when creating a Tool, it is much easier to add a Date while you are designing it. You can then choose to add the Tool to a module or simply have students access it from the appropriate Tab later.

Behavior: Adding a Start or End date to a D2L Tool will prevent a student from accessing it before the Start date and after the End date and gives notifications of when the Tool is coming due if you add a Due Date. If you happen to add the tool to a Module later on, the Dates will carry over.

*We have separated the steps for Discussions because they are slightly different and also have a few more options.

For the "normal" semesters (Fall and Spring), Course Start and End dates are already set for courses. However, the Start date is typically the Friday before the semester starts and the End date is typically sometime the week after final exams. For other sessions, like the Summer sessions or January Intersession, you may need to change these Dates. Or you simply want to allow students to access the course a bit earlier (ex, so they can see the booklist or do some work before the start of the semester, like participate in an introductions Discussion).

Behavior: The Course Start Date will prevent students from accessing the course before the specified Start Date. The Course End Date will prevent students from accessing the course after the specified End Date. Instructors can change these dates to provide further access to the course for students.