Creating Content with Available D2L Tools
By Sara Selby, MA
South Georgia State College
Create a Course Overview
Select Overview at the top of the Content Map to add a welcome message, course introduction, description, or to add an attachment. Whatever you create in the Overview will be the first thing displayed to learners when they access the content of the course for the first time. If you choose not to create an Overview, learners will see the Table of Contents instead, and the Overview link will not appear to them (though it will continue to be visible to you in the Instructor view).
Add a Module
In order to add any content to your course, you must first add a module.
You can add modules to your course from this window by:
Choosing the Add a Module option at the bottom of the Content Map panel on the left. Simply select Add a Module and type a title for the module, then press the Enter key. You will see the module in your table of contents.
You can add a description by selecting Add a Description below the title of the module, typing your description, and selecting Update.
If you wish to add a sub-module, choose Add a Sub-Module below the module title and description.
Attach a Release Condition
You may wish to set some restrictions on some content or activities. For example, you may want some content withheld until learners meet certain conditions, or you may want a discussion topic to be available only if learners have accessed certain course content. If that is the case, then you can set those conditions in two different ways:
Within the Tool
Select the Restrictions tab.
Within the Content Area
Choose your discussion topic from the Content Map panel.
Select the arrow to the right of the discussion title and choose Edit Properties In-Place from the drop-down menu.
Select Add Dates and Restrictions.
From Here, for Both Methods
Under Release Conditions, choose Create and Attach.
From the pop-up list of Condition Types, scroll down to Content.
From there, you can choose to specify which content topic(s) learners must access before they can access the discussion topic. You will notice many different options for setting restrictions, and restrictions may be set for many different kinds of course objects. While you cannot force learners to read your course content, you can at least require them to access it.
Upload a Topic
Once you have created your module and perhaps added a submodule, creating topics is fairly easy.
Select the module title to open it and then select Upload/Create. You will see a list of options in the drop-down menu.
Add an Existing Activity
You can link from the course content to discussions, quizzes, assignment folders, or other areas of the course by using Quicklinks. For example, if you have already created a discussion topic by using the Discussions tool and you wish to add that topic to one of your course modules or submodules:
Open the module or submodule.
Select Existing Activities and choose the tool for Discussions. From the pane that opens, navigate to the topic you desire and select it. This item will be added to the module or submodule as content.
Create a File and Insert Stuff
Select Create a File to create a course page and type a title.
Type your content into the HTML Editor (text box), where you can also insert items such as videos, images, hyperlinks, etc., by selecting the Insert Stuff icon in the upper left corner of the HTML Editor. When you have finished creating your page, if you wish to save it and come back to make changes later, select Save as Draft, but if you are finished and wish to make it visible to your learners, select Publish.
Rearrange Units, Lessons, Folders, and Materials
If you wish to rearrange the modules, submodules, or content topics of your course, simply drag and drop from within the Table of Contents.
If you wish to remove a module, submodule, or content topic from your course structure, simply select the arrow to the right of the title of that component and choose Delete Module or Delete Topic from the bottom of the drop-down menu. If you are deleting a module, a box will appear asking whether you wish to Remove the module and all nested modules and topics from Content but keep all associated files and activities in the course or Permanently delete and remove all nested modules, topics, and all associated files and activities from the course. Carefully consider your choice, as the first option simply takes the objects in the module out of view but retains them in your course materials while the second option irreversibly deletes them. If you are deleting a topic, a box will appear asking whether you wish to Remove the topic from Content but keep the associated file or activity in the course, or permanently delete both the topic from Content and the associated file or activity from the course. Again, choose wisely, for the second choice completely destroys the topic and file(s).
D2L Miscellaneous
Course Builder
You can also create content using the Course Builder tool. If you want to understand building a course in D2L from an instructor’s point of view, this Course Builder tutorial is highly recommended: D2-Creating Content in D2L with Course Builder.
Bookmarks
You can bookmark any page of the course content by selecting on the bookmark icon to the right of the page’s title, which will then darken to show the page has been bookmarked. When you bookmark a page, a number will appear next to Bookmarks on the Table of Contents page to indicate how many pages you have bookmarked. You can access a list of all your bookmarked pages by selecting Bookmarks on the Table of Contents page. You might wish to make use of bookmarks during the content creation phase of your course building to remind you to set or check visibility restrictions, due dates, grade item associations, etc. To remove a bookmark, simply select the darkened bookmark icon on the page or select the arrow to the right of the page’s name in the Bookmarks list and choose Remove Bookmark.
Course Schedule
Course Schedule is where you can view all of the dates you have set in your course and check them for accuracy. These include start dates, due dates, end dates, and overdue dates for the next seven days or for the full schedule of the course. To adjust those dates, you must navigate to the content object itself and edit it. While you may want to make much of your course content always visible to learners, you may wish to delay the release of some materials, such as quizzes or assignments; adjust your dates accordingly.