Instructors: CourseLink Tools

The information on this page is intended for instructors using a CourseLink course site.

Posts in I-CL-Customization
OpenEd Toolbox

What is the OpenEd Toolbox?

The OpenEd Toolbox application is a custom-built suite of CourseLink productivity tools. It began as an ad-hoc project to build and share additional custom utilities specifically for assisting CourseLink Support with common requests.

This application has now matured and is ready for release to our instructor community, allowing you to leverage the same tools safely and securely for your own course site(s).

 

User Tools

Bulk Enroll

The bulk enroll tool allows instructors and administrators to add guests to their courses in bulk. Choose the course and copy a CSV formatted list of usernames, email addresses, or student ID numbers into the User Data box and the tool will do the rest.

Note: This tool should only be used to enroll guests. Registered students are automatically added to and removed from CourseLink daily after courses are mapped using the Course Creation Tool.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course for enrollment. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Section: You have the option to enroll the guests in a particular section of the course. Selecting a section is optional.

Role: Although all roles are available in the dropdown list, the ability to add a guest with a specific role depends on your role in the selected CourseLink course. You will receive an error message if your course-level role is not able to enroll a guest with the role you have selected.

Auto Create Users: This option will automatically create CourseLink accounts for users who haven’t used CourseLink yet. Almost all staff, student, and instructor accounts are created through other processes, but some might not be included in those processes.

User Type: Only administrators are able to create external users. Instructors can add internal users who have an existing UofG / GH central account.

User Delimiter: Specifies how the list of guests in the User Data box is formatted.

Step 2: Confirmation and Enrollment

After submitting the form, the Bulk Enrollment processing screen displays the initial results of the request, including any existing errors. You can go back to correct errors at this point, otherwise click the Create and/or Enroll Users button to proceed. Any enrollment errors will be displayed as the requests are confirmed.

The Bulk Enroll tool confirmation screen showing a failed enrollment. The Failed enrollment is a red box with a red exclamation mark.

Figure: The Bulk Enroll tool confirmation screen showing a failed enrollment.

 

Group Tools

Group by Section

The Group by Section tool allows users to configure the creation of a new group category and groups that are restricted to students enrolled in the same section.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Limit to Sections: Select the sections you would like to use to create your groups. A set of groups will be created for each section.

Create Category Name: Provide the Groups category name that you would like to see listed in CourseLink.

Users Per Group: Set the maximum number of users for each group. A new group will be created when the maximum is reached.

Identify Sections By: Determines the name of the groups. The group title will include the section code, course code, or both.

Enumerate Groups: Toggle on if you would like group numbers included in the group title.

Only Include: Select the roles you would like to include in the group formation.

Group Prefix: Include a word or phrase before the title for each group.

Step 2: Confirmation and Processing

After submitting the form, the Group by Section processing screen displays the results of the request. The number of required groups for each section will be displayed, as well as the group titles. Below, all students affected will be shown with their group enrollment listed. Click Process Groups to confirm and to create the groups in CourseLink.

The Group by Section confirmation screen results.

Figure: The Group by Section confirmation screen results.

 

Group List

The Group List tool retrieves a full list of groups and its members for a specified group category. All groups will be displayed in a single table. Results can be printed, copied, or exported to a CSV or Excel file.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Group Category: Select the specific group category from the groups available in CourseLink.

Step 2: Group List Processing

The results of the request will be displayed showing the course, group category, and group count. The options to print, copy, or export to CSV or Excel will be available at the top of the results table.

An additional option to export a CSV file that can use the listed CourseLink groups to created pre-assigned Zoom breakout rooms can also be found as a button above the results table.

Location of the Export Pre-assigned Zoom Breakout Room File button highlighted by a red box around the button.
 

Group Rename

The Group Rename tool allows users to rename already configured groups that were created in CourseLink. The tool quickly renames groups with a prefix or sequential numbering.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Group Category: Select the specific group category from groups available in CourseLink.

Add Prefix: Add a specific word or phrase to show up before the group titles.

Rename: Change the existing title of each group to a specific word or phrase.

Add Suffix: Add a specific word or phrase to show up after the group titles.

Renumber Sequentially: Add numbers after the group titles.
Use Leading Zeros: Start numbering with a zero (0), or multiple zeros (00).

Step 2: Group Rename Processing

The results of the request will be displayed showing the original names and the modified names. Click the Rename Groups button to proceed.

 

Create Predefined

The Create Predefined tool creates groups from a predefined list in a new or preexisting group category. It also provides the option to enroll users into those groups.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Group Category: Select the specific group category from groups available in CourseLink or select Create new Category.

Group Data: Copy and paste the group names OR the group name and user identifier (username, student ID, email). Each group name or group name/user combo should be separated by a new line.

Delimiter: Choose the row delimiter for group name/user combo (comma or tab). If you are adding group names only, no delimiter is necessary.

Step 2: Create Predefined Groups Processing

The results of the request will be displayed showing the new group category (if selected) and the new group names. Individual users will be shown with their groups if you provided users. Click the Create Groups & Enroll Users button to proceed.

 

Enroll into Existing

The Enroll into Existing tool evenly distributes users of a specified role into existing groups of a selected course and group category. This process takes existing enrollments into consideration, without modifying them.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Group Category: Select the specific group category from groups available in CourseLink.

Only Include: Select the roles to be included in the enrollment.

Exclude Users: Add the username of any users who should be excluded from the enrollment process.

User Distribution Order: Select the type of user distribution you would like to use as part of the enrollment process (Random, Last Name, First Name).

Fill Group Order: Select the type of group distribution you would like to use as part of the enrollment process (Random, By Group Name, By Creation Date).

Fill Partial Groups: Select the type of partial group filling you would like to use as part of the enrollment process (First, Last).

Step 2: Distribute Users into Existing Groups Processing

The results of the request will be displayed showing the table of existing groups and user enrollments. Any users originally enrolled in the groups will be shown with a check mark. Click the Enroll Users button to proceed with any new enrollments.

The Existing Groups tool confirmation showing a student already enrolled. This is confirmed by a circle with a checkmark.

Figure: The Enroll into Existing tool confirmation showing one student already enrolled.

 

Miscellaneous

Gradebook Column Copy

The Gradebook Column Copy tool copies the grade values from one CourseLink Grades column into another. Values can be copied between different grade item types (e.g., from a formula type to a numeric type) or between grade items of the same type.

Note: The destination grade item must be created in CourseLink prior to using this tool. The tool cannot create grade items.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the specific course. If you don’t see the course listed, you are either not enrolled in CourseLink or you can try clicking the Show Previous Offerings toggle.

Only Include: Select the roles to be included in the grade copy.

Source Column: Select the source column to be used for the grade copy.

Destination Column: Select the destination column to be used for the grade copy. Any existing values in the column will be overwritten.

Step 2: Gradebook Column Copy Processing

The results of the request will be displayed showing a table of users and the current source and destination values. A warning will be displayed if the max points of each column does not match. Click the Copy Values button to proceed.

 

Training Course Report

The Training Course Report tool provides departmental administrators with access to their department’s completion tracking of the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) CourseLink training courses. All departmental employees enrolled in the courses will be provided.

Please contact CourseLink to set up access if you are the administrator for your department.

Step 1: Information Form

Training Course: Select All or specific training courses from the list of available courses.

Department: Select All or a specific department from the list of available departments.

Staff: Select All or specific staff members from the list of available employees.

Step 2: Training Course Report Results

The results of the training courses will be displayed in table format. Use the buttons at the top of the table to Copy, export to CSV or Excel, or Print the results.

Yes – completed
No – not completed
N/A – not enrolled

 

CourseLink Quiz Printing

The CourseLink Quiz Printing tool allows an instructor to download a print ready and editable Word document of their CourseLink quiz and optionally generate an answer key.

The quiz printing tool does have some limitations that instructors should be aware of and consider when trying to print a quiz or when creating new quizzes.

The following question types are not supported:

  • Matching

  • Ordering

  • Arithmetic

  • Significant Figures

The following limitations will affect the download:

  • Question pools are not available.

  • Quiz section details such as title, text, and shuffle are not available.

  • Images attached to questions cannot be retrieved.

  • Quiz question order is not available. Questions will be grouped by section and displayed in the order that they are retrieved.

Tip: If your quiz uses question pools, it might be possible to make a copy of the quiz and remove the question pools by manually selecting the number of questions you would like on the printed quiz instead. Please contact CourseLink Support for assistance.

Step 1: Information Form

Course: Select the course site where the quiz resides (only courses with an instructor role will appear).

Quiz: Select the quiz you would like to print.

Generate Answer Key: Enable if you would like an answer key file generated as well.

Include Rich Text: Export the quiz with all HTML and other coding included in the file. Not enabling this option will create a file with plain text only.

Include Unsupported Question Types: For any unsupported questions, the system will add the question number, point value, bonus/mandatory indicators, question text, but will not include the question answer options.

Include Description: Include the quiz description at the top of the quiz file.

Include Header: Include the header information at the top of document.

Include Footer: Include the footer information at the bottom of the document.

Include Section Placeholders: If your quiz has sections, this feature will add a section placeholder in the quiz file that you can fill with information or copy from the original quiz.

Hide Question Hints: Hide the question hints found in ALL questions on the quiz.

Hide Bonus Question Indicators: Allows the instructor to hide the question type description showing that it’s a bonus question.

Hide Mandatory Question Indicators: Allows the instructor to hide the question type description showing that it’s a mandatory question.

Step 2: Download

After clicking Create File, and depending on your browser settings, the file save dialog will be presented where you can adjust the file name of the Word document or Zip file before saving to your device.

A Zip file will contain both the quiz document and quiz answer files (if selected).

 

PDF Splitter

This tool enables users to split a provided PDF file into multiple smaller PDFs, ensuring that each resulting PDF contains a target specified number of pages.

The PDF Splitter tool can be used by instructors when uploading scanned PDF files into Gradescope or by an SFC when uploading scanned paper questionnaires (SFQs) as a PDF into ABBYY.

Step 1: Information Form

Source PDF: Choose the PDF from your computer, OneDrive, or network drive.

Target page count per split: Select the maximum page count for each PDF file. The last file will contain any remaining pages.

Step 2: Download

After clicking the Submit button, and depending on your browser settings, the file save dialog will be presented where you can adjust the name of the Zip file before saving to your device.

 
 

Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
Course Creation Tool

What is the Course Creation Tool?

The Course Creation tool has two ways in which you can setup a course:

  1. Create a CourseLink course site is used if you are creating a new CourseLink for the first time.

  2. Update a CourseLink course site is used if you have already created a CourseLink site for your course, but need to add or remove sections (E.g. adding an auditing section).

Review the sections and courses available through WebAdvisor before creating a CourseLink course site.


Cross-listed courses

Cross-listed courses are CourseLink sites with more than one course number or department code. To setup a cross-listed course please contact CourseLink Support with your request at courselink@uoguelph.ca

If you require a Guelph-Humber course site, please contact your Faculty Support Officer.

 

Accessing the Course Creation Tool

Instructors can access the Course Creation Tool at the following url: https://cr.opened.uoguelph.ca/Instructor

 

Using the Course Creation Tool

Create a Course

(1) Click “Create a CourseLink course site”.

(2) Select the semester, code prefix and enter course code.

(3) Click the ‘Next’ button

The Create a CourseLink Course Site with a few options like Semester, Course Prefix, and Course Code.

Map Sections

(4) Select the check box next to the sections that you would like to add to your CourseLink site.

(5) Click the ‘Next’ button on the bottom right.

The Create a CourseLink Course Site page with Section 01 selected.
 

Course Offering Details

(6) Double check that the course offering details are correct. Add additional users here (Other instructors).

(7) If you plan on using teams an will need a security group you can click on the check box to have it setup. Please Note, It will take 24 hours after you check it off for it to become useable.

(8) Click “Create the CourseLink Course Site”

The picture describes the selected sections and it has a few options. The options in the image relate to Instruction support access, adding additional users and the deferred access condions.
A image showing the Classlist-linked Microsoft security group.
 
 

Related Resources and Programming:

Coming Soon!

 

Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
Navigation Bar

What is the NavBar Tool?

The navbar contains links to course-specific and CourseLink-wide tools and resources. Each course has its own navbar that links to relevant tools for that course. You can create custom links and link groups if you want; including URL links to third-party tools, external websites and other areas of CourseLink.

The NavBar always stays on visible to users while they navigate your course site, and sits between the CourseLink-wide tools in the MiniBar and the content the user is currently using.

Accessing the NavBar Tool

The NavBar tool always stays visible in your course site. Hovering over the NavBar will bring the NavBar action menu up on the NavBar.

From the NavBar action menu, select ‘Customize This NavBar’ to make changes to a default NavBar.

Custom Link Groups

Custom link groups are a set of individual links that grouped together. They can be created with link group names to categorize relationships between similar features of each group.

1. To create custom link group, navigate the NavBar and select Manage All Course Navbars.

Red box around the Manage all Courses Navbars option

2. From the tool Navigation click Custom Links > Create Link Group.

Create Link Group in a red box and to the right of Create Link button

3. Enter a name, icon and description for the link group.

4. In the Links area you have the option to do either of the following

  • Select Add Existing Link to add an existing link to the group. Click Add.

  • Select Create Link to add a new link to the group. Enter the link and click Create.

5. Click Save.

Using the NavBar Tool

For the most up-to-date information on how to use the NavBar tool, please follow the links below to the Brightspace Help documentation site.

 

Tutorial Videos


NavBar Tool FAQs


Related Resources and Programming:

Coming Soon!

 

Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
Widgets

What is the a Widget?

The homepage is the first page you see when you view the organization's My Home page or enter a course. The typical default homepage is widget-based. Widgets are sections of content that provide information and links to tools, courses, and personal settings. Organization and course homepages can point to Brightspace Learning Environment tools, such as Announcements or Content, or an external URL.

Widgets are the building blocks of homepages. You can create, edit, delete, customize, and preview the widgets in your organization.

Accessing the Widget Tool

The Widget tool is found under Course Admin in your Navbar, under Site Setup, if you are sorting tools by category.

 

Using Widgets

For the most up-to-date information on how to use widgets, please follow the links below to the Brightspace Help documentation site.

 

When and why should you consider using Widgets?

System widgets are available as part of CourseLink and cannot be edited or deleted, but you can remove them from a homepage or move them to a different section of a homepage using the Homepage Management tool. Additionally, you can change the appearance of system widgets using the same properties as custom widgets (i.e., border style, title bar color and more).

Custom widgets allow you to expand the functionality of available content in your homepages to suit your specific organizational and/or course needs. You can add custom HTML code to create a wide range of widgets.

Tutorial Videos


Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.


Homepages

What is the Homepage Tool?

The homepage is the first page you see when you view a course. The typical default homepage is widget-based. Widgets are sections of content that provide information and links to tools, courses, and personal settings. Organization and course homepages can point to CourseLink tools, such as Announcements or Content, or an external URL.

All new courses are initially set up with a default course homepage by CourseLink support. You can use the Homepage Management tool to create a new homepage and set it as the active homepage for your course.

Accessing the Homepage Tool

The Homepage tool is found under Course Admin in your Navbar, under Site Setup, if you are sorting tools by category.

Location of the Homepages link on a DE course site
 

Using the Homepage Tool

For the most up-to-date information on how to use the Homepage tool, please follow the links below to the Brightspace Help documentation site.

 

Tutorial Videos

 

Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
My Courses

What is the My Courses Widget?

The My Courses widget resides on the CourseLink My Home page that displays immediately after logging in and displays a list of course sites that a user has or has had access to on CourseLink. It can be used by any user with CourseLink access to to locate and access (provided the course site is currently accessible to their role) specific course sites where they have been granted access. Instructors can also use this widget to customize the course image that has been assigned to their course site.

 

Accessing the My Courses Widget

The My Courses widget is located on the CourseLink My Home page, which is the page a user lands on right after logging into CourseLink. Each course site to which a user has/had access to will be listed in this widget and will be represented by an image and title.

 

Using the My Courses Widget

Users can navigate to one of their course sites by clicking the card containing the name and image of a course offerings in this widget.

What Course Sites Are Displayed?

By default up to 12 current and upcoming course sites to which a user’s account has access will display under the All tab. This will include all courses to which a user has access, regardless of what role they have in them. It will also include resource course sites that accounts are automatically enrolled in with no end dates such as General Security Awareness, but will not include course sites that are past their closed date (i.e. course sites from a previous semester).

Locating Specific Course Sites

A user can view all of their course sites by clicking the link to View All Courses located at the bottom of the widget. This link will include a count in parentheses to indicate how many courses you have/had access to on CourseLink.

A user can also select a specific semester from the tabs along the top of the widget to see all the course sites to which you have/had access in that semester. Please note that CourseLink will remember the last selected semester the next time you access My Home/My Courses.

 

The All Courses Page

Clicking the View All Courses link will also take a user to a the All Courses page where they can search for a specific course via the Find a Course and Advanced Search features.

A user may use the Filter and Sort options to organize and display a custom list of their course sites.

This page also contains the same semester tabs for sorting course sites as are found on the widget.

 

Past courses will display the date and time access to that course site ended (i.e. Ended April 29, 2019 at 12:00 AM) and indicate that a site is closed in the bottom-left corner of the course image.

Upcoming courses will display the date and time that access to a course site will start for student-level roles (i.e. Starts September 7, 2019 at 12:00 AM).

Currently open course sites will display the end date and time for student and TA access (ie. Ends August 29, 2019 at 12:00 AM). The instructor role will allow access to closed courses.

 

Access to Course Sites by Role

  • Users with instructor roles in course sites are able to access them at any time, including outside of the start and end dates.

  • Users with teaching assistant roles in course sites are able to access them prior to their start dates, but not after their end dates.

  • Users with student-level roles only have access to course sites between the start and end dates.

Pinning a Course

Pinning a course keeps it on the My Courses widget, regardless of whether it is currently open or closed, which can be handy if you are frequently working on a course site that is not appearing on your My Courses widget by default.

To pin a course to your my courses widget, please follow these steps:

  1. Hover your cursor over the course icon

  2. Select the 3-dot icon that appears

  3. Select Pin

  4. The course pinned will now display in the Pinned tab

Using My Courses to customize your Course Image

The course image is what displays to students as part of the course icon under My Courses. A random stock image is inserted when the course is first created, but it can updated depending on your preference.

To change you course image, please follow these steps:

  1. Hover your cursor over the course icon

  2. Select the 3-dot icon that appears

  3. Select Change Image

 

Tutorial Videos

 

Related Tools


Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
Account Settings

What are Account Settings?

Account Settings allow you to customize and manage your personal CourseLink preferences such as your online status, CourseLink’s appearance, accessibility options, language and region, Discussions settings, and Email options.

Accessing your Account Settings

You can access your Account Settings by following the steps below:

  1. Click your name from the top-right of the CourseLink minibar

  2. Select Account Settings from the menu

  3. Use the tabs across the top of the page to view and edit options for your Account Settings, Discussions, and Email

 

Account Settings Options

Font Settings

Adjusting the font face and font size changes how the default font and size of text displays for the user. It does not affect images, documents, and other objects such as math equations.

Dialog Setting

The Show secondary window as options enable you to set secondary windows as pop-ups instead of dialog boxes. This setting helps screen readers and other assistive technologies separate the content of the secondary window from the main window. If you are using assistive technology such as a screen reader, we strongly recommend showing secondary windows as pop-ups.

HTML Editor Settings

Under this tab you can turn off the rich text editor. The HTML Editor has many additional rich text features that might be difficult to navigate with assistive technology. This option simplifies pages that have text fields, while still allowing you to include HTML content.

Video Settings

Select Optimize video presentation for programmatically-driven assistive technologies if you use assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to navigate the web. This option ensures that your assistive technology can detect embedded videos; it does not affect the accessibility of specific video players.

Locale & Language

Preferred Locale and Language:
Sets which locale to use for screen orientation, text, and graphics in the system. The options in the drop-down list correspond to the locale options available at your institution. Administrative staff and course designers can override your preferences for specific pages and courses.

Clock:
Sets whether time displays in 24-hour or 12-hour clock format.

First Day of the Week:
Sets which day appears first in your calendar.

Date:
Sets the display format of dates in the system.

Number Format:
Sets the display format of numbers in the system.

Percentage Format:
Sets the display format of percentages in the system.

Time Zone

Sets all dates that include times in CourseLink to correspond with the time zone you specify.

Signing In

Online Status sets whether you appear offline or online to other users when you are logged into the system.

Application Settings

Some applications (integrations) registered to your account can access the CourseLink LMS on your behalf. These setting allow you to manage and revoke that access.

For applications using OAuth 2.0, click the Manage applications registered with OAuth 2.0 link to view and control access from those applications.

For applications using ID Key Authorization, click the Revoke Access button to force all your applications or devices to renew their authentication. This ensures that others cannot, for example, access your grades or send emails as you if you lose a mobile device or discover that a linked application is compromised.

 

Account Settings - Discussions

Personal Settings

These settings will affect the default options for your account on CourseLink when interacting with the Discussions tool.

Display Settings

  • Always show the Discussions List pane

    • Selecting this option will pin the Discussions List pane in the View Topic and View Thread pages.

  • Display deleted posts

    • Selecting this option displays deleted posts when browsing topics. Note that the student role can only see their own deleted posts. An instructor role can see both their students’ deleted posts and their own deleted posts.

Both options are enabled by default.

Reply Settings

  • Include original post in reply

    • Selecting this option includes the original post by default when composing a reply.

This option is enabled by default.

Subscription Settings

  • When creating a new thread, subscribe to the thread by default

    • You will receive notifications when users reply to your thread based on your notification settings

This option is enabled by default.

Org Unit Settings

Default Rating Scheme

The option selected will automatically display in the Rate Posts drop-down list on the New Topic page and will automatically apply to imported course components. This setting only applies to users with roles that allow them to create new discussions topics (Instructors, TAs and Administrators).

Options include:

  • No Ratings

  • Five Star Rating Scheme

  • Up Vote/Down Vote Rating Scheme

  • Up Vote Only Rating Scheme

The default option is set to No Ratings. Any of these options may be selected at the time of creating a new discussion topic, regardless of which default setting is selected.

 

Account Settings - Email

Email Options

Send a copy of each outgoing message to [specified email address]

Sends a copy of all the emails you send to a specified address. Click the Change email address link to specify the address to which you want to send copies. Changing this address will change your external address for all mail sent from the Desire2Learn application.

Save a copy of each outgoing message to the Sent Mail folder

Saves a copy of your sent messages to a folder for convenient record-keeping.

display Options

Show external email addresses in the Address Book

External addresses for your system contacts will appear in the Address Book.

 

Account Setting - Set and view user pronouns

Users can now set their pronouns through Account Settings.

The account setting page highlighting the pronouns options

Figure: The area under Account Settings, where you can set your pronouns.

image displays a users profile card with the pronouns displayed.

Figure: A user profile card with the pronouns displayed.

Tutorial Videos


Account Settings FAQs


Related Resources and Programming

Coming soon!

 

 

Need More Help?

If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.

 

 
Notifications

What is the Notifications tool?

The Notification tool allows a CourseLink user to receive messages about activity in their course sites. Users can receive a periodic summary of all new activity through email and/or receive instant notifications when certain events happen through email or SMS messages.

Notifications are available for activities involving several CourseLink tools such as:

  • Announcements

  • Content

  • Discussions

  • Dropbox

  • ePortfolio

  • Grades

  • Quizzes

 

Accessing the Notifications tool

Location of the Notifications link

The Notifications tool can be accessed after logging into CourseLink by following the steps below:

  1. From the CourseLink Minibar, select your name (top-right)

  2. Select Notifications from the menu

 

Using the Notifications tool

Setting up an email contact method

By default, email notifications are automatically sent to the email address associated with your CourseLink account. To change these settings, follow the steps below.

  1. Click on the Change your email settings link

  2. Select the Use custom email option and enter your email address in the text field

  3. Click Save

Contact Methods settings link for email
 


Setting up a mobile contact method

Notifications can be sent directly to your mobile phone. To associate a phone number with your CourseLink account, follow the steps outlined below.

  1. Click Register your mobile on the Notifications page

  2. Select your Country, your Mobile Carrier, and enter your Mobile Number in the form

  3. Click Save

  4. After you receive a registration confirmation code on your mobile device, enter it in the Confirmation Code field

  5. Click Confirm

Contact Methods settings link for Mobile
 


Subscribing to a summary of activity

Users may choose to receive a daily summary of all the activities in their courses by subscribing to a Summary of Activity that will be delivered to the user via email daily at a time of their choosing.

  1. On the Notifications page, select the delivery frequency you want from the How often? drop-down list

  2. Select when you want to receive your summary from the At what time? drop-down list

  3. Click Save

Summary of Activity options
 

Subscribing to instant notifications

Instant Notifications Options

Users can select to be notified immediately about any of the items listed under the Instant Notifications section by either email or SMS.

  1. On the Notifications page, enable instant notifications for specific course activity and updates by doing any of the following:

    • Select the Email check box to enable email notifications

    • Select the SMS check box to enable SMS notifications

  2. Click Save

 

Customize Notifications

Customization options are available if you want to include your grade value in Grades notifications, and if you want to allow past, future, and inactive course enrollments to send you notifications.

  1. Go to the Customize Notifications section on the Notifications page

  2. Select the check boxes beside the options you want to enable

Customize Notifications options
 

Excluding courses from notifications

You can exclude specific courses from sending you notifications.

  1. Click Manage my course exclusions in the Exclude Some Courses section on the Notifications page

  2. Click the  Exclude icon beside each course you want to exclude, or click Exclude All Courses to stop all course notifications. You can also use the Search field to find the course you want to exclude

  3. Click Close

  4. Click Save

Exclude Some Courses - manage exclusions link
 

Restoring excluded course notifications

  1. Click the Manage my course exclusions link in the Exclude Some Courses section on the Notifications page

  2. Click the  Restart notifications icon beside each course you want to receive notifications from, or click Restore excluded courses to restore all excluded courses. You can also use the Search field to find the course you want to restore

  3. Click Close

  4. Click Save

Manage Course Exclusions - Restore excluded courses options
 

When and why is it a good idea to use the Notifications tool?

The majority of the settings for notifications are intended for student use, however there are some that may be relevant to instructors as well.

Keeping on top of discussion activity in your course site

If you are actively engaging with your students via the discussions tool, you may want to subscribe to notifications for a specific forum, topic, or thread to be altered when another user posts, allowing you to reply promptly if required.

Even if you are not actively engaging with the students in the discussion, it may be beneficial to subscribe to certain discussions to keep tabs on how active they are and who is participating. It is recommended that if you are using it for this purpose that you choose the Summary of Activity option in your notification settings to receive a daily summary of all activities rather than individual messages for each post.

Site building with your TA or co-instructor

If you are creating a course site using the content tool with another user such as a TA, course coordinator, or co-instructor, then enabling the notifications for Content - content item created, or Content - content item updated will alert you when any new content items are added or modified. Please note that if the module under which the content is created is set to draft (hidden) no notification will be sent.

 

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Notifications FAQs


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If you're still having trouble, please contact the CourseLink Support team for assistance.