Page Layout & Navigation in .NExT
Instructor vs. Student View | Course Toolbar Enhancements | The Navigation Tree | Bottom Frame Enhancements
The ability for an EP to customize the look and feel of their online courses has drastically improved with the .NExT release. For Course style definition, eCollege has integrated use of cascading style sheets for the first time. This allows the EP to choose from any colors, fonts and other style elements for the purpose of defining course style. For more information on selecting or customizing a style, see the .NExT Style Release Notes, provided in a separate document.
Regardless of the extent of style customizations employed by individual EPs, certain elements of the online course navigation will remain static. These elements are described in this section.
Student View of .NExT Course Home Page
Instructor vs. Student View of .NExT Course Home Page
In .NExT, the instructor view of the Course Home Page is similar to the student view with a few exceptions.
- As with earlier versions of Teaching Solutions, instructors have a Course and Author tab above the left-hand-side navigation, allowing them to switch between the student view and the author view of the course. In .NExT, students have no tabs because they are allowed to see only the Course (or student) view. In earlier versions students saw a single Course tab above the left-hand side navigation.
- The Course Admin button - part of the toolbar - is available only to instructors, as in earlier versions of Teaching Solutions.
- What's New is more extensive in the instructor view for instructors than it is for students. .NExT provides new features for both students and instructors in What's New.
Course Toolbar Enhancements
The .NExT release brings enhancements to the Course Toolbar, which is displayed above the right-hand-side content frame in all courses. Depending upon the individual EP or course style, the toolbar could be left- or right-aligned.
- The Chat button has been renamed Live. It was renamed to reflect the variety of synchronous or "Live" communication tools available in this area. In addition to the Chat section, ClassLive, which provides a white board, chat, instructor polling, file sharing, VOIP, desktop-sharing, application sharing and other real-time activities, is also accessible from this tab.
- The Journal button has been added to the Course Toolbar. Journal access in previous versions of Teaching Solutions was provided from inside the Dropbox area.
- The Help button has been added to the Course Toolbar and sits at the far, right-hand side of the Course Toolbar. It is also displayed in a different color from the rest of the tool tabs so it is easy to find. Previously, the help button was located under the toolbar, inside the content frame. Certain content items would hide the Help button, making it difficult to access. Moving it into the toolbar means the Help button will always be visible.
- The Course Toolbar can be aligned to the left, right, or center justified, depending on what the institution chooses for their style.
Enhanced Course Toolbar
The Navigation Tree
.NExT changes some elements within the left-hand-side navigation tree as well as the bottom-frame navigation.
Unit-Level Expansion & Contraction
When a unit is expanded in the left-side navigation tree, there will now be a small up arrow under the last content item listed. This will contract the unit content items when clicked. If the Unit bar is selected, the unit home page will open but the unit will not close.
Icon for Unit Level Expansion and Contraction
Course & Author Tabs
For students logged into .NExT courses, the Course tab will no longer appear above the left-hand-side navigation as it did in earlier versions of the platform. The instructor view will continue to show both a Course tab and an Author tab in .NExT. This allows instructors to switch between authoring mode and student mode. However because students never saw the Author tab, there is no reason to distinguish that the student view is the Course view. This change will give students more left-side navigation real-estate to scroll through units.
Tabs: Student View vs. Instructor View
Wrapping Unit Titles
Unit titles can now be displayed on 2-3 lines (up to 40 characters) on the unit bar in the navigation tree. See the Course Admin section for information on how this is configured. In the example below, Unit 1 is called "Communication Styles."
Unit Titles Now Wrap
Bottom Frame Enhancements
Hiding the Left-Hand-Side Navigation
To hide the left-hand-side navigation tree, click on the left-pointing arrow icon at the bottom left of the navigation tree. To open again, click the right-pointing arrow icon at the top left of the navigation tree.
Icon for Hiding the Left-Hand-Side Navigation
| Return to Top | Continue |