Create New File vs. Upload New File

Students will have easier access to content topics if they are web pages instead of MS Word documents. For the latter, students must have the appropriate software installed on their computers and understand how their browsers handle links to files. Since formatted text can be copied and pasted into the Desire2Learn text box editor, it is easy to convert your Word documents into web pages:

1. Open your file in MS Word
2. In Desire2Learn, create a new content topic and select Create New File
3. Select the relevant text in MS Word and copy it
4. Paste that text into the text box in Desire2Learn

In the text box you can also insert a quicklink, so you can link from this page out to another web site or to a component inside your course (a discussion topic, quiz, or dropbox folder).

By making your documents web pages, your students get quick access and spend less time fiddling with downloading files or dealing with browser security settings. A benefit for you is you can edit the document online using Desire2Learn's built-in web page editor.

Content Quicklinks to YouTube

Content topics that are quicklinks to YouTube videos do not work properly if the link is set to open in the same browser window. So there are two ways to use YouTube videos as content in your course offering. First copy the URL for the page from YouTube. Then do one of the following:

• Create a content topic (quicklink) and click in the box to open the link in a new window

• Create a content topic (new file) and click on the Insert Stuff button to embed the video on the page

The Insert Stuff button can be used to embed the video with YouTube's embed code.

Notes on Links

Characteristics of Links, which is a navbar option that allows you to add an annotated bibliography of external web sites:

• Neither the categories nor links can be restricted (by date or release condition)
• All categories (including the category description) and links (including the link description) appear by default on the links page
• If you change the default setting and turn off open in new window, the linked page will replace the entire Desire2Learn page (not just the bottom frame of the page), so I strongly recommend leaving the default option for links.

You can add external links as quicklinks to just about any text box, so if you want to have more control over them you can include several as part of a content topic, for example. Also note that there is a widget called User Links that you can use to add your links to your course homepage, independent of its appearance on the navbar. However, you must first create the links via that navbar link before they will appear in the User Links widget.

Problem with QuickLinks to an RTSP server in the CRC computer lab

Problem

A user is using Internet Explorer in the CRC computer lab and clicks on a content topic (quicklink) that points to CRC’s streaming media server (the URL begins with rtsp://). The user gets the standard warning regarding secure and insecure content on a page, clicks through the warning, and the page remains blank. This happens in both Vista and Windows XP (both using Internet Explorer). No other browsers or operating systems are available in the CRC computer lab. Quicklinks to http:// sites work fine, and quicklinks to rtsp:// sites work well if the quicklink is inside a topic (create new file).

Cause

It looks like there is some security issue between Desire2Learn and Internet Explorer regarding how to handle this type of link. The URL for a content topic (quicklink) includes the OU and a “tid” number, which looks like a unique identifier for the topic. This is not a problem when the quicklink is inside a content topic (new file), as it is standard html using an <a> tag.

Solutions

The immediate workaround is to click on the quicklink as normal and then view the source of the blank page. This includes the URL for the video file, and the user can copy the URL, open RealPlayer, and then go to that location using RealPlayer’s open location command. This is clunky but gets students immediate access to the video content.

An instructor’s action that helps is to remove all content topics (quicklink) that point to rtsp:// URLs and replace them with content topics (new file) that include a quicklink to the rtsp:// URL. This removes an option that some instructors are used to that is easy to create and replaces it with an option that, while easy to create, does require the students to make an extra click to get to the video content.

A better solution is to figure out if there is a different way to figure out the setup for the CRC computer lab so that content topics (quicklink) that point to an rtsp:// URL work as expected.

From EduStream to Desire2Learn

EduStream is a resource for CRC faculty who want to share video with their students. Videos there can only be played if referred by a Los Rios web server (like Desire2Learn), which means that a student cannot pass a link to a video on to someone not enrolled in a class. Because of the way EduStream's pages are set up, the only way to share a video via Desire2Learn is to use the New Topic (New File) option with an embedded quicklink with the link forced to open in a new browser window. [VIDEO DEMO]

For some of us that means changing the method we use to provide access to EduStream videos. Thank you Christina Ocrant for creating a desktop video with instructions on how to convert an extant New Topic (Quicklink) to a New Topic (New File) with an embedded quicklink to the same video:
http://web.crc.losrios.edu/video/edustream/

Link to a Course File from the Navbar

You can link to a course file directly from the navbar. This is a useful way to make an important file to students always available, no matter where they are inside your course offering.

The file must first be in your Manage Files area. If you uploaded it as a content topic, it is already there. If not, here are the steps:

1. Go to Edit Course and then the Manage Files page.
2. Click the upload button to select a file from your local computer to add to this page.

Once a file is in your Manage Files area, you can add a link to it on the navbar:

1. Go to Edit Course and then the Navigation page.
2. Click the name of the currently active navbar for your course. Note: The default active navbar for CRC courses is called "CRC_brand_NavShell (Go Hawks!)."
3. Click on the Links tab.
4. Click the Actions button of the navbar (Bottom Left, etc.) where you want to add the file link.

5. Click on Add New Custom Link.

6. Type in the Name you want the navbar to display (this is what students will click on to activate the link).
7. Click on the Insert Quicklink icon.

8. Choose the Category of where the particular file is located, then under Content select file and click the Insert button.
9. Select if you want the link to appear in the Same Window with Navbar, Entire Window or New Window then click the Save and Close button.
10. Refresh your page and the new link should appear in the navbar.

Quicklinks and Date Availability

One effective use of QuickLinks is to provide direct access to an assessment tool (like a Dropbox folder or a Quiz) from your Content area. If the target of the QuickLink has a start date in the future, students clicking on it see an informative note. So when resetting the date ranges for a subsequent offering of the same course, you can dispense with setting a date availability range for your QuickLinks. If you wish, click on the Restrictions tab (as you do with other items).

External Links on the Course Homepage

The bookmarks in D2L are generated by students as they opt to bookmark content topics. They are created individually, so each student can decide what to add to their Bookmark widget. Bookmarks cannot be links to outside web pages (though the content topic that they link to can be a quicklink). There are three ways to add a link yourself to the course homepage:

1. Create a News item and include a quicklink in the item's content. If you do not set any calendar restrictions on the item and keep it at the top of your news widget, it will always be visible.
2. Create a custom widget and add to your course homepage.
3. Create a custom navbar link. This has the advantage of always being visible, no matter where students are in your course.

Inserting a Quicklink to a Calendar Event

Thanks to Mark Springer for sharing this discovery: If you want to add a quicklink to an event in your calendar, select the date of the event and then click the "Refresh Event List" button to see the events for that day in the calendar. You can attach a quicklink to an event that you created manually or to one that was created when you clicked the check box to "Display in Calendar" when you add a date availability restriction to an item.