Content Basics

Content Basics

The Content area is where you will post and organize learning materials for your students. Items may include a syllabus, handouts, assignments, supplemental readings, etc. Content material can range from basic text to multimedia files.

Strategies for Structuring Content

Advanced planning will save you considerable time in constructing your online course. After you determine your learning objectives and assessment strategies, select content and activities that support your learning objectives.

  1. Determine materials and resources for use in the class

Make a list of the materials and resources you want to make available to students in Content. You may want to consider the following:

  • What existing course materials do you already have?
  • Do you need to locate new and/or additional course materials?
  • Does the online format allow you to add resources that you could not easily incorporate into your face-to-face course?
  • Are some resources currently in a format that needs to be converted for online use?
  1. Organize course content

Content is the primary location for course documents including the syllabus, schedule(s), course materials, assignment instructions, lectures, multimedia, and other materials. Course content is organized by units and lessons. Use Appendix A to help organize your content.  

A standard format for creating content is Units or Weeks (i.e. Week 1 Unit 1, Week 2 Unit 2, etc.) and then include everything the student needs in each unit. 

For the topics in each unit, be consistent in the information included and the order listed so that students know where to look for resources in each unit. Convert materials into a digital file format before you begin. 

Create a Unit 

Content in D2L is organized by units, lessons, folders, and topics. Units (and lessons) provide headings for the content topics. Creating a unit is the first step in creating course content and a unit must be created before you can add anything else. 

  1.  In your course, select Content on the Navbar
  2. Select New Unit at the top of the left frame
  3. Enter a Unit Title, such as Unit 1: Business Foundations
  4. Enter a Unit Description
  5. Save and Close
  6. Continue creating additional units in the format you have chosen 

Create a Lesson

  1.  Select the Unit name in the left frame
  2.  Select Create New in the top of the right frame 
  3.  Select New Lesson
  4.  Enter a Lesson Title, such as Unit 1 Week 1
  5.  Enter a Lesson Description
  6.  Save and Close
  7.  Continue creating additional lessons in the format you have chosen 

Create Content Topics

Topics are the substance of your course. You can upload files (Word docs, PowerPoint files, etc.), create links to webpages or course activities, and create new files directly in Content.

Upload Files 

  1.  Select a Unit in the left frame
  2.  Select the Add Existing button
  3.  Scroll down to the target area and either drag and drop files onto the target or select the browse button to Upload Files from your computer

Add MediaSpace Videos 

  1.  Select a Unit in the left frame
  2.  Select the Add Existing button
  3.  Select the More button
  4. Select Kaltura Media
  5. Locate the video you want to add, and select the Embed button to the right of the video

Create Website Links 

  1. Select a Unit in the left frame
  2. Select the Create New button
  3. Select WebLink
  4. Enter a Web Link Title
  5. Enter the External Link (copy and paste the website address into the box)
  6. Save and Close 

Restricting Content

If you want to create Content in your course, but you are not ready for students to see it, you can add date restrictions or change the visibility status to hidden. If you hide a Unit, all items in the Unit are also hidden. 

Add date restrictions to a Unit

  1. Select a Unit in the left frame
  2. Select the 3-dot Options button, and select Edit
  3. In the right frame, expand the Availability dates & conditions menu
  4. Select a Start date, and/or End date
  5. Save and Close

Add date restrictions to a Topic

  1. Select a Topic 
  2. Select the 3-dot Options button, and select Edit
  3. In the right frame, expand the Availability dates & conditions menu
  4. Select a Start date, and/or End date
  5. Save and Close

Hide a Unit, Lesson or Topic

  1. Select the item in the left frame
  2.  Select the visibility toggle at the top of the right frame to change the status from Visible to Hidden

Restricting Content to Sections (or Groups) within a Course

When students are added to D2L shells, they are enrolled into “sections.” If you have two or more sections combined in a single course, you can use release conditions to restrict content based on section enrollment. In addition, if you have manually created “Groups” in your D2L course (such as Discussion groups), you can restrict content to groups.

Add a Release Condition to a Unit, Lesson or Topic

  1.  Select the item in the left frame
  2.  Select the 3-dot Options button, and select View Release Conditions
  3.  Select Create
  4.  For Condition Type, select Section enrollment (or Group enrollment)
  5.  Select a section (or group)
  6.  Select Create

Reorder Units, Lessons or Topics 

  1.  Select or hover over an item 
  2.  Select and hold down the grab handle at the far left of the title and drag and drop the item to the desired location. Alternatively, double click the grab handle and use the keyboard to move the item.

Delete a Unit, Lesson or Topic 

  1.  Select an item in the left frame 
  2.  Select the 3-dot Options button, and select Delete
  3.  Choose the method of deletion
  4.  Select Delete
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