How do I add custom widgets to my homepage

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Customizing your course homepage can enhance your course in many ways. You can provide links to commonly used external tools, provide up to date information (such as stock tickers, blog posts, feeds from news sites, etc.), post your office hours, and more. Some examples:

Image:homepage01t.jpgJakob Iversen's business class

Image:homepage02t.jpgLaura Gibbs' Folklore class

Contents

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Step 1: Create a new widget (or box) for the homepage

  1. Choose Edit Course from the NavBar.
  2. Select Widgets.
  3. Select New Widget.
  4. Give your new widget a Name, Description, and other options as desired on the tabs.
  5. Select the Content tab to create what you wish to appear in the widget box. See #Resources for information and inspiration.
  6. When finished, be sure to Save.
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Step 2: Create a new homepage

  1. Select Edit Course.
  2. Select Homepages.
  3. Select New Homepage.
  4. Give the new homepage a Name
  5. Select Content/Layout tab.
  6. Add widgets as desired to each area of the homepage. You will need to add all of the default widgets manually to keep them in your new homepage. Default widgets at UW Oshkosh are
    • Header: no active widgets
    • Left panel (width 20%): Help! (please always include this one), Bookmarks
    • Center panel (width 60%): News, Role Switch
    • Right panel (width 20%): Library Resources, iTunesU, Academic support services, Student support services
    • Footer: no active widgets
  7. Column widths can be changed by the Panel Sizes button near the top.
  8. When all desired widgets have been added, select Preview Homepage to determine whether this layout is correct. ALWAYS preview before setting it as default, just in case.
  9. Select Homepages at the top of the page.
  10. Locate your new homepage in the homepages list. Activate your homepage by selecting Set in the Active column.
  11. Test your new homepage by using the Role Switch Widget to view as a student.
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Copying your homepage to another course site

Homepages and custom widgets can be copied to other course sites just like other content. However, the new homepage links to the original widget, which means your students won't be able to see it. You will need to do the following in the new site after copying:

  1. Select Edit Course
  2. Select Homepages.
  3. Select the homepage containing the widget.
  4. Select the section containing the widget (Header, Column #, or Footer).
  5. Select the widget in the Active Widgets column and press < to move it to the Available Widgets column.
  6. Select Save.
  7. A second time, select the section containing the widget (Header, Column #, or Footer).
  8. Select the widget in the Available Widgets column and press > to move it to the Active Widgets column.
  9. Select Save.
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Resources

  • Feeling at Home in Your Homepage by LAURA GIBBS, Online Instructor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, gives a brief overview about spicing up your course homepage in D2L.
  • SchoolhouseWidgets.com Re-usable widgets and javascripts
  • RotateContent provides a tool to display random content you have created and a library of content others will share.
  • Feed2JS will turn an RSS feed into JavaScript. Just paste the RSS URL into a box, then click a button to generate JavaScript that can be pasted directly into the Custom HTML code section for the D2L widget
  • Share a Google Calendar: Google Calendar now has a feature to publish a calendar as an embeddable HTML snippet (an iframe to be precise).
  • Yahoo Finance Badge to show the latest stock quotes updated in real time.
  • Contact RenĂ©e Buker, Outreach Services Librarian, for assistance with creating custom widgets to library resources. Some possibilities include
    • library catalog search box
    • links to specific databases (Academic Search, Medline, Lexis Nexis, etc.)
    • link directly to a specific course's eReserves page
    • links to specific items in the library catalog
    • links to specific full text articles in our article databases
    • link to online form where students can schedule a research appointment with a librarian
    • search box for WorldCat (searches libraries across the country)
    • search box for our print and online journal title holdings
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