From the Colorado

1. Denver,
Colorado

2. Communications Buffet
• Three Quick Ways to Increase
Engagement
1. Custom home page widgets
2. Personalizing the Learning Space
3. Utilizing Intelligent Agents
Effectively

3. Widget-based Home Pages
• Before you begin setting up your course
home page, consider the needs of your
students:
– What information is most relevant to them as
students in your course?
– What course materials and supplementary
materials will they need?
– How can you maximize your course home page
to include relevant information?

4. Widget-based Home Pages
• At-a-glance, what do you want students to
see?
– Course news and updates
– Important dates and reminders
– Links to course content
– Links to supplementary materials
– Relevant RSS feeds

5. 9.4.1 Standard Home Page with News & Widgets

6. V10 Widget Layout Options
• Suggestions:
– Maximize the use of
screen space
– Don’t repeat things in
widgets and nav bars
– Encourage your
students to enter
course through home
page, as much as
possible
8 Layout Choices

7. Two Equal Widget Columns

8. Large Column on Left

9. Three Column Layout

10. Three Contest Entries

11. Replace strings
Three Embedded Polls

12. Building Custom Widgets

13. Laura Gibbs - OU

14. Full Custom Home Pages
• Any webpage/site can be used as a
custom home page in D2L.
• Examples:
– Course blog
– RSS aggregator
– Any course-specific web page

15. Custom Page Example

16. Personalizing the
Learning Space

17. Not Personalized Learning
• That’s a big topic – a whole day by itself.
• Let’s look at how you can make the
learning space feel a bit more personal to
the students.

18. Adding Names in the LE
• {FirstName} • Tools where this works:
– Each user’s first name • News: (Headline, content)
• {LastName} • Discussions: (subject and
message)
– Each user’s last name
• Content Topic: When you
• {OrgName} create a new file
– College/District org • Dropbox: Folder instructions &
feedback
name
• Quizzes: all custom boxes
• {OrgUnitName}
• Checklist: Name and Description
– Course name
• Groups: Description

19. News Item – without
Replace String

20. News Item – without
Replace String

21. News Item – with
Replace String

22. News Item – with
Replace String

23. News Item – with
Replace String

24. In Quiz Introduction

25. In Quiz Introduction

26. In Quiz Introduction

27. In Quiz Footer

28. In Quiz Footer

29. In Quiz Footer

30. In Quiz Questions

31. In Quiz Questions

32. Example from CU Boulder
Assignment Feedback
assett.colorado.edu/d2l/replace-strings

33. In Custom Widgets

34. In Custom Widgets

35. Intelligent
Agents

36. What’s an Intelligent Agent?
Definition:
Intelligent Agents can assist
instructors, administrators, and
students by providing a quick and
automated notification when defined
activity occurs in a course or when
there is a lack of login or course entry.

37. How do They Work?
•For each agent you need to determine:
• what criteria it is looking for
• how often it looks for those criteria
• What the email should say and who
should receive it when the criteria are
met

38. Client Use Cases in T & L
• Automatic reminders to students:
– Not logging in to D2L
– Not entering a specific course
• Message after poor performance:
– Get their attention and encourage
them to seek extra help
• Message after good performance

39. Advantages of Using Agents
1. Increases communication between
instructor and student
2. Personalized message, doesn’t look
like a canned response.
3. Send links to other resources,
tutorials, tutoring center, etc.

40. Possible Disadvantages
1. Need to manage the agents effectively
to ensure effective communications.
2. If students receive too many of these
messages they’ll know they are
automatically sent (not personal).
3. Something could break.

41. Go to Edit Course

44. Determine Criteria

45. You can do both

49. This email was only
sent to the instructor

56. Denver,
Colorado