New Navigation Features Added To All Learning Communities

2/18/2013

Abstract:

At the top of all of the sidebar navigation regions at the right of the page, you will see a button labeled “My Courses and Private Communities.” This button links to a page that dynamically computes and displays all of the courses and private communities that each user has access to. It is automatically built each time the page is displayed from our user/permissions data base and is custom-built for each user and view.

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Full News Release:

We have just added two new feature to the logged-in areas of the website (Connected Community, Courses and Private Communities).

At the top of all of the sidebar navigation regions at the right of the page, you will see a button labeled “My Courses and Private Communities.” This button links to a page that dynamically computes and displays all of the courses and private communities that each user has access to. It is automatically built each time the page is displayed from our user/permissions data base and is custom-built for each user and view.

When you click on the new button, the resulting page will show all of the entrance pages to all of the private sections of the site you have permission to enter. The page is unique to each logged-in user.

Just above this button, we have also added a “login region” that shows the username of each logged-in user. This region signals the user account that will be displayed in the “My Courses and Private Communities” button. It is logical and intuitive to pair these new features.

These two new regions are now standard features of all log-in areas of the website and their location is consistent throughout the site.

The purpose of these new features is to make is easy for each user to find their courses (and communities) in a standard place that is consistent throughout the site. We have many students who belong to multiple courses and communities and these features should make navigation a lot simpler and easier for users to find the courses/communities to which the belong.

All users now default to the home page of the Connected Community (this page) upon their logging in as a standard "Start Page." From this page, users can select their Course or Private Community to enter. The button also make jumping around among the sections of the site easy and painless. Also, the "All Active Classes" and "Private Communities" tabs are still active in the primary navigation region under the masthead.

If you wish to enter a course or community directly without stopping the Connected Community first, simply bookmark the course/community home page or add a shortcut to your desired destination to your desktop. When you click on the bookmark or short cut, you will be presented the log-in page and, when successfully logged in, you end up directly in your desired course or community.