CourseDen D2L will be shutting down to make some new improvements to facilitate navigation on the site for the upcoming spring semester. There will be an online tutorial displayed on Jan. 2 , 2014 and student’s courses will show up on Jan. 6., 2014.
“One of the main things changing is the layout; it is going to be cleaner and easier to navigate,” said Wesley Steverson, Academic Instructional Support Specialist.
The updates are intended to help students and it will especially help those that highly depend on online content in their courses. 47 percent of all UWG students took at least one online course the fall 2013 semester, and 64 percent took an online class the summer semester of 2012. More than 12 percent of all students are fully online for fall 2013, where in 2012 there were only roughly 10 percent. The fully online students, 96 live outside of the state of Ga. and represent 27 different states, compared to 20 in fall 2011. Fall 2013, among UWG’s fully online students, 91 different Ga. counties are represented. UWG Online had eight inquires a day this time last year, and this year there is an average of 16. Statistics provided by Gubbins.
“UWG Online is celebrating National Distance Learning Week, Nov. 11-15,” said Janet Gubbins, Director of UWG Online. “Watch our social media for updates on ways to participate and receive promotional items.”
One of the special features included will be students and faculty will now be able to pin courses to the top of the webpage. This will help locate the current classes students are in or the faculty is teaching. Reaching class content will be easier and communication tools are set up to make it easier to communicate between students and faculty as well.
When you first log on to CourseDen you will see news, calendar, courses, and library 24/7. It is a straightforward website, designed to help the students succeed in any way possible. The new view is designed to be simple and less cluttered than the previous CourseDen. The site uses breadcrumb navigation to make it easier to navigate.
Upon logging in, students will immediately know when something is due for their current courses. “More friendly navigation makes it easier when you are using your mobile devices,” said Steverson. “It encourages a consistency with classroom navigation.”
A red dot will appear on your homepage when you have an email and there will be an update alert that lets you know what is coming up with your classes. Also displayed will be a subscription alert that lets you know when a thread you have posted has been responded to.
Students now have the option to change the view of their email in order to make it best fit their needs and make it easier to view. Overall, the website will be easier for student and faculty communication and student to student communication and it will be easier to display course content.
