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Desire2Learn For Faculty, Making and managing News and Content items, Details © R. Craig Collins, 2013

News Details

Creating Basic News items, below

Creating Compelling News items, or Content, including formatting text, inserting tables, inserting images, etc.

Managing News items

Creating Basic News items
After selecting your course, click the arrow next to News, and select +New News Item

More info on Additional Release Conditions, the Conditional Release tool.
back to News topics

Creating Compelling News items or Content
Tip: Keep your News items narrow
(like this example);
you do this by hitting the return key.
This is important,
as the view differs on the
Course Home page and on the News page...
and words that look good while editing are truncated
when views on the Course Home page.

You can Format your text, as with a Word Processor. Click the Advanced tab.
Under --Format-- you can make headlines
Under Font family, you can choose a different font, but not all fonts work with all browsers
You can change the font size... note I have added examples of the size below.
Note the Spell Check button, on the right!

You can organize the page in rows and columns, with Tables

You can use Symbols (Custom Characters), copy and paste these symbols if you like
♠♣♥♦€Σ√∞↓→♪♭
More symbols here

To insert an Images, chose the icon, then browse to the file you wish to display.


You will need to provide a text description of the image for visually impaired users.

You can Insert stuff, read about that here

You can add Links to quizzes, discussions, content items, course files, dropboxes, and Web pages
Select the type of item to link to, choose the target of the link, provide a caption for the link, and decide which window it opens in.

If you know HTML, you can select the </> icon and edit the code directly.

You can also Edit an existing News Item.
If you can see the News item you wish to edit in the Course Home page, click the to the right of the Name of the News item, and select Edit.
If you can't see the News item, click the arrow next to News, and select Go to News Tool. Locate the item, and click the Headline to edit.

If you edit an existing News item, there is an important item to consider at the bottom...


Selecting Major edit will send a notification, and restore a dismissed News item in the student's window
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Managing News items
Typically, only one or two news items will fit on the Course Home page;
if you have additional News items in play, you may wish to remind your learners to select the Go to News Tool option.

There is also a Show All News Items link at the bottom of the News feed that does the same thing.

Reorder News Items
Select the arrow next to News, and choose Reorder News Items.

Change the Sort Order to bring items up, or move items down.
Changing the second item to typically changes the remaining sort order.

Delete an existing News Item.
If you can see the News item you wish to delete in the Course Home page, click the to the right of the Name of the News item, and select Delete.
I rarely delete items, especially those I might be able to reuse. I will instead change the end date to a previous date to 'hide' the item until the next semester, and then use the date feature to bring the News item back at the appropriate time. (See also Dates, in Edit Course)
If you can't see the News item, click the arrow next to News, and select Go to News Tool.

back to News topics