1. UNM Learn
  2. Faculty Documentation for Learn
  3. Get Started with Your Learn Course
  4. Customizing the Course Menu

Customizing the Course Menu

The Course Menu is a highly customizable space for adding the critical tools and resources for your course.  A well-organized Course Menu can do a lot to help students stay on track!  When you web enhance your class, the Course Menu comes populated with examples of different Learn components:  "Course Dashboard" is a Module page, "Course Information" is an empty Content Area, and the last four are Web Links.

The course menu in your UNM Learn template course is highly customizable.


What can you do to customize your Course Menu? Below we explain how to:
     *Add a Tool Link - popular ones include things like Email, My Grades, Discussions, Journals, Announcements, Web Conference Sessions...
     *Add a Content Link - a container used to display and organize materials and activities which can further be grouped into Folders or Learning Modules
     *Add a Web Link - URLS to sites that are central to the course
     *Re-order items.
     *Hide/ Show/ Modify/ Delete

How to Add Tool Link


CLick the red plus sign in the top left corner of the screen. Choose Tool Link.
1. If necessary, turn Edit Mode to On (green)
2. Click the plus ( + ) sign
3. Add / Tool link
4. Enter a Name
5. Choose the tool you want from the drop-down menu
6. Put a check in "Available to Users" 
7. Submit
*Optional - reorder your list. Mouse over the left side of your new link and drag it up into position.

 

External URL Error

If you delete "Course Dashboard" before adding any content to your course you will get an External URL error in place of a course home page. 

(Note: this will also happen if you have created content but the link for those materials or activities is below "Instructor Tips".  Learn automatically re-assigns the course entry point from top to bottom. If "Course Information" is empty or has also been deleted, it uses the web link for the student help page, which generates the error.)

Stack of pages icon says "Display Course Menu in a Window"

Click the tiny stack of pages icon in the upper left.  This will open your course menu in a new window.  Note: if you have added materials, skip to Customization/ Teaching Style below.

Click "Course Information."  

Course Information should be the first below the course title.

Add some content.  If you do not have materials ready, create an Item as a placeholder. 

  1. Click Build Content / Item. 
  2. Enter a Name. 
  3. Submit.  Now the gray box to the right of "Course Information" has disappeared, confirming that the content area does, indeed, have content.

Under your instructor tools panel, scroll down.  Click Customization/ Teaching Style.

From the drop-down menu under "Select Course Entry Point," select Course Information (or other page with content).

Submit.

To confirm that it is now working the way you want, click Go to Student View in the top right.  When finished, click Return to Instructor View.