Academic Innovation Blog

In this post I want to discuss a slight change coming to the My Courses widget in Falcon Online on April 30th. This change is designed to improve the experience for all users. Many users will not notice any difference, however, some users (as in the examples below) may find that their courses get rearranged and see a difference in what courses automatically appear and the order of appearance on the My Courses widget.

If you have less than 50 total enrollments, they will be sorted as follows:

• The My Courses widget shows manually pinned courses followed by current enrollments, then future enrollments, (instructors only), for a total of 12 enrollments. Note that more than 12 courses might appear if they are all manually pinned.
• The Course Selector drop-down menu, the waffle icon in the minibar, shows manually pinned courses, followed by current enrollments, then future enrollments (instructor only), and finally, past enrollments (instructor only).
• The View All Courses navigation drills down into the courses by showing manually pinned courses, followed by current enrollments, then future enrollments (instructor only), then past enrollments (instructor only) as the default sort. If the user changes the sort order, the filter does not separate pinned courses from other courses based on sort order, filters, and search terms.

If you have more than 50 total enrollments, they will be sorted as follows:

• The My Courses widget shows manually pinned courses followed by up to 12 last-accessed courses. Note that more than 12 courses might appear in the widget if they are all manually pinned.
• The Course Selector drop-down menu shows manually pinned courses, followed by up to 12 last-accessed courses, followed by all remaining courses available to the user.
• The View all Courses area shows manually pinned courses followed by up to 12 last-accessed courses, followed by all remaining courses available or visible to the user as the sort order. If the user changes the sort order, the filter does not separate pinned courses from other courses based on the sort order, filters, and search terms.

So let's look at a couple of scenarios.

Scenario 1

An instructor with less that 50 total enrollments is currently teaching two classes, ENC1101 section 501 and ENC1102 section 45, which are not manually pinned, and two new courses scheduled for the new semester, ENC1101 section 502 and ENC1102 section 46, which are also not manually pinned. Additionally, the instructor has five courses from a previous semester with two of these courses manually pinned, ENC1101 section 500 and ENC1102 section 44, and the remaining three courses not pinned.

So what will this instructor see in the My Courses widget?

Since ENC1101 section 500 and ENC1102 section 44 are pinned they will show first in the My Courses widget. The current courses, ENC1101 section 501 and ENC1102 section 45, will show. Lastly, the new courses, ENC1101 section 502 and ENC1102 section 46, will show. The three previous courses not pinned will not show in the My Courses widget, but will still be available from the Course Selector dropdown or the View All Courses screen.

Scenario 2

Now let's consider an instructor with more that 50 total enrollments. This instructor is currently teaching two courses which are not pinned, is enrolled in 60 courses from previous semesters with five of these manually pinned and is enrolled in 3 future courses for the upcoming semester.

So what will this instructor see in the My Courses widget?

In this scenario, the five manually pinned courses will always show first in the My Courses widget. However, what courses show next depends on what courses the instructor has been accessing. Most likely this instructor has been accessing the two current courses so they should show after the five pinned courses for a total of seven courses showing in the widget. The remaining five courses (remember that the My Courses widget shows a max of 12 courses unless more that 12 are manually pinned) appearing in the widget depend on which other courses the instructor has been accessing. So to ensure that the three future courses show in the widget, the instructor will need to find the courses using the Course Selector drop-down and access each shell or manually pin them.

Remember that any courses you manually pin will always show in the My Courses widget and will remain pinned until you manually unpin them. Even though the My Courses widget normally shows only 12 total courses maximum, if you have manually pinned 20 courses, all 20 courses will show but no other courses will show unless you manually pin them or you unpin some courses to bring the total below 12.

I encourage you to subscribe to this blog to receive notifications of future posts and give us your comments or contact us in the Faculty Innovation Center.

Bill Harrison
Senior Instructional Designer/Instructional Technologist
william.harrison@daytonastate.edu | 386.506.4306

What is deep integration? Deep integration functionality allows you to link to the McGraw-Hill Connect content that matches your specific course needs ensuring students have easy access to the right learning resources at the right time. In other words, with deep integration or deep linking you can link to specific assignments within the relevant content module in D2L.

When I first heard the term “deep integration,” I thought it would be a very complicated procedure. However, the publisher reassured me the benefits outweighed my reservations. They insisted that it was not a complicated procedure. So, I relented and said, "Sure! Sign me up for the training."

The publisher arranged a Web Ex online training for another faculty member and myself. The publisher’s trainer walked us through the process and answered all of our questions. To my surprise, the process was not as complicated as I had anticipated. Actually, I felt it was easy. I liked what I saw.

It might be helpful to review the current McGraw Hill Connect single sign-on where students have one link in Brightspace (Falcon Online) that gives them access to a list of the publisher content on the publisher’s web site where they can select the appropriate required task (homework assignment, exams, Learn Smart Practice, and SmartBook etc.). These required tasks and due dates are not visible within the Falcon Online course.

 There are two benefits of significance to deep integration:

• For the student, it is a way to stay within the content area of your Falcon Online course while still accessing the Publisher content. As an instructor, you also have the same benefit of easy visibility as  the students. I liked that the student was able to see the tasks assigned to them right under the Falcon Online content tab. It appeared to me that this would reduce the questions and student confusion in using publisher content at the beginning of the course. In addition, the due dates are also visible addressing another problematic area for students. The transparency benefit extends to the entire online community as reviewers, and the like can see the student assignment list.
• The second benefit is the syncing of publisher-graded material into the Falcon Online grade book. The benefit to the student is receiving instant feedback in their Falcon Online grade book. In addition, it is one more task the instructor does not have to do. [Under the single sign-on, the instructor is required to manually synchronize grades thus delaying the instant feedback to students in their course grade book.]

The deep integration setup is straightforward. First, I recommend you set-up your Connect course as you would for single sign. The second and most difficult step is deciding how to set up your Falcon Online content area, by week, topic, or other option. I chose by exam. For example, in my module “exam one content,” students have their homework, practice, and exam all in one module. The last step is clicking on the system widget McGraw Connect and deploying the assignments to your Falcon Online content from inside Connect.

If you're interested in this process, contact the Faculty Innovation Center at 385-506-3485. You'll work with an instructional designer, Bill Harrison, who will work with you as the faculty member and the publisher throughout every step of the deep linking process. The college has setup integrations with McGraw Hill, Macmillan, Cengage, Pearson and Wiley.

Diana JOY Colarusso
Associate Professor, School of Applied Business
dianajoy.colarusso@Daytonastate.edu | (386)-506-3603