Introduction to Daylight, Post 1: The Course Homepage

As we move closer to our upgrade of D2L to what is called The Daylight Experience, I wanted to publish a series of posts showing you what the various tools will look like come May.

Today, we will be looking at the D2L default course homepage. If you have a customized homepage, you may see more widgets, more columns, etc. on your own homepage than you will see here, but be aware that there are some design features associated with our current version of D2L that you won’t be able to customize in Daylight. Let’s have a look.

When a new course shell is created in Daylight, this is what you will see:

Daylight Homepage

Compare this to the current version:

Current D2L Default homepage

To detail some of the changes you can see above:

  • As you can see in the images below, the “minibar” at the top of the Daylight page (which is a black bar at the top of the current version of D2L) has changed the My Home link to an icon that looks like a house, and changed the Select a course drop-down menu to a checkerboard-like icon (next to the email notification icon). The minibar will still appear on the Camosun D2L homepage, as well as on every page of your own course sites.

    Current version:
    Current D2L Minibar
    Daylight – note the change of My Home and the Select a course menu to icons:
    Daylight Minibar

  • As you can see below, the default placement of links on the course NavBar has moved to the left-hand side. In Daylight, you cannot move the links to the right-hand side, but you can still add or delete items from the NavBar.

    Current version – links on the right side:
    Current D2L Navbar
    Daylight – links on the left side:
    Daylight Navbar

  • Due to the responsive re-design of D2L (meaning that the Daylight interface will adjust to any size device now), there is no longer an option to customize the colour scheme on the homepage (in other words, no coloured swoosh in the background).

    Current version – beautiful swoosh that can be colour-customized:
    Current D2L homepage background
    Daylight – white background only:
    Daylight background

  • Similarly, there is no longer an option to customize the design of the widgets (e.g., you can’t change the title bar of the widgets, or add a border to them).

    Current version, showing possible design options for widgets on the homepage:
    Current D2L Widget design option

    Daylight – no options for customizing the widget design:
    Daylight Widget design (no options)

  • On the good news side of things, you no longer have to worry about accidentally collapsing the News widget! In the current version, if you click on the widget title bar, the widget collapses (closes), which makes it easy for students to collapse it without realizing they have done so. But now you have to work harder to collapse those widget by clicking on the drop-down menu to collapse widgets.

    Current version – as you can see it’s easy to close that widget and not notice:
    Current D2L collapsing a widget

    Daylight – you definitely have to work harder now!
    Daylight collapsing a widget

In my next post, I will give you a tour of what the main tools in D2L will look like in Daylight.

D2L/Daylight Upgrade Information Sessions

In anticipation of Camosun’s D2L upgrade to Daylight at the end of April, eLearning is offering information sessions at both campuses in March and April.

Come get a sneak peek at the new D2L, find out about some of the new features it will offer you, and ask your questions.  Sign-up at D2L Upgrade Information Sessions.

And don’t forget to visit our website at http://camosun.ca/about/teaching-learning/events/#alpha to register for our spring workshops on everything from the new D2L to Social Media, Online Learning Skills, and Flipping the Classroom!

Here are the dates, times, and locations of the upcoming D2L Upgrade Information Sessions:

Lansdowne (Library and Learning Commons 156)

  • Monday, March 5, 3:30-4:30pm
  • Thursday, March 15, 11:30am-12:30pm
  • Monday, March 19, 3:30-4:30pm
  • Thursday, March 29, 11:30am-12:30pm
  • Tuesday, April 3, 3:30-4:30pm
  • Thursday, April 12, 12:30-1:30pm
  • Monday, April 16, 3:30-4:30pm
  • Friday, April 27, 1:00-2:00pm

Interurban (Liz Ashton Campus Centre 235)

  • Friday, March 9, 2:00-3:00pm
  • Wednesday, March 14, 3:00-4:00pm
  • Friday, March 23, 2:00-3:00pm
  • Wednesday, March 28, 3:00-4:00pm
  • Friday, April 6, 2:00-3:00pm
  • Wednesday, April 11, 3:00-4:00pm
  • Friday, April 20, 2:00-3:00pm
  • Wednesday, April 25, 3:00-4:00pm 

eLearning Spring 2018 Workshops Open for Registration

Planning your May/June SD?  Register now for eLearning Spring 2018 Workshops!

The eLearning Workshop Series is designed to assist faculty (beginner to advanced) with incorporating educational technologies into their teaching, as well as with blended and online course/program planning and development.  This May/June we have an exciting array of workshops covering everything from D2L, WordPress, flipping the classroom, online learning strategies, and more!

Make sure to register for the session(s) you would like to attend so that we can notify you if there is a room change or cancellation.

Visit our website at http://camosun.ca/about/teaching-learning/events/#alpha to register!

Click to download a PDF of our eLearning Spring 2018 Workshop Calendars.