How to navigate your unit in Desire2Learn
Transcript for navigating your unit
Understanding My Home and Site Home
My Home is your starting point inside the online learning environment. From here, you can set up your profile, edit your preferences and access your units.
When you first log in to My Home you will be able to:
- view news posted by the University
- access your units under the My Sites widget
- view up-coming events and news
- update and change your preferences.
The units you are enrolled in will be visible in the My Sites widget. (A widget is an area on a webpage that houses a tool or has other information). Click on the name of your unit. This will take you to your unit homepage.
The DSO homepage is My Home
The following is an example of a DSO homepage which is where you enter the online learning environment.
Navigation
There are two components to Desire2Learn. They are:
My Home which is the DSO homepage (for students to access their units) and Site Home (content for the unit which includes learning resources, discussion board, quizzes and assignments).
Setting your preferences
Click the Preferences link under the Profile widget in the DSO homepage My Home.
Use the tabs General Preferences, Appearance & Accessibility, Language & Region, Notifications, Discussions, Email and Pager, to view and edit the different presentation options.
My Sites
Site Home is the first page viewed when entering a unit. Similar to My Home, it contains your tools and different widgets for displaying information, including unit-specific content. To access your DSO homepage, click My Home.
The following is an example of a ‘Site Home’ page when you click on the name of a unit under My Sites.
Navigating inside your Unit Site
The primary navigation tool for your unit is the navigation bar (or navbar), (enclosed in red) which is always located at the top of the screen and displays links to the tools available in your unit. Use the navbar to switch between tools.
Access tools and components in your units
Left Tool Menu
Use the Left Tool Menu (enclosed in red) to switch between areas within a tool such as Discussions.
Top Tool Menu
Use the Top Tool Menu (enclosed in red) to switch between pages within a tool such as Discussions.
Tabs
Use the Tabs tool (enclosed in red) to switch between options within a single page or initiate tasks.
