Your Course Shell
Accessing Your Course Shell from the My Institution Page
If you recall, your courses are listed in the My Courses box located in the right-hand column on the My Institution page. When you click on the link you are accessing your classes Courses Shell.
The Course Shell Interface
Your professor has control over many aspects of the course shell including what page you see when the course initially opens and the color, type of navigation (links or buttons) and title of the sections in your course. Your course shell may look similar to the one above or it might be modified. In general your course will open to the Announcement page.
The Navigation Bar
Although the section names may vary, below are the default section names and the content you may find in each section.
| Announcements | The Announcement area is where you will find timely information critical to your success. Click on the Announcement button or link in the Navigation area to view Announcements. By default the Announcement page is the first page that you view when entering your course shell.
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| Course Information | The Course Information area generally contains information that you'll need to complete the course, including the course Syllabus.
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| Faculty Information | The Faculty Information button or link provides background and contact information on instructors.
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| Course Documents | The main area of the Course Shell, the Course Documents area contains the content of the course which may include course notes, PowerPoint presentations, supplemental information, external links and possibly links to quizzes, tests or assignments. Your instructor has complete control over course material. Please read your syllabus to find out what information will be included in this area.
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| Assignments | The Assignment area may include course assignments.
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| Communication | The Communication area allows users to: send and receive messages, open Discussion Boards, enter the Virtual Classroom, view the course roster, and view group pages.
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| Discussion Board | The Discussion Board area contains questions that your instructor has created regarding course material.
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| External Links | The External Links area contains links to the sites on the Internet.
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| Tools | The Tools area contains tools that can be used in the course including the Digital Drop Box, Edit Home Page, Personal Information, Calendar, View Grades and Student Manual. Your instructor may or may not use these tools in your course.
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| Tools Box | The Tools box includes links to the Communication and Course Tools area as well as a link to the Course Map.
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| Refresh/Detail View | The Refresh link allows you to refresh the Navigation Bar. The Detail View link allows you to see a "Windows" like file structure that shows the files within each area.
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Course Tools
The Course Tools can contain three areas, which are the Communications, Course Tools and the Course Map. With the exception of the Course Map, the links contain the same information as they do in the Navigation Bar. The Course Map contains all the infomation in the Course.
Content Frame
The Content Frame displays pages selected from the Navigation Bar or the Navigation Path.