About the News Tool
Found on the Course Home page, News allows you to post messages to your students so that they will see it when they first enter your course page. These messages can be released or removed based on a date and time.
The news tool can also be updated regularly with pictures, quotes, URLS, outlines, and links to various updates via the HTML Editor.
Creating a News Item
- From your Course Home, select the News link in the NavBar or click the New News Item button in the News bar displayed on your Course Home.
The New News Item button will take you directly to the New Item window (instructions follow below). The News link will take you to the News window where you will see all your news items and will be able to create new News items.
- Click the New Item icon
to begin creating the new news item.
You will be taken to the New Item window where you can add the news headline and input the content of the news topic.
- Enter a headline and content for your news item.
- If you are finished creating the item, select Save to publish the news to your D2L course. D2L will display that the news item was saved successfully. Click the News icon to return to the main News page.
Your new News item will now be posted for viewing.
Creating a News Item for a Future Date
- From the News page, click the New Item icon to begin creating the new news item.
- You will be taken to the New Item window where you can add the news headline and input the content of the news topic.
- Scroll down to the Availability section and choose the start date for which you want the news item to be published to your site.
- If you are finished creating the item, select Save to publish the news to your D2L course. D2L will display that the news item was saved successfully.Click the News Icon to return to the main News page.
- Your new News item will now be posted for viewing. Please note the clock icon which indicates that this item will be available at a future date.
Creating a News Item with an Ending Date
Please note that you can use a combination of Future Start Dates and End Dates to create News Items.
- From the News page, click the New Item icon to begin creating the new news item.
- You will be taken to the New Item window where you can add the news headline and input the content of the news topic.
- Scroll down to the Availability section and click the Remove News Item Based on End Date box. Choose the end date for which you want the news item to be removed from your site.
- If you are finished creating the item, select Save to publish the news to your D2L course. D2L will display that the news item was saved successfully.Click the News Icon to return to the main News page.
- Your News item will now be posted for viewing. The column for end date will now reflect the date you chose to have the news item removed.
Editing a News Posting
- If you wish to edit the content of your News item, click on the Edit icon
to the right of your news posting headline. This returns you to the Edit Item window. - Make your changes and click Save. D2L will tell you that the News item was saved successfully.
- Then click News icon to return back to the main News page.
- Your News posting will now be updated with the changes you saved.
Deleting a News Posting
- If you wish to delete a News posting, find the news item you wish to delete and click the Delete icon
to the right of the news item.
- After you click the Delete icon, you will be asked if you are sure you want to delete the news item. Click OK to complete the deletion. Please note that deleting a news item will permanently remove it from your site, including any attached documents.
Adding an Attachment to a News Posting
- From the News page, click the New Item icon to begin creating the new news item.
- You will be taken to the New Item window where you can add the news headline and input the content of the news topic.
- Scroll down to the Attachments section and click the Add a File button.
- The Submit a File window will open, giving you several options on how to add a file.
- You can add a file from your locker, a group locker, my computer, and course offering files.
- If you have a file that is on your computer that you would like to upload, select the My Computer option. If you have already uploaded the file to your course, you can select it from the Course Offering Files option.
- Follow the prompts to select and upload a file.
- When a file has successfully been attached, you will see the file listed under the attachments heading.
- Once you have finished creating your news item and attached all your files, select Save to publish the news to your D2L course. D2L will display that the news item was saved successfully.Click the News Icon to return to the main News page.
- Your new News item will now be posted for viewing along with the attachment which can be downloaded.
Changing News Order
- Click on the Re-Order
button from your News home. - Select the proper numerical sort order in the drop down order boxes beside each news article listed.
- Click Save to finish changing the news order.
Student View
If you would like to view what your news headlines look like in the eyes of a student, you can do so using the Role Switch tool from the Course Home. By changing your role to "Student" you can navigate your class and see the course as a student would. Please note that under the student role you will be unable to view the gradebook, take quizzes, or view any items with conditional releases. Once you are finished using the student role, you can switch back to your instructor role by going back to the role switch tool in the Course Home and selecting -- My Role (Instructor) --.
