Blocks

A Block is a small panel or interface that provides access to information that is in some way relevant to your course in general (e.g., calendar, news, recent activity, participants, RSS feeds, etc.). Some blocks provide resources or information that is more static in nature, where the user must request the information. Others are designed to aggregate dynamic content (from the web, from other Blocks, or from other activities/resource in your course), where the dynamic information is automatically updated and provided to the student. Blocks may be added, hidden, deleted, and moved up/down and left/right when editing is turned on.

Please be mindful of your course homepage's “real estate”. Arrange the more important blocks at top, not in an area below, where student are forced to scroll in order to even see them. When you turn editing on, you will see there is a new block called Blocks created on the right block area.

Click the Add... dropdown menu and you will see the following options for blocks. Note: The active blocks are already displayed in your course are removed from the list of available blocks in the dropdown list. When deleted, they reappear as an option in the dropdown.

Blog Menu: This displays a menu system connected to the individual’s blog.

Blog Tags: This displays the list of Blog tags that have been created.

Calendar:
The Calendar block displays the following events:

• Site (event viewable in all courses - created by admin users)
• Course (event viewable only to course members - created by teachers)
• Groups (event viewable only by members of a group - created by teachers)
• User (personal event a student user can create - viewable only by the user)

To add a calendar event:
Assignments or quizzes that have a specified due date are automatically added to your course's calendar. You can manually add a new events as well:

1. Click month name on Calendar block to get a detailed month view
2. In the detailed month view, click on the New Event button
3. On the New Event page, select the type of event: User event or Course event.
• User event: Personal event a student or instructor can create - viewable only by the user who created it.
• Course event: Viewable only to course members - created by the instructor.
• Group event: Viewable only by members of a group - created by the instructor. This option will only apply if you have groups properly configured in your course.
4. Set the event properties
5. Click Save changes

Current Time: Displays an 'analog' clock with moving hands on your course homepage.

HTML: This block is customizable using the WYSIWYG HTML editor. You can create links to other websites, create tables, post images, place scripts, or add any HTML content. LTS recommends that you carefully consider the type of content that you place in an HTML block. Ask yourself, "Is there a better way to offer this information to students?"

Latest News: Recent posts made in your course's News forum will automatically display as a listed item in the Latest News block, along with links to older archived news. By default, the Latest News block displays 3 news items. This default setting may be changed by clicking on the Settings link in your course's Administration block.

Loan Calculator: Allows your students to figure out if they'll be able to pay off their student loans before their projected retirement date.

Messages: The Messages block displays a list of new messages you have received, with a link to your Messages window. This is linked to the Send a message function in the Profile area. Messages are best described as a synchronous, internal "instant messaging" system in AsULearn.

Online Users: The Online Users block shows a list of users who are currently online and interacting with the course. Note to faculty: Your students will see you, too. So, if you want to "lurk" in your course without students knowing you're online, don't use this block! That being said, students like knowing who else is online and working in the course; that often engenders some collaboration and communication.

Random Glossary Entry: The Random Glossary Entry block can be used to display random entries from a glossary, which usually take the form of dictionary-style definitions. However the flexibility of AsULearn's HTML editor allows users to adapt this block for other purposes such as "Quote of the Day," or a random picture gallery that changes each time the page is refreshed. Before using the Random Glossary Entry block for the first time, you'll have to configure it using the edit icon.

Recent Activity: The Recent Activity block shows different recent activity in your course, depending upon the role of the viewer. For the Teacher role, this block links to the Reports log.

Remote RSS Feeds: The RSS Feeds block enables RSS feeds from external websites to be displayed in this block within AsULearn. As syndicated content on the remote site is updated, the block will aggregate new content and display the latest information. This block has options for managing individual feeds, and adding selected feeds to the block itself. Learn more about how to manage RSS feeds in AsULearn.

Search Forums: The Search Forum block allows you to search the course discussion forums for a word or phrase. For basic searching of a word or phrase that appears anywhere in the forum text, just type the search terms separated by spaces. Only words longer than two characters are valid. Advanced search options are also available, providing you with more powerful search tools (just click the Advanced Search link at the bottom of the block.

Upcoming Events: The Upcoming Events block displays future due dates or calendar events in a summarized list. Events are generated directly from the calendar and/or activity and quiz deadlines, providing a link to full details or directly to the activity/quiz. This block also provides Go to Calendar... and New Event.... links. If you click on a date displayed by an upcoming event, you will go to the day-view calendar for that day. If the title of a displayed event is a link, and you click on it, you will be taken directly to that event.

Wikipedia: This block provides a direct link to the Wikipedia site.