Content Outline area

The Topic Outline area in the central pane is where you will begin creating activities and adding resources to your course site. To begin, remember to Turn editing on... with the button at the top right.

Once editing is turned on, you will see new icons and drop down menus throughout the page. Let's go over the features and icons that appear when you are in editing mode.

1. Course Header: The area at the top of the central pane, just below the words "Topic outline," is your course header (also referred to as Topic Zero (0)). This is the place to provide links to course-wide resources that students may find useful during the entire semester, such as your syllabus, contact information, a master schedule, and other information that is not content or time specific.
2. The News forum is placed by default in the course header (topic zero). Students are 'forced subscribed' to the New forum, which means that any postings created by the instructor will automatically be sent to them via their ASU email account. We heartily recommend posting to the News forum in lieu of emailing all the members of your course. The posted message in AsULearn's News forum will be emailed via subscription, and there will be an archive of all your postings retained in the forum for student's future reference (which is certainly NOT true of email!).
3. Content Menu Icons: With editing on, many resources on the page will have icons aligned just to their right. The meaning of these icons is consistent across all of your AsULearn course sites.
   • Arrows : The right-facing arrow is for moving an item to the right. A left-facing arrow will appear for moving left after an item has been indented. The 'move up-move down' arrows are for moving items vertically on the page.
   • Edit : This icon opens the associated resource for editing.
   • Delete : This icon allows you to delete the associated resource from your course site.
   • Visible/Invisible: This icon is a toggle. When the eye is open, the resource is visible to students. When the eye is closed, it is not visible to students. For those with WebCT experience, this is analogous to Hide/Reveal.
     
     Note: When you hide graded activities such as assignments, forums, etc. the grades will also be hidden, as well as excluded in the calculation of the total grade. Take care in hiding activities which have already been graded if you are using the Grade Book to release grades to students.
   • Group : This icon is informational, not editable. It indicates the group setting (none, separate, visible) assigned to that resource or activity.
4. Add a resource... dropdown menu: Use this menu to add various types of resources to your course. Learn more about the types of available resources in AsULearn.
5. Add an activity... dropdown menu: Use this menu to add various types of activities to your course. Learn more about the types of available activities in AsULearn.
6. Topic area settings: At the right of each topic area (except for your course header or Topic 0), you will see a vertical arrangement of icons. The meaning of these icons is consistent across all of your AsULearn course sites.
   • Show only : Clicking this icon shows only the selected topic, and hides all others.
     
     Note: This is a setting only for the logged-in user. Students have the same option. This is not the tool to hide other topics from your students; for that, use Hide/Show below.
   • Highlight : Places a highlight color in the sidebars of the selected topic, indicating to students that this topic is currently active and under consideration.
   • Hide/Reveal  : Hides or reveals the given topic from the student's view.
   • Move : Moves the selected topic up or down by one space in vertical arrangement of topics.