D2L: Basics and Templates

D2L: Holds course materials, communicates course grades, and lets you give quizzes, etc., and is one of MSU’s “Core Tools.”

• One of the most important steps to take to ensure classes can continue online is to activate your course in D2L.
• Log into D2L and click “View All Courses” under the “My Courses” section.
  Select the course and then click “Course Admin” from the menu.
  Select “Course Offering Information,” check the box “Course is Active,” and save.
  MSU sets up every credit-bearing course section at MSU in D2L each semester and enrolls all students.
• D2L is recommended as a place to add your syllabus, readings, and engage with your students online.
• To access a course template, template for your D2L course, contact the DigitalX team through the help desk.
• For a brief walkthrough of the D2L interface and how to get started, view this overview video.

For further D2L training and resources, visit MSU's D2L training page. 

Along your journey towards the start of a new semester, you will encounter a crossroads decision: Do you create a new course site from scratch and populate it with previous or familiar materials? Or, should you take the path of the tried and tested? The latter is far more effective, and in a lot of cases, it is the path least traveled. Many instructors and developers are not familiar with the extremely valuable and helpful template resources available within D2L.

Using The D2L Course Templates

Visit the D2L template page – This is a shell template that you will use to populate your own course site. Notice that this template is consistent throughout. You will be able to modify this once you have copied this template into your course site. It is important to highlight and point out that this template contains all of the policy statements and links for technical assistance. This template conforms to the Quality Matters course design standards. For this reason, instructors are encouraged to use this template for building their courses.
Go to your course shell or the course that you are building.
Go to the ‘Course Admin’ tab
Look for the link to ‘Import / Export / Copy Components’ 

Course Admin

Select the ‘Copy Components from another Org Unit’. Uncheck the ‘Include protected resources’ if checked. Select ‘Search for offering’ (See below).

Course Copy

In the ‘Search for offering’ search textbox, search for ‘template’. You will see the following as one of the options.

Search Offering

Select the radio button for the ‘Course Design Model – V3 Templates’. Then select ‘Add Selected’.

Select ‘Copy All Components’ (see below)

Your newly copied template should be within your course shell and look like the image below.

This template contains:

A Getting Started section to add an introduction for your course.
A syllabus section with links to MSU policy statements.
Thirteen modules to edit and modify for your course.
Course components

Editing the Course Template

Now that you have imported the course template into your course shell, it is time to add content and make this course your own. There are several things you can do within D2L to make your course more appealing. One key feature within D2L are the templates for pages you build to present your content. Outlined below are the steps to using the course page templates within D2L.

Jazzing Up Your Course Using D2L Templates

Select ‘Create a File’ (See below)

Create a file

Enter a title for the file (page) you are going to create. Next, choose the ‘Select a Document Template’ drop-down menu. Look at the options and see the previews before selecting the ‘Save and Close’ option.

Enter title

The templates are very clean-looking in appearance. More importantly, these templates include the MSU digital branding standards and color scheme. You can make modifications to these pages. However, it is recommended to stick to the templates and use the formatting that is embedded within the page. You may encounter some challenges with the modification of the accordion or tab pages if you require more space for your content. Thankfully, there are lots of resources to help you when you encounter these issues.

Watch Sue Halick’s presentation on using the D2L templates.