D2L-Daylight Changes

D2L Daylight visual changes to the "My Home" screen

Before D2L Daylight - Before May 9, 2018:

After D2L Daylight - May 9, 2018:

 

1. The top "My Home" line is no longer in blue and is icon based.
2. "My Home" is now simply a house icon.
3. The MTSU logo is no longer a separate blue band with 3 images but is included with the single top line of icons.
4. "Select a course" is now a 9 box icon. We recommend pinning current courses in this area for ease of access by clicking the pin to the right of the current courses. After pinning, these courses will appear at the top of your listing no matter where you are in D2L. These courses will also appear in the My Courses widget first. See below for how to pin a course.
5. The "My Course" widget is very graphical. Instructors will be able to search or upload whatever image they prefer for the course image. D2L provides several image options too. Hover over the 3 dots in the image and choose Change Image. When creating an image, avoid including text since resizing may result. The image should be a high resolution graphic if you intend to use it within the course as a banner. D2L recommends images sized at 2400x960. (See more info under Course Home changes.)
6. All widgets such as the My Courses widget will not have the blue band along the top of the widget.
7. My Courses widget has an option to search by semester. Use the arrow on the right edge to scroll to choose the semester of interest such as Fall 2018. Note: There is a Development semester to find development courses.
8. On smaller devices:
   • the top line of icons with menus may collapse into a 3 line menu of choices.
   • widgets may collapse to a single column of widgets beginning with the entire left column followed by the entire right column. 

Smaller devices after D2L Daylight - After May 9, 2018:

We recommend pinning courses and using that avenue for quick course access from anywhere within D2L.

How to pin a D2L course for ease of access:

• In the Search box of "Select a Course" (the 9 squares icon), type 201850 and press Enter to find all Summer courses for 2018. Then click the pin to the right of the course name to pin it for ease of access. It becomes a solid pin. Those courses will appear first in the My Courses Widget and at the top of this search listing.
• Prior to Fall 2018, search 201880 for all Fall courses and pin them. (Unpin the summer courses as you pin the fall courses.)
• Prior to Spring 2019, search 201910 for all Spring courses and pin them. (Unpin the fall courses as you pin the spring courses.) 

After clicking to enter a course, you may notice a few visual changes.

1. There is one course navigation line of options.
   
   We recommend using the standard navigation menu. The only change will be the menu selection will be left justified.
   
   Before D2L Daylight using the Standard Navigation Menu:
   
   
   After D2L Daylight when using the Standard Navigation Menu:
   
   
   If instructors had used 4 different areas in the header to provide links to various tools in the course, it will all be in one navigation line with Daylight. It begins with the lower-left navigation items (1), then lower-right (2), then upper left (3), and finally upper-right (4) in the adjustment. If the line is too long with items, you may see "More..." at the end of the long list. On smaller devices this navigation may become a 3 line menu (see image below related to Course Widgets).
   Click the 3 dots to the right of the navigation line to edit this navigation line. Click Accept and Add Links or hover over an item to remove or click/hold/drag it to a new location.
   
   Course Navigation when using non-standard navigation options:
   
   Before D2L Daylight - before May 9, 2018 - when using old navigation or with more than one area for navigating the course options:
   
   
   After D2L Daylight - after May 9, 2018 - when using old navigation or with more than one area for navigating the course options:
   
   
   
2. The course may have a banner image. Instructors may opt to use the image from the "My Home/My Courses" widget as a banner within the course. 
   
   How to include a Course Home banner:
   Click Edit Course
   Click Course Offering information
   Check the box next to "Display the image in a banner on the course homepage" 
   Save
   
   The My Courses image will now appear within the Course Home just under the navigation menu (see image below). This is a good reason not to use text within manually created images since the course name will appear on top of that image. Currently there is not an option to turn off the course name appearing within the banner.
   
   Sample "Course Home" with Banner:
   
   Note: D2L automatically adds the course name on top of the Course Home Banner image.
3. Course Home widgets may appear as one column on smaller devices. The order of widgets on smaller devices will be the entire left column followed by the entire right column. The order of these widgets may matter to the instructor. Notice "Take Me To...", "Updates", "Course Admin" are the left column widgets. Eventually the "News" widget would show followed by other widgets in the right column. We will reorder these widgets prior to May 9, 2018, so the News widget will be near or at the top of the list within Course Home. You may use Edit Course/Homepages to adjust the order at any time and add/remove any of the widgets.
   NOTE: "Take Me To" has been removed since it causes font sizing issues. If you elect to continue using it, please note that it is legacy and will not be updated. To remove it, use Edit Course/Homepages and click the active homepage to adjust the widgets. The X in the upper right of a widget will remove that widget.
   
   Sample Course Home Widgets on Smaller Device as One Long Column (notice the 3 line menu within a course too for navigation on smaller devices):
   
   

Every Month - D2L brings changes and a few of the recent changes are listed below.

Grades/Enter Grades - has smoother scrolling by using the arrows in the upper left/right for large gradebooks

Grades/Switch to Spreadsheet View - has moved locations to the upper left area

Turnitin within Dropbox - Turnitin has a tab of options within the Dropbox setup that allows you to enable and set options for originality checking

HTML Editor has accessibility checking - in the bottom right look for and use the accessiblity check to the right of the spell check.

New Quiz Experience - when starting to create a new MC, WR, T/F or SA question, you'll be given the option to begin to use the new experience. Until December 2018, you'll be able to turn this experience off/on as you find comfort with using it. The random option with quiz creation will be called Question Pool with this new experience. Besides streamlining the creation of typical questions, the new built-in preview as you create makes this a nice quiz creation option. Instructors, please find sample videos of the new quiz experience in the News items of D2L My Home.

The brightness of Daylight - if the interface is too bright, consider adjusting your monitor's contrast