Editable course pages- a new addition to the A&S department web theme
We have displayed a feed of courses from the course listing system (WUCRSL) in our academic department websites for many years, but we have not been able to interact with those course pages or the landing page for courses until this feature update.
Summary of what's new
Now, when you go to "Find Content" you will see that each course coming from WUCRSL is listed as a piece of content in your website. While you are not able to edit most of the content from the course listing system (this should be edited directly in wucrsl, if a change is needed), you can now add information to each course. For example, a course may be associated with an image and then "featured" at the top of the course landing page, courses can have links to course websites or to documents, and courses can be placed into categories to allow students and advisors to filter for specific requirements or paths. In addition to these enhancements to individual course pages, the courses landing page has some new options as well.
In some cases, you may want to edit the title of a course. This should only be used in special circumstances where the title that comes from the course listing system is insufficient.
Featured Courses
Checking the box to feature a course will make it display at the top of the courses landing page. A featured course must have a featured image and a minimum of 3featured courses is needed. If you have more than 3 featured courses, they will display in a slideshow with three featured courses per slide.
You can control the order of featured courses by using the "featured weight" field. Larger numbers will "sink" to the bottom of the list (display last) and smaller numbers "float" to the top (display first).
You have the option to display instructors on a course page. Just browse an alphabetical list of all existing profile pages on your site and select the ones you wish to associate with the course. Click the green + button to add.
On an individual course page, the categories display under the heading "This Course Satisfies."
Categories
These new categories are meant to allow you to tag which courses belong in a particular focus area (or concentration or track) and which courses meet specific requirements set for your majors and minors.
The web team will set these up if you want them. Just contact us to let us know what terms you would like to use.
Associated Minor/Focus Area
The name of this grouping of categories is flexible. Some departments have "Tracks," other use "Minor" and still others use "Concentration." Let us know if your department uses one of these terms or something else.
Requirements
This is intended to help students find courses that meet particular requirements. Example terms for this category include "Core Requirements," "Writing Intensive," or "Elective."
Choose whether to save your changes for future semesters
By default, your additions to a course will be automatically saved so that they show up automatically on future offerings of that course. This is intended to save you time and effort. Only the information coming from the course listing system (instructor, meeting time, etc.) will update. Your added links, images, and categories will continue to display for that course in future semesters. In essence, we are writing over the data from the course listings system (deleting the old data and refreshing it with the new) each semester.
Remains on the course page each time the course is offered
Featured checkbox choice
Featured image
Links
Two new editable categories (Concentration & Requirements)
Instructor Profile(s)
Refreshes automatically each time a course is offered
Subtitle
Description
Attributes
Section info including instructors & meeting times
In the case of a course that uses the same course number each semester but the topic of the course changes, you can check the "Preserve current version and create new copy next semester" checkbox. This will not allow the course listing data to be overwritten and will force a new copy of that course to be saved in the site, allowing you to give it a different set of tags, links, images, etc. when needed.
Summary:
"Preserve current version and create new copy next semester" is Not Checked
Your customizations will remain the next time the course is offered.
"Preserve current version and create new copy next semester" is Checked
Your customizations will not display on the new course page that is created the next time the course is offered.
Courses Landing Page
Intro Section
At the top of the courses landing page, you can change the title, sub-title, and banner image. The red button is an anchor link to the full course list lower on the page. The button text is not editable but the button may be toggled off by editing the landing page. We recommend toggling the button off if you do not have any featured courses.
The example below shows the taxonomies named "Concentration" and "Course Requirements" but the first column header is flexible. For instance, if your department uses "Tracks" or "Focus Area" instead of "Concentration," we can change that for you.
On the Courses landing page, the categories display in the first two columns of the filter. Level and Semester are pulled from the Course Listing System.
Default Semester
As with your previous course landing page, you will be able to select a default semester to display on this page. If you do nothing, our pre-programmed defaults will be used. These update the first of the month following the release of new course data from WUCRSL. This option is most helpful in spring when summer automatically becomes the default. If your department doesn't offer summer courses, you'll want to select fall here.
