10.2. Adding Course Updates and Handouts

You add course updates and identify handouts in Studio. Learners see the course updates and handouts on the Home page in your course.

The Home page as it appears to students, with a "Course Updates & News" section containing a dated post and a "Course Handouts" frame with a list of links.

10.2.1. Add a Course Update

You add updates to notify learners of upcoming exams or deadlines, changes in the course schedule, or to make other announcements. Updates are visible to enrolled learners as soon as you post them.

Each update requires a date for identification and sorting purposes. This date does not control when the date becomes visible to learners. In the LMS, updates display on the Home page in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top), based on the date associated with each update.

To add a course update, follow these steps.

  1. From the Content menu, select Updates.

  2. Select New Update.

  3. Create your update in the text editor that opens.

    • Enter text for the update, using HTML tags for formatting. This editor is like the raw HTML editor in HTML components. The course update editor does not have a visual editor.

      Note

      To make sure that your announcements are accessible, if you use headings inside an announcement, make sure that you use only level 6 headings (<h6>). The structure of the course Home page uses heading levels 1-5.

      If you copy text from another source and paste it into the text editor, proofread the result carefully. Some applications automatically change quotation marks and apostrophes from the “straight” version to the “smart” or “curly” version. The editor requires “straight” quotation marks and apostrophes.

    • Specify a date for this update. By default, today’s date is already entered. You can change the date using the calendar tool, or by entering some other valid date. This date is used only for identification and sorting purposes. This date does not control when the date becomes visible to learners.

  4. Select Post. Your update appears on your course’s Home page immediately.

  1. Optionally, choose whether to send a notification about your update to the edX mobile app.
  • Learners can choose to turn off notifications for individual courses or for all courses. The Home page continues to show all updates.
  • All updates appear on the Home page, even if you do not send notifications.

10.2.2. Identify a Course Handout

You can identify previously uploaded files as handouts for your course. Learners see a link on the Home page for each course handout.

Before you identify a course handout, you add the file to your course and copy its Studio URL. You can open the Studio Files & Uploads page in another browser window to make this process easier.

To identify a course handout, follow these steps.

  1. From the Content menu, select Updates.

  2. In the Course Handouts panel, select Edit.

  3. In the editor that opens, use HTML formatting to add a link to the previously uploaded file. An example follows.

    <p><a href="/static/Syllabus_Fall2016.pdf" target="_blank">Syllabus</a></p>
    <p><a href="/static/Glossary_v3.pdf" target="_blank">Glossary</a></p>
    
  4. Select Save.