A course format defines the look and layout of your course. In this article, we have provided you information, images, and links to view course formats available in Gauchospace as a guest in GauchoSpace sites. The guest permissions have been adjusted to allow users to view items, including the User Reports (the student's view of the gradebook) for the test students, view Peachmail and all of the activities. Note: please do not send Peachmail messages from within the showcase sites.
To change the course format for your own coursepage, go into your coursepage, then to the Administration block. Under Course Administration, click Edit Settings.
Scroll down to the “Course format” section.
*Each course site also demonstrates an available aggregation method for the gradebook. To learn more about setting up the Gradebook, visit our Gradebook Help Section.
This is the default format for GauchoSpace coursepages. The coursepage is organized into sections that are collapsable (and expandable). This is a great format to use if you have many course materials. The collapsable sections can display weeks (with dates) or topics (with or without dates). You can expand or collapse an individual week or topic, as well as expand or collapse all weeks or topics in an instant. It is set to have the current week expanded. This will save you and your students time scrolling down to the desired week or topic!
The General section will be displayed at all times and is not collapsible. This is where you may want to put content that you would like the students to be able to access at all times. The remaining sections can be collapsed and expanded when needed:
This is what it looks like when the section is expanded:
You can close and open all section at once using the options given below:
Editing the Collapsed Section Format
To make further settings within the Collapsed Section format, navigate to the Administration Block on the righthand side panel and click on "Edit Settings." On the settings page, navigate to the section titled "Course Format" and expand it.
Using Option "1," you can change the number of sections you want for the course. Option "2" will configure how hidden sections behave. Option "3" or "Structure" has a few choices: Week, Topic, Current Week First, and Current Topic First.
With the "Week" structure, the collapsible sections will be titled as weeks corresponding to the quarter you are in. For example, a Fall Quarter Course might look like this:
Similarly, "Current Week first" shows weeks in a reverse format where the most current week is at the top. All future weeks are not visible until the instructor clicks on "Turn Editing On" to display all weeks. Students will not see future weeks at all, they will only see the most current week at the top.
"Topic" and "Current Topic First" structures are similar to the "Week" and "Current Week First" structure except that section titles are organized by topics rather than weeks. See screenshot below:
Make sure to click on "Save and Display" at the bottom once you have made the changes to the settings.
Enter the Collapsed Sections Format course site as a Guest.
In this format, your coursepage is divided into sections by week. Each week is displayed vertically and you add materials to the section under the week heading. This format takes your course start date to create weekly sections, and highlights the current week of your course.
Gradebook Example: This format also features an example of the Natural Aggregation method.
Enter the Weekly Format course site as a Guest.
In this format, your coursepage is divided into sections by topic. Each week is displayed vertically and you add materials to the section under the topic headings you create.
In this format you can add content such as forums, quizzes, and assignments to each topic section. You do not have to specify start dates. You can rename a given Topic by clicking on the edit menu inside that Topic and clicking edit section.
Enter the Topics Format course site as a Guest.
The Oneweek format shows each week as a separate tab. This format uses your course start date to divide your coursepage into weekly tabs and highlights the current week with a green dot.
Enter the Oneweek Format course site as a Guest.
Add or Remove Tabs
To add a tab:
- Turn editing on
- Go to your tabs and click the "+" symbol to add tabs
To delete a tab:
- Turn editing on
- Go to the specific tab you would like to delete
- Click Edit, then Delete
The Onetopic format shows each topic as a separate tab. You can rename a given Topic by clicking on that Topic's edit menu and clicking edit section.
Enter the Onetopic Format course site as a Guest.
Add or Remove Tabs
To add a tab:
- Turn editing on
- Go to your tabs and click the "+" symbol to add tabs
To delete a tab:
- Turn editing on
- Go to the specific tab you would like to delete
- Click Edit, then Delete
Reverse Weekly by default hides all future weeks from the student view so that only the current week is expanded. As an instructor you can see future weeks and can leave them unhidden so that they become visible when that week arrives.
The format will display content starting with the first week at the bottom of the coursepage and each week proceeding above the first. This is the same as the weekly course format except the weeks are listed in reverse order.
Enter the Reverse Weekly Format course site as a guest.
Tiles Format is similar to the Collapsed Topics Format except that the collapsed sections are available as individual tiles as shown below. It is aesthetically pleasing and helpful in reducing clutter if your page will contain a lot of material and activities.
The sections' contents will drop down upon clicking on a particular tile as shown. Here, Week 2 tile is selected and its contents are now visible.
You also have the option to change icons and colors for the tiles that will display. By clicking on the "Edit Settings" under the "Course Administration" block, navigate to the "Course Format" tab. Here you would have already selected "Tiles format" as the designated format. Additionally, here you have options to choose the tile color and icon as shown below.
If you wish to change an icon or add a picture only for a particular week, click "Turn Editing On" on your Course-site and click on the display icon for that week.
A new popup window will provide you a list of icons to choose from or select an image from your computer.
Enter the Tiles Format course site as a guest.
