How do I add a new block?
To add a block to your course, use the following instructions:
- Log in to GauchoSpace and enter your course site.
- Click Turn editing on.
- Scroll down to find the "Add a Block" block on the lower left side of the browser window.
- Click the Add... drop-down menu.
- Select the block you would like to add to your course site.
- The new block will appear on your course page.
Types of blocks and brief description
For general information about blocks, visit Blocks in GauchoSpace: A Guide
Click the hyperlinked month ("September 2019") to add events to the calendar. The links below the calendar, under "Event Key" to either "hide" or "show" specific categories of events. Course events are populated by "due dates" of assignments/activities. The You can set the due dates in the "Availability" section of each activity. If you click on the date in the Calendar block, the date is linked to the assignment that is due. While instructors can both view and edit the calendar, students have viewing privileges only. |
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You can post a comment in the "Add a comment" text box. You must click the "Save Comment" link below for your comment to post. Your comment will have your name and timestamp associated with it. The comments stay in the comment panel on the right. The most recent comments are placed at the bottom. Both instructors and students can post and delete their own comments. Only instructors can delete both their own or students' comments. |
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To enable Course Completion, follow these steps. In the Administration block, select "Edit Settings". This will bring you to the "Edit course settings" page. Scroll down to "Completion Tracking". Under "Enable completion tracking", select "Yes". Once completion tracking is activated, configure course completion requirements by going to the Administration block and clicking "Course Completion". There you have the option to select conditions that must be met for course completion (such as Activity completion, Enrollment, or Completion of another course). For more information, visit this help article: |
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To enable Completion Progress, follow these steps. In the Administration block, select "Edit Settings". This will bring you to the "Edit course settings" page. Scroll down to "Completion Tracking". Under "Enable completion tracking", select "Yes". Once completion tracking is activated, each assignment and most resources would have settings that allow the Instructor to determine what actions are required for the activity to be considered complete. Some examples are: the student submits an assignment, responds or replies to a forum post, checks a box next to the item in the coursepage.
Each item is represented by a segment in the progress bar. The bar showing on the main coursepage shows how your class is progressing as a whole. To view individual students, click the Overview of students button. In the progress bar, red signifies overdue, green signifies complete, yellow signifies and upcoming deadline, and blue signifies an item whose deadline has not past. For more information, visit this help article: Track Student Progress - Activity Completion & Course Completion
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This block allows faculty, staff, or TAs to submit a request to Instructional Design for:
After submitting a request, you can manage your request and check on its status by clicking "Manage Request". Requests that are completed will be in the "My Archived Requests". In the lower menu, you can click the "Request Queue" link to see what others have requested for UCSB GauchoSpace. The "Configuration" link gives the option to edit admin, email, and request for settings. In the "All Archived Request" link, you will see all completed requests for UCSB GauchoSpace. |
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This block allows you to write a course summary (description) that is visible to the students. You can also upload a file for the course summary. As an instructor you can also configure some blanket course settings in this block (Course Format, Appearance, File upload size for the course, Completion tracking of students, Groups if you have set up groups in your course, and Role Renaming if you would like to change the name roles such as "student" to "undergraduate"). |
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In this block instructors and students have a hyperlinked menu of their courses, organized by quarter (Fall, Winter, Spring) and year. |
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This block conveniently allows users (instructors and students) to download ALL or weekly files from the course page. From the drop-down menu, select the files you wish to download either all of them, or week by week, or section by section. |
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When this block is added to the course site, Students are able to email TA and Faculty directly through GauchoSpace. The emails will go to the TA and Faculty email inbox. |
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When you configure settings, you can choose one forum of your choice that you wish to appear in the block. Your course forums will appear in a drop down menu in the settings of the block. You may also edit the name of the block. The name is set to "Forumtips" as default. |
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Use this block to organize frequently referenced links for your class. Go to the block settings to:
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Save time organizing by adding the mass actions block to your course page. This block allows you to select one or multiple activities, assignments, and/or resources to complete the following:
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This block links to the McGraw Hill Campus webpage where the educational materials for your course's textbook will be displayed. This is an external tool. The settings for your educational materials will be in McGraw Hill webpage. |
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This block provides a single link to users enrolled in your course. Another way to get there is to select "Users" is in the Navigation bar or Administration block. |
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This block displays photos taken by the UCSB community on campus. The block will rotate a new photo on its own every few seconds. To submit a photo to be displayed in the photo block, go to the UCSB Photo Submission course page. |
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Add this block if you have a Glossary activity set up in the coursepage. The block by default will display glossary terms and concepts randomly. Some options in the block settings are to select the glossary (if you have multiple on one coursepage), and decide how entries are chosen for display (Random, Last modified, Next entry, Alphabetical order). |
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This block displays the most recent activity on your course-page. There is also a hyperlink that allows you to view a full activity report from the date you specify. |
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Search for forums and forum posts using this block. Looking for a specific forum post? Click advanced search for additional options. The search will return forum posts that meet specified criteria or contain keywords. |
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This block displays a number for each one of your course page week or topic sections or tabs. The numbers are hyperlinked to each section. They are in the order that it is displayed on your course page ("1" is hyperlinked to the first section displayed in your course). |
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Allow students to decide for themselves when they have completed a course. You may want to add this block if you tracking course completion of multiple courses and want the students to mark the course as complete for themselves. First, you must go to the Administration block and Edit course settings. Under Completion tracking, select "Yes". Back in the Administration block, click Course completion and the setting "Condition: Manual Self Completion" must have the "Enable" box checked. |
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This block shows you quickly which resource on your page is being accessed the most by students. It provides a hyperlink to that resource. |
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This block displays the latest videos from the UCSB TV Youtube Channel. You can also add your own feed to display in the block.


This block is a student resource. The block is linked to the UCSB GauchoGoals coursepage where various campus resources are organized in a central place for students. |
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This block is populated by activities that are assigned due dates, upcoming events, or recurring dates according to data fetched from the Calendar block. The link to each upcoming activity is provided in the block for quick access. |
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If you will be assigning homework using WeBWork, you can link your webwork problem sets to your GauchoSpace coursepage. To do this, add the WeBWork block then send an email to help@lsit.ucsb.edu to get your WeBwork course configured to GauchoSpace. From there, when you add the WeBwork activity, you can select your problem sets from a drop-down menu and assign a due date. |
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