How to Create Sites in CourseDirector

When you create a new course you are automatically directed to the course details page as shown below. Initially as you can see next to the heading "Site:" is written "not available" which means that a website for this course has not yet been created. To create a course website simply click the blue link "create new"





In the event that a course website was not created right from the start teachers, administrators and assistant groups can still create a site at any time. To do so if you are a teacher or member of an assistant group you can simply move or hover the cursor over the course name as it appears on your home page. Automatically your options for this course will appear as dark blue links. If a site does not already exist for the course you can click on the link "Create Site". Administrators can create sites by clicking the option "Courses" from the main menu to display a list of all courses. They can then select a and create a site again by hovering the cursor over the course and clicking "Create Site".






 
After choosing the option to "create site" you will now be asked to select a template for your course from a list as shown below.



You may now select one of the available templates. On initial set up you will have a limited selection (blank site, one preloaded template we have created and custom url) however your administrator can add extra template designs we have available by installing via the settings menu. Click here to learn how to install additional templates. 

If you select "blank site" then as the name indicates CourseDirector through Google Sites will create a blank site that you can then develop as you wish. (This is recomended only for those with previous experience of working with sites within Google Apps.)

You will note in the example above there is a template named "1234 Recruitment, Summer". This is a site created for a course that already exists and by using this as a template you can copy exactly that site. This is very useful in cases where the same course is taught every semester. Instead of creating a new website each time the old one can be reused. Over time as your school adds more courses and course websites to CourseDirector there will be more and more such templates to choose from.

Finaly you can insert a custom url if you already have an alternative site that you would like to use as a template.

After selecting your prefered option click "Create Site" to continue.  Your course website will now be created and you will see as shown below that next to the label "Site:" is the web link to the newly created site.


You can now access the new site by clicking on the link. Additionally the course site can be accessed from your home page or in the case of administrators from the courses page by again hovering over the course name so that your options appear. You will now notice that since you just created the site the option "Create Site" is now no longer available and has been replaced by the option "Course Site". By clicking this option you will automatically be taken to the new course site.




When you click through to the new site for the first time it will look similar to the one shown below.


This is the blank template from which you can start creating your courses web page. To add text, to the page, for example a welcome message and introduction to the course click the "Edit Page" button at the top right of your screen. To add announcements, assignments or course materials click on the blue links either in the side menu or directly on the page.

For information on editing your site or changing the layout see the following web links; 
http://www.google.com/support/pages/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide... 
and http://www.google.com/support/pages/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=14991