Overview of the my home and course home pages in myCourses
- Jacqueline Kort Mascort (Deactivated)
- Rachel Hall
My home page
When you log into the myCourses learning environment, the first page displayed is the My home page.
You can access this page from anywhere in myCourses by clicking the myCourses logo, located in the top-left side of the toolbar.
The navigation bar
The navigation bar (Navbar) on the My home page contains links to the Library, Instructor Support, Student Support, and Tools.
The myCourses widget
The myCourses widget shows all courses you are currently enrolled in. They appear as tiles below the myCourses heading. You can toggle between All, Pinned, and Ongoing courses, in addition to those from the previous four semesters.
If no courses appear in your My Courses widget, follow these steps to add them:
Click on the course icon beside the myCourses logo to see a list of your courses:
To display the courses on your My home page, click the course icon and then click the pin icon beside each course name.
If you scroll down your My home page, you will also see a View all courses link. Click this to trigger a pop-up with a tile for each of your courses.
Pin/Unpin courses
You can pin specific courses so that they appear on your My home page. Use the myCourses widget or click the three dots ( ... ) on the course tile and select Pin.
You can unpin courses by following the same steps and clicking Unpin.
Change the image associated with a course
Click the three dots ( ... ) on the course tile and select Change image. Here, you can choose from a library with over 3000 images. Alternatively, select Course offering information to upload your own image.
Course notifications
The course tiles on your My home page will appear with different icons and notifications as your students continue to submit new work, including quizzes, assignments, and discussion posts.
The icons denote new discussions (left), quizzes (middle), and assignments (right). The orange numbers indicate the number of unopened or unread submissions.
Announcements
The Announcements widget on the My home page is centrally controlled by McGill administration. It communicates important updates and information to instructors and students.
Calendar
The Calendar widget consists of a mini-calendar and a list of upcoming events. It displays all your events (e.g., upcoming quiz or assignment) for the applicable month. Clicking on a day in the widget's mini-Calendar filters the event list to only display events for that day. Clicking on an event in the widget takes you to the event in the Calendar tool.
Outlook 365
With this widget, you will be able to sign in to your Office 365 account. This is where you will be able to access and view your emails, calendar and OneDrive files.
Course home page
The Course home page is the first page you see when you enter a course. Like the My home page, it contains different widgets for displaying information and course content. You can return to this page from anywhere in your course by clicking the name of the course on the left side of the top toolbar.
Each course has its own Navigation Bar. New blank courses are created with the default Navigation Bar, which includes links to Content, Discussions, Assignments, Classlist, Grades, Course Evaluations, and Course Admin. However, instructors can edit the navigation bar to include only the links to tools they are using in the course.
Announcements
The Announcements widget displays any announcements instructors have posted for students in a course. Instructors can click the arrow beside the word Announcements and select New Announcement to post a message. See Create and post announcements in myCourses for more information.
Calendar
The Calendar widget shows a list of Upcoming events in a course. Click the arrow beside the word Calendar and select Go to calendar to access the Calendar tool. Click the arrow beside the date to expand the calendar and click any date in bold to view the events for that day.
The Early Alert System
The Early Alert System (EAS) is an announcement that is posted on your myCourses home page. If a student you know is struggling academically and/or non-academically, you can click on the link to notify the Office of the Dean of Students. A case manager will address your concerns and decide if further action is warranted.
The EAS is only visible to instructors, so if you are a teaching assistant or have another role, you would need to contact Case Management Services directly.