Messages
The Messages course element allows you to create news and important information for your course participants. These will be visible to users in the course as well as in the notifications. The total number of messages displayed can be specified by the course author, as can the time period in which they should be visible to course participants.
Usage: Learners' View
Overview
The Messages course element gives you an overview of all existing messages and news. The entries are sorted by date. The most recent ones will be shown first. |
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Functions for users
As a user, you have access to the following functions in a Messages course element:
| Subscribe to messages | You can subscribe to course elements to get automatically informed about changes.
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| Example: Subscribing to a course element File discussion
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3. If you have already subscribed to this course element, you will see the button Unsubscribe. Click this button if you want to cancel the subscription. |
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For further information about the general configuration options for receiving notifications, refer to the page Subscriptions and notifications.
Show older messages
Use this button to access older messages. Note that this function is only available if the number of messages to be displayed has been exceeded. The maximum number of displayed messages is set by the course author.
Configuration: Authors' View
In the course editor
The following functions are available to you in the course editor:
Add a messages course element |
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1 | Open the course you want to edit. Use the pencil icon at the top of the page to open the editing mode. |
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2 | Select a course element from the menu on the right. |
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3 | In the new window, you can define the position of the new course element within your course structure (left navigation pane). The available positions are marked with an insert icon. To insert the new course element into an existing substructure, you need to open the substructure by clicking on the small triangle symbol next to its title. The area will open and you will again see insert icons at the positions which are available. Click on the insert icon at the desired position within the structure. The selected area will be highlighted. Confirm your choice with Insert course element. |
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4 | The element will be inserted into the course structure at the selected position. Depending on the course element, you have to make additional configurations or add content in order to complete the configuration. For these changes to take effect, you must publish the course. The course element will then also become available in the course view. |
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General configuration settings
Title and description |
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Elements | Description |
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Title | You need to enter a title for the course element. The title can comprise a maximum of 100 characters. All special characters and numbers are permitted. The title will appear in the navigation menu of the course and also as a heading in the content area. |
Subtitle | You can enter a subtitle for the course element with a maximum of 255 characters. All special characters and numbers are permitted. The title will appear as a tooltip in the navigation menu and - if selected and configured accordingly - as a subtitle in the content area. |
Description | Here you can describe the course element. The description will appear in the content area below the title.
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Display | Define which information about the course element should be displayed in the course view. In addition to the content, you can optionally display the title and description. All course elements are provided with a reasonable presetting, which mostly includes the setting Title, description and content. You can adjust this setting in accordance with the options available for each course element. |
Set link for this course element | Each course element can be accessed via fixed link addresses. Therefore, an internal and an external URL is assigned to each course element. These direct links to concrete elements can be used within courses or provided to learners. The URLs are located below the title and description of the element and will appear upon selecting Set link for this course element.
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ID | You will need the ID number of the course element (on the bottom right), for example, if you wish to use the expert mode in the visibility or access tab. |
Message configuration
In this tab, you can configure different settings for the display of messages and the automatic subscription. Detailed instructions are given in the following section Special configuration settings.
Multilingualism
In this tab, different translations can be added to individual course element areas.
Special configuration settings
The following functions are available to you in the Message configuration tab. To access them, open the course editor of the Messages course element and switch to the Message configuration tab.
Display | Decide how long messages should remain visible and how many messages should be displayed. To do this, change the number in the respective text fields and click on Save. |
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Subscribe automatically | This option allows you to decide whether messages will be subscribed to automatically after reading them. Just activate the checkbox. You can undo this setting at any time by deactivating the checkbox. Click on Save to confirm your changes. |
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In the course view
In the course view, you have the following options:
| Create messages | This option allows you to create new messages.
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1 | Open the Messages course element and click on Create message. |
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2 | Enter a title and your message in the appropriate text fields. For the message, there are several formatting options available to you. A detailed description can be found under this link. |
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3 | Optionally, you can choose to send an email to the participants of the course in order to inform them about the new message. The following three options are available:
Select the desired checkbox. |
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4 | Click on Save to complete the creation process. |
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Edit messages
This option allows you to edit an already created message.
How to do that?
1 | Open the Messages course element and select the message you wish to edit. Now click on the pencil icon. |
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2 | The editor window opens. Make your desired changes and click on Save to complete the editing process. |
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Delete messages
An already created message can be deleted at any time.
How to do that?
1 | Open the Messages course element and select the message you wish to delete. Now click on the trash can icon. |
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2 | Confirm the deletion process with OK. |
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