Good structure (and communication) in Absalon courses

A lot of courses use 'modules' as the backbone when organising files and other material.

You can learn more about structuring with modules at the OBL site.

Here you can read more about how to use 'modules'

The 'Pages' feature in Absalon can be helpful when organizing reading materials or exercises, as well as for creating lesson plans or other general information. 

You can learn more about structuring with pages at the OBL site.

Here you can read more about how to use 'pages'

You can select a 'Front page' among your pages to serve as the course Home page, creating an attractive and informative starting point for students. The front page can be helpful when giving an overview and organizing the content.

You can learn more about structuring with a front page at the OBL site.

Here you can see how to set your 'frontpage' as 'homepage' for the Absalon course.

And here is a guide on how to use 'files'

By default, all courses generated from https://kurser.ku.dk have a "Course Information" in the course menu. This menu item provides access to the "course description" of the course, which includes details such as the course content, intended learning outcomes, relevant literature, teaching methods, estimated workload, and feedback form.

General information about the course: 
In addition to this information, it is a good idea to create, for example, a 'page' containing information about your expectations of the students, overall course plan, syllabus lists, course teaching methods (lectures, theoretical exercises, excursions, trips and exercises), learning outcomes etc.

Specific information about the course: 
'Modules' can be used to post information for each class/week: what will happen and what do the students need to prepare etc. Modules can, for example, be structured by week no., class, theme, teaching method or something completely different. 

Read more and watch videos about Absalon’s features here.

It is important for the students engagement that they know why the course is relevant for them as students or professionals but also why it is interesting for you as a teacher. It can be a good idea to add pictures from the course and make a welcome-to-this-course announcement or video.

Here you can see how to choose a page for the Home page.
Please note that you first need to create a Page and then make it the Front Page. Only then can you select a page as Home Page.  

'Home page' is the page on which the course opens and on which the students land when clicking Home. It is therefore a good idea that a front page has links to the rest of the course content.  

Read more and watch videos about Absalon’s features here.  

You can reduce the left-hand menu by clicking Settings --> Navigation: here you can remove irrelevant menu items, depending on the features you need on the course. Remember to click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page. 

In this guide, you can see how to reduce items in the left-hand menu.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have copied an earlier course into a new course room, make sure to check whether too many menu items have perhaps been included in the new course.

If you have organized your files and materials using "modules," it is likely that the students should be looking there for their course materials, as opposed to in the "files" section, where you may have files and materials that they should not have access to yet.

In this guide, you can see how to reduce items in the left-hand menu.

Here is a guide on how to use the link validator in Absalon