COMM428E:

Navigation Intro

Course Homepage

Welcome to your course. This section provides important information about navigating your course. Please read through this information before moving on to the course content.

A course site (Figure 1) has three main areas (Figures 2-4). Click on the links for a description and preview of each of these areas: 

Header

The header area is located near the top of the page. It contains the course's name, which is also a link to the course's home page. If you are viewing your course in a full-sized desktop window, the header also includes the features listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Features of the header

Header Feature	Description
	a link to log out of the course management system
	a link to switch courses within the course management system
	a link to go to the course's help page

Main Menu

The main menu allows you to navigate to other parts of the course (Figure 6). From this menu, you will be able to access the home page, syllabus, lessons, activities, and more.

Content

The content area (Figure 6) follows the header area and displays the contents of the current page as well as page controls.

Page Controls

Page controls allow you to interact with page content. The page controls listed in Table 2 appear at the top of all page content.

Table 2: Page controls of all content

Content Feature	Description
	a toggle link that resizes the main content area so that it does or does not fill the entire desktop window (Desktop feature only; this link does not appear on small screens.)
	links that increase or decrease the font in the main content area
	a search form that allows you to search for lesson pages that contain your search text
	a link that opens a lesson, page, or section of content into a printer-friendly window

The page controls of Table 3 (below) appear on all lesson pages at the top of the content area. In larger desktop windows, they also appear at the bottom of the page content.

Table 3: Page controls
of lesson content

Page Control	Description
	a link to the table of contents
	a link to the first page of the lesson (Desktop view or larger mobile sized screens only.)
	a link to the previous page of the lesson
	a link to a specific lesson page (Desktop view only.)
	an indicator for the current page
	a link to the next page of the lesson
	a link to the last page of the lesson (Desktop view or larger mobile sized screens only.)

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Home Page

The first page of your course is the home page. Your instructor may use the course's home page to provide a short welcome message (Figure 7) and post course announcements (Figure 8).

Lessons Page

Lessons

To get to the lessons for your course, simply find the Main Menu and click on Lessons.  The course table of contents will appear (Figure 9). Note: Lessons might also be called something else like Modules, Sessions, Units, or Weeks, depending on the course.

Table of Contents Page

The course table of contents page (Figure 9 is a list of lessons and pages in your course.  It also features printer-friendly links () that allow you to view and print all pages within a single lesson.

To use the table of contents to go to a lesson page (Figure 10), simply click on the title of the page you wish to view.

Lesson Pages

A lesson page (Figures 11-14) may include content such as: 

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Angel - Activities Page

The Activities link in the left menu is very important, as it contains most of the ANGEL items that you'll need to complete and submit assignments. In the example below, you can see that there is a discussion forum and three weekly activities folders.

If you click on a weekly folder such as Week 1 Activities, you'll see the ANGEL items (as shown below).

The table below explains the ANGEL icons used in this course.

ANGEL Icon Descriptions

Icon	Explanation
Discussion Forum	Discussion Forums are places in ANGEL where you can hold an online discussion with your instructor and/or classmates.
Drop Box	The drop box is a place in ANGEL where you can submit files such as Word documents and spreadsheets for your instructor to review and/or grade. Once a file has been submitted, you cannot edit or retrieve it.
File	Files contain links to a downloadable file that may be viewed or saved on your computer.
Link	Items designated by this icon contain a link to elsewhere in the course, or to an external website your instructor may want you to view.
Quiz	Taking an online quiz is very similar to taking a quiz in class. You answer questions and when you are finished, submit the quiz for grading. Quizzes may be automatically graded, in which case you'll receive immediate feedback, or they may be graded by the instructor at a later time. Some quizzes may contain essay questions; if so, we recommend that you prepare your answer in a word processing program first and cut and paste that answer into ANGEL.
Survey	Surveys in ANGEL are very similar to the Quiz function, but are designed to provide feedback to the instructor about certain topics. This feedback my come in the form of essays, checkboxes, or checklists.

You may see other icons on the Activities page but the most common are shown in this table. The individual tools used in your course may vary. Some courses may not include all of the tools mentioned above. Remember, most of what you will do in the course will be accessed through the Activities link. It is to your advantage to spend some time getting familiar with all of the links.

Please note that due to the design of your course, you may not see an Activities link on your left menu. However, any activities that are required in your course will be linked through the left menu or through your lesson content pages.

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Angel - Communicate Page

The Communicate link accesses the ANGEL e-mail tool, which lets you send and receive course e-mail. You can also find information for any software resources you may need to download for your course. Another feature is the course roster where you can view a list of people in the course.

You can also find information for getting in touch with the World Campus Help Desk and World Campus Student Services.

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Angel - Reports Page

The Reports link connects to reports that help you follow your progress in the course, and see your grades. The image below shows the top-level menu for the Report tab.

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Angel - Resources Page

Under the Resources link you can view the course calendar, and access Library Reserves. (Check your Syllabus or course content to see if your instructor will be using any reserve readings.) See figure below.

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Angel - What's New Page

The What's New link lists any items within the course content that may be new. These items can be filtered by last logon, last week, last 2 weeks, or last 30 days using the pulldown list. To check for new items, click on the refresh button.

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HelpDesk Information

If you have any technical difficulties using the tools within this course, or questions about how to use ANGEL, please contact the HelpDesk.

HelpDesk Technical Support (http://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/technical-support)

Hours of Operation

• Monday through Friday — 8:00 a.m. until midnight (Eastern Time)
• Saturday — 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)
• Sunday — 10:00 a.m. until midnight (Eastern Time)

Phone

• 1-800-252-3592, option 4  (toll free within the United States)
• 1-814-865-0047 (local and international calls)

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