Our Template at Durham College

Create great looking, responsive, and accessible content topic pages using the page layouts provided in this template package.


Introduction

Our DC Connect Course Template was created to provide guidance to course developers and facilitators in the creation of accessible, responsive HTML course pages. These templates are designed to help non-developers create clean professional content pages using the DC Connect HTML editor. Watch this brief video to learn more.


Getting Started

The DC Connect template is a complete course package. It contains purpose-built modules, new page layouts and guidance to create consistency across all courses. You may have already noticed some of these resources such as:

Purpose-built modules

  • The "Welcome" module
  • Course Outline
  • Course Overview and Schedule
  • Sample weekly modules

Template pages

  • Tables
  • Lists
  • Videos
  • Images

Faculty how-to pages

  • Adding template to your course
  • Typography
  • Featured content
  • Headings

Add a File

You can add these template files to your course by selecting the new blue button and choosing, create a file in the dropdown options.

Then select a document template located beside the content title to ensure that your content connects to all the styles and components of this template.

open the HTML editor by creating a file
open the HTML editor by creating a file
These resources allow you to pick and choose which work best for your content.
Example Situation Example Solution

Are you trying to demonstrate the difference between two theories?

Consider using the tables template page

Do you want to highlight the steps of a process?

Try the list template page


Naming Files

Now that you have the knowledge to create your own content we should consider the benefits of a proper naming structure.

Common Problem

In a course with several modules. Often there is a common module structure, an overview, several content pages and a summary.

Although consistency is important, confusion can arise when the weekly "overview" is titled the same each week. Inevitably when clarification is required, it will require further communication to specify which "module" the "overview" page being discussed is in. A similar problem occurs for commonly titled course pages.

Solution

To support a consistent naming structure this template has adopted the following best practices.

For modules that repeat, the title of the week should proceed the name of the content.

For every resource in the Week 3 module, the file name would begin with, Week03- followed by the content name. Let's look at some examples.

Naming Examples

Examples of Proper Naming Structure
Example Content Page File Name

Overview Page. Week 3.

Week03-Overview

Summary Page. Week 6.

Week06-Summary

Concepts Content Page. Week 13.

Week13-Concepts-Page


Next Steps

With a better understanding of how to create and edit files and selecting proper names we are ready to begin using the template pages and the support pages in this faculty how-to section. Please be sure to use these supporting pages to further improve your skills creating content using the HTML Editor.