Organizing your ICON course site can feel daunting. What’s best for a 3000 level STEM class? What about a first-year Rhetoric course?

While this article will outline a few beloved tricks, it’s important to remember that your course site is ultimately at your discretion. Every class will have different needs, and as the instructor, you’re the expert.

That said, here are a few strategies to consider when designing your course site.

Organizing Modules Week-by-Week

Organizing your course site week-by-week can help mitigate confusion and make class expectations clear. You can include assignments, readings, review materials, and external submission tools like Top Hat and Perusall. This way, students know exactly what to prepare for class, what’s due, and what’s next.

Cleaning Up Your Course Navigation Menu

While ICON has a plethora of helpful integrations, they’re not all necessary in every class. Cleaning up your course navigation menu can create a more navigable and seamless experience. If you’re not using an integration like Top Hat, you can head to the Settings page, click on the Course Navigation tab, and hide elements you won’t use. You can also enable elements your students will need to see.

Setting Up Your Homepage

A homepage is a great way to introduce yourself and set the tone for the semester. Here, you can include contact information, drop your office hours Zoom link, and set up a pre-semester task list. It’s also a good place for a brief explanation on how to navigate your site and where relevant resources will live.

You can make a homepage by creating a new page in Pages, returning to your course Home, and clicking Choose Home Page.

Student View

In order for students to submit assignments, use resources, and keep track of grades, they’ll have to view them. Even the most experienced ICON users sometimes forget to hit that Publish button. You can click the Student View button in the top right corner of your ICON site. You’ll be able to navigate around your site as if you were a student and check that all your materials are as public—or as private—as you want them.

UDOIT

Finally, you’ll want to make sure your course is as accessible as possible. You can use the UDOIT tool to check site accessibility. Go through your course navigation bar on the right to access UDOIT.

While UDOIT can identify accessibility problems, it doesn’t fix them for you. You’ll have to fix them manually.

More resources

We hope these strategies are helpful this semester and beyond. If you need more guidance, you can always reach out to a SITA (Student Instructional Technology Assistant) at SITA@uiowa.edu or book a consultation.

Want more information about setting up an ICON course? Check out the resource SITAs created about ICON course development.