D2L Calendar Tool
Please Read this entire page to understand the Calendar tool and the common problems associated with it.
The D2L Calendar Tool presents two issues which can cause significant problems for faculty and students in Desire2Learn. The first issue is the type of calendar entry which is created, and the second issue is the display settings within the calendar. This page will attempt to explain why these two issues cause problems, and what faculty and students can do to resolve them.
Issues #1: Personal or Course-Related Event
Desire2Learn (or eLearn) has two types of Calendar entries: Personal Events and Course-Related Events
- Personal Events - are intended to be events which are your own "personal" events which may or may not be related with the course. These entires could be personal in nature, such as a child's soccer game; or be a personal note by the faculty member to themselves - which while not intended to be seen by students - is a reminder to the faculty member to do something within the course, for example "Send e-mail to students reminding them to submit Assignment 1".
Personal events are NOT seen by students.
- Course-Related Events - are intended to be calendar events which reflect assessments, tests, assignments, etc which are supposed to be viewed by anyone (faculty & students) who are enrolled in the course. Typically, most calendar entries fall into this category.
The issue of "Personal" or Course-Related events becomes a problem because the default selection for Calendar Entries when they are being created is "Personal". Look at the image below. This is a screen capture image of the New Event window which is seen by faculty when they are creating calendar entries. Note the Event Type selection at the bottom of the window. If the Event Type selection is not changed to the "course" listed (current course), then the calendar entry will become a "Personal" event and will not be seen by students.
And once the calendar entry has been created as a "Personal" event, it cannot be simply changed to a "Course-Related" event. The initial selection is permanent. A new calendar entry must be made in which the proper Event Type selection is selected, making it a Course-Related event.
Identifying Personal or Course-Related events
So how can you tell whether your course events which have been created in your course are Personal or Course-Related events. Well, the first indication is that your students are telling you that they cannot see entries in the calendar which you can see. This is the a prime indicator that some or all of your events may be Personal events, and therefore not viewable by your students.
The second method of identification is to look at the icon that is associated with the events in your calenar. Personal and Course-Related events have two distinct icons associated with all entries which identifies the Event Type of every calendar entry.
Note the image below:
The Course-Related icon has a book overlying an image of a calendar, and
The Personal icon and a small blue person overlying an image of a calendar.
A quick look at the calendar should provide the opportunity to identify the icon associated with any calendar item as being either Personal or Course-Related.
Calendar Entries with "Personal" icons, will have to be replace with new calendar entries which have been properly created with the "Course-Related" selction.
Issues #2: Display Options
All Desire2Learn (elearn) users have the option of controlling how they view their own calendar. Students can choose to view the calendar entries from only the course in which they are currenlty in, OR they choose to view all the entries from all the courses they are enrolled in from within a single course. This ability is controlled by the Display Options within the Calendar tool
To access the Display Options of your calendar tool, click on "Display Options" while in the Calendar (see below)
This will take you into the Display Options window of your calendar (shown below). Please keep in mind that each user must set their own settings in their own calendar to determine how their calendar display. A faculty member changing settings in his calendar will not affect how students see their calendars. They MUST make these display settings also.
Change both of the selection options to "Current Course".
NOTE: If you do not make these Calendar Dispaly Option settings, you will see ALL of your entries from ALL of your courses every time you enter the Calendar. So, if you happen to be enrolled in five online courses, you will see all calendar entries from All of your courses, every time you enter the Calendar.
Keep in mind that if you enter your Calendar from the Desire2Learn (eLearn)Home page (and not from within a course), you will not see any course entries if your Calendar display settings are set to "Current Course". This is because when your are in the Desire2Learn (eLearn) homepage, you are not actually in a course and therefore will not see any "Current Course" settings. You must actually be in a course to see calendar entries when "Current Course" is set within the Calendar.
