Desire2Learn Help
Request a Course Shell for the New Semester (Instructors)
Use this help topic to learn how to request a new Desire2Learn (D2L) course shell for each new semester.
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You must complete these steps:
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Complete the following steps before requesting a D2L course shell for the new semester:
Check MSUM's official course schedule listing. If the course lists N/A for the instructor instead of your name, you will not be able to request this course through the Request Course Form until the correction is made.
If you are not listed as the instructor, contact your department chair or dean well in advance of the new semester to report the problem. Failure to do so will result in a delay in getting your D2L course shell set up for the new semester.
The Development (Dev) Course is the permanent home for all of the content, discussion questions, and quiz question that you develop for your course on Desire2Learn. The Dev Course does not contain a classlist or student grades. The classlist is automatically loaded into the D2L course shell for each new semester.
You should have a Dev Course set up for each course that you host on Desire2Learn. You need to request the Dev Course only once for a course. Consider it your template.
Refer to Request a Development Course for more information.
Complete the following steps to login to Course Creator to request a D2L course shell for the new semester.
Step 1. Go to https://collaborate.mnstate.edu/coursecreator
Step 2. Complete the Course Creation Request form, using the following as a guideline:
Step 3. Click [Submit].
Once you login to Course Creator, you need to specify the semester and course that you want to set up.
Complete these steps for each course that you are hosting on Desire2Learn in the new semester.
Step 4. Select the semester from the drop down list.
Step 5. Click [List courses for this semester].
The course sections that are assigned to you for the selected semester display in the Your Available Sections list box.
Note: The illustration below shows one section per course. If you have multiple sections for a course in the upcoming semester, each section would be listed.
Step 6. Refer to the options below to decide how to make your selections in the Your Available Sections list box.
If a D2L course contains only one section (or you want a separate course created for each listed section), select the check box next to only one section on the list.
If you have two or more sections of a course that you want to map together into a single D2L course, select the check boxes next to each of the sections to combine them into one D2L course shell.
If you have two or more courses that you want to map together into a single D2L course, select the check boxes to each of the courses to combine them into one D2L course shell. For example, if you want to combine courses 451/651 (undergraduate and graduate), select both check boxes.
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Working with multiple sections: If you create separate course shells for each section of a course, you will need to update each course separately every time new content, discussions, or quizzes are added. This can be time consuming as content needs to be entered into each section of the course. You may find it more efficient in this case to combine all sections within one D2L course shell. You can view students in each section of a D2L course separately in the Gradebook and Classlist. You can release content to each section at different times using the Conditional Release option. |
Step 7. Click [Add D2L >>] to move the selected sections to the Your Selected Courses list box.
The section(s) that you selected in the previous step now display in the Your Selected Courses list box. In the example below, we selected a single section (002612 Emerging Technologies).
Note: You can remove a section from the Your Selected Courses list box that you do not want combined into the course at this time. To do this simply select the check box to the left of the section that you want to remove and click the [<< Remove] button. The selected section(s) will move from the Your Selected Courses group box back to the Your Available Sections group box.
Step 8. Once you have selected all sections that you want to add to the course, click the [Submit] button.
You will receive a message confirming that your new course shell has been requested.
Step 9. Go back to the first step in this procedure to set up a course shell for each course that you are planning to teach on D2L for the next semester.
Usually the new course shells are not available until four to six weeks before the start of the semester. If you have made your request within this timeframe, expect it to take at least a week before the course shell will be ready for use.
Congratulations! You have taken the first steps in developing your Desire2Learn course. You still have a few additional things to complete before the semester begins. Refer to the list below to review your next steps.
As you wait for your D2L Course Shells to be set up, you can work on adding content to your Development Course. Remember that your Development Course serves as the course template for each subsequent semester that the course is offered. It contain such things as your course syllabus, documents, links, discussion questions, quiz questions, and so on. The Development Course contains everything except the class list and student grades. Note: The class list is loaded automatically before the semester begins.
A few weeks before the new semester begins, check your Desire2Learn "My Home" page to see if the new semester Course Shell appears. If you do not see it listed, contact the IT Helpdesk for assistance.
Once your course shell is ready, you can copy the content from the Development Course to the new Course Shell.