3. The Course Hub Structure

You will be using the Course Hub Template as a starting place to build your Course Hub. The Template utilizes an organizational structure and basic instructional content to help faculty meet the recommended Best Practices.

Course Hub Template Tour

Organized with students and faculty in mind, the CourseHub Template is structured with a top-level navigation menu and related sub-sections. It uses pages for static course information and categories menu items for dynamic course activities and student posts.

The template structure also provides a suggested method to organize your footer and sidebar widget areas and comes with several useful plugins pre-activated.

View the video below to better understand how the Course Hub Template is organized.

Understanding the Course Structure

While the Course Hub Template Tour provides a visual overview of the course structure, the following outline shows the information architecture and the intended purpose of each element, for reference. Additional content may be added to the sidebar or footer as needed.

1. Course Profile
   This link takes the user to the Course Hub Profile on OpenLab. Like a portal for the course hub, it displays the option to join the course hub, list of members, access to additional tools, a link to the Course Hub Site, and access to course settings for instructors.
2. Home
   Home displays posts from instructor(s), course leaders, and/or Department Chairs to all users. This dynamic content is published in reverse chronological order. You may choose to exclude Faculty Announcements from the homepage using the Category Excluder Plugin.
3. Course Outline
   This menu item links to a page with the official course outline/syllabus.
4. Lessons
   This menu item links to a page with a list of all shared lessons for the course.
5. Resources
   This section contains student course resources, including the following sub-sections:
   1. Textbook (or OER)
   2. Tutoring
   3. College Resouces
6. For Faculty
   This section contains resources for faculty, including the following sub-sections:
   1. Faculty Announcements (Category Archive)
   2. Course Coordination
   3. Model Course
   4. Faculty Resources

Making Adjustments to the Structure

If the Course Hub Template doesn’t fit your course structure or if your Course Hub requires additional sub-sections, take some time to draw out a sitemap and consult the OpenLab Team for guidance. Designing a thoughtful site structure takes some time and planning.

Consider using umbrella terms, such as Coursework, Activities, or similar. Then add additional sub-menu items as necessary, such as Assignments, Homework, Labs, etc. Remember to limit your top-level menu navigation and keep content organized in small, logical sections.

When you have defined your site structure adjustments, edit the top-level menu under Appearance > Menus in the Dashboard.

For more information about editing your main site menu, visit OpenLab Help > Changing the Menu on Your Site.