The layout of your course homepage is alterable through the Course Administration -> Settings -> "Course Format".

The default Course Sections layout should be the following: 

• Format -> Collapsed Topics Do Not Change
• Number of Sections -> Automatically produced by the course start and end dates or 15 - see "Add Sections" for information on adding and removing sections.
• Hidden Sections -> Hidden sections are shown as not available
• Elements -> 'Topic x' / 'Week x' / 'Day x'
• Structure -> Week
• View Single Section links

Along with the Any settings from "column orientation" and down are not recommended to be changed as they will significantly alter the appearance of your course. Changes to the layout and colours can therefore be disruptive or confusing for students as they move between courses.

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Hidden Sections 

This dropdown sets the visibility of your non-active sections. When you 'hide' a section from students, you can choose to have it either display in a grey, ghosted format or have it hidden entirely and removed from the page.

• Benefits to 'not available' setting: 
  • When you have your course weeks laid out in advance you can allow students to see ahead in the class even if they can't access the actual resources, activities and assessments in future weeks.
  • Using the Section Description can help orient students to the direction of the course and any major deadline weeks. 
• Caution regarding Section Description:
• The Section Description will be visible to students - although it will appear faded. 
• Any links in the Section Description will be active
• Collapse function: You can opt to show or hide the section description when the toggle is closed. This can help produce a cleaner view of course sections if you have a lot of content in the description. This setting is found at the bottom of the Course Layout Settings list and you will find "Show the section summary when collapsed".
  • This will still be visible to students if you select "Hidden sections are shown as not available". They will just have to select the drop-down to see the content.
    

    

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Elements 

This drop down sets the course-wide default autofill setting for the Section Title. This default should probably not be changed, you can update your own Section Title using the Section Settings.

• If Structure is set to Week, the default will automatically produce a heading that reads [ Month DD - Month DD ] giving the start and end dates of the given week.
• If Structure is set to Topics, the default will read [ Section # ] with the # aligning with the number of sections displayed.

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Structure

This dropdown is where you can make the most significant change to your coursewide section settings. This specifies whether your course is built around a weekly format or topics-based format. It also allows you to sort your sections differently, for example - putting the current week at the top of the list.

• Week - sorts your course based on the first and last day of each week in your course, section headings default to the date structure.
  • To add non-weekly content sections at the top of the course page - such as an assignments list or a course policies drop-down - you will need to move your start date back to allow for extra dropdowns at the beginning of class that occur before the first day of classes.
  • Adding non-weekly content sections at the end of the course will not disrupt the course section behaviour.
• Topic - sorts your course based on descriptive topics, section headings default to a numbered section structure
  • The light green "Current week" highlight does not work in the Topic format - to apply this setting you will need to select the Section's edit dropdown and then "Highlight". You can only highlight one section at any time.
    

    

• Current Week/Topic first - allows your course to re-sort itself displaying the current week or topic at the top of the page.