man sitting cross-legged on floor with notebook computer on lap

Desire2Learn Navigation

Navigating Inside a Course

The primary navigation tool for a course is the course navigational bar, or navbar, which is always located at the top of the screen and displays links to the tools available in your course. Within each tool there are tool menus to navigate to different sections and pages, and tabs to switch between sections within a page.

Calendar tool highlighting the multiple menus and tabs that can be used to navigate within a course and initiate tasks

Making Things Happen: Action Icons

D2L makes extensive use of icons to initiate tasks and actions. To find out what an icon does, hover your mouse over it; an explanation appears above the icon.

Classlist tool highlighting the Action Bar and other action icon locations.

Making Things Happen: Lists

D2L often presents information in the form of interactive lists that you can search and sort. When a list is long, items are split across multiple pages so that the list loads quickly; you can jump to any page and change how many items appear on each page.

Note: If you select items in a list and then move to another page within the list, the items are no longer selected even though they are part of the same list.

Discussions with navigation tools like Search, Next, Sort, etc. highlighted.

Getting Help

Help, help icons () and on-screen instructions appear throughout D2L, providing you with ready information about the specific page and tool that you are using. It’s like a helpful nudge whenever you’re a little stuck. There is a Help link always available on the navbar.

Discussion Settings highlighting where to find Instructions and Help information.

Blackboard Vista / Desire2Learn Comparison Chart

This chart compares tools and terminology used in Blackboard Vista with those used in Desire2Learn.

Blackboard Vista	D2L
Announcements	News
Assessments	Quizzes
Assignments Assignments submissions allowed after due date	Dropbox Assignments set up as "Folders" Dropbox submissions not allowed after due date
Discussions Topics are created independently and moved to Categories Discussions grading forms are created where discussion topic is created and visible to student in Grade Book Discussion: Grade Topic	Discussions "Forums" required where " Topics" are created Discussions rubrics are created and visible only in Grades Discussions: Assess
Grade Book (Columns)	Grades (Grade Items)
Group Manager	Groups
Learning Modules	Content
Mail	Email
My Blackboard	My Home
Selective Release	Special Access Allows special terms for special users—DSR, approved late submissions, etc.
Turnitin.com Must be accessed separately outside of Blackboard	Turnitin.com Integrated for submission and viewing from within D2L