If you use an online evaluation for your class, you can easily add a custom link to the evaluation system in your course’s navbar.
1. Visit “Edit Course”
Start by visiting the “Edit Course” tool in your navbar.
2. Choose “Navigation & Themes”
Under “Course Administration”, choose “Navigation & Themes”. This will let you create a custom navbar for your course along with custom links.
You should see a list of all available navbars. Unless you’ve created a custom navbar previousley, you may only see one navbar. Before you can customize your navbar, you’ll need to create a new one to edit.
3. Duplicate the Default navbar
The best way to create a new custom navbar is to duplicate the Course Default. Click on the down-arrow to the right of the default navbar and choose Copy.
You’ll now have a duplicate of the default navbar that you can customize. Until you make the copy active, your course will continue to use the default navbar.
4. Create the Custom Link
Now that you have a navbar to place your link into, it is time to create the custom link. Click on Custom Links at the top, then choose Create Link.
Each custom link needs a name and a URL. The name is the text that will be displayed in the navbar. The URL is where the link will take the user. You can also add a custom icon, a description that will help you find your custom link and, you can set the behavior for how the link will open (the same window or a new window).
5. Finding a Custom Icon
When inserting a custom icon, we recommend IconFinder.com as a good resource. For our custom evalution link, we searched for icons related to surveys.
Click on the icon you like best to see the available sizes and download options.
Springboard uses icons that are 16 pixels square. Download the 16 x 16 sized icon in PNG format.
6. Custom Link Information
With your icon downloaded, you can upload it to the Create Custom Link page and complete the rest of the information. We elected to open our link into a new window. When you’re finished with your changes, be sure to Save the link.
After saving, you’ll see your new custom link.
Repeat steps 4 through 6 for any other custom links you use in your course. You could, for example, link to a Twitter feed, YouTube channel, WordPress blog or, any other source that you want your students have have easy access to.
7. Edit Your Custom Navbar
Now that your link has been created, return to the Navbars screen and Edit the copy of the Course Default.
8. Edit the Navbar
Give your navbar a new name and add a brief description to help you find your navbar.
Next, you can customize the links used in your navbar. For our navbar, we’ll add our custom link to the empty field at the lower-right. Click on Add Links to add a link(s) to any of the fields.
9. Add Your Custom Link
From the Add Links pop-up window, choose your link under the Custom Links tab. Click on Add when finished.
10. Customize Remaining Links
While you are editing your navbar, you may choose to remove tools that you don’t use, or add tools that you frequently use. To remove a link, mouse-over the link you want to remove and click on the “x” icon.
For our course, we’ll remove the Chat tool along with Quizzes, Surveys and Discussions since we aren’t using them in this course. We’ll also add direct link to the Manage Files tools.
When finished, click on Save and Close to save your changes.
11. Set Your Active Navbar
With your navbar customized, you will need to activate it for it to be visible to your students. Select your custom navbar from the Active Navbar drop-down and choose Apply.
Your custom navbar will now be listed as the Active navbar for the course.
Finished
Once active, you and your students will be able to use the new navbar.
