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Creating Welcome and Course Pages

Only site administrators and users with edit access can add a descendant Welcome page, Course page, or Atom feed Course page and thus a new section or course, to your iTunes U site. You can add Course pages for specific classes your instructors will be teaching, as well as general Course pages for such things as events on campus.

By default, iTunes U uses a Welcome page, Course page, or Atom feed Course page design and layout based on your site’s default root page template design and layout. However, you can edit the page and customize your iTunes U site, or you can create your own design by creating your own templates. For more information, see “Creating Templates.”

To add a descendant Welcome page or Course page:

1. Log in to iTunes U as an administrator or another user with editing access.

2. Click Edit Page in the Tools area.

3. Choose a page template from the Create Page pop-up menu in the section where you want to add a new page. Depending on how you want to organize your site’s structure and group your site’s content, choose:

   • A Welcome page template to add another Welcome page level before you add Course pages

   • A Course page template to add another Course page to your site’s root Welcome page

   iTunes U adds your new page and displays page information fields.

   For feed Course pages, iTunes U displays the Edit Atom Feed Settings page so you can first enter the Atom feed URL and details, and then displays the feed Course page. You can return to the section later to edit the short name and identifier.

4. Edit your new page information, and then click the Save icon to save the information:

   • Type a full name for the page in the Title field. This should be the real, formal name for your event or course. For example: Cupertino University Happenings for a Welcome page or EECS 302 Data Structures and Algorithms – Fall 2006 for a Course page.

   • Type a common name for the page in the Short Name field. This should be the short, general usage name for your event or course. Depending on your iTunes version, iTunes U displays this name in your site’s navigation bar, page path, institution playlists, track information fields, and so on. For example, type Happenings for a Welcome page or EECS 302 for a Course page. For the Short Name to be most useful in Course pages and display well on iPod, use your course number.

   • Type a unique identifier for the page in the Identifier field. The identifier should be a unique string that can be passed to iTunes U when a user passes through your authentication system. For example: fall06:eecs302:02 for a Course page. Specify a unique page identifier for descendant Welcome pages only if you need to restrict access to users with less than the Authenticated permission.

   When you finish, the Course page information might look like the following:

   

   If you do not enter a unique identifier for the page, credentials defined with ${IDENTIFIER} cannot access the page. For more information, see “Using Identifier-Based Credentials.”

   iTunes U uses a default Welcome or Course image, based on the template you select. To change the image and the thumbnail version displayed in pages used to navigate to this page, edit the image within the descendant Welcome page or Course page. For more information, see “Editing Welcome Pages” and “Editing Course Pages.”

5. Click End Editing to save your changes.

6. Click Logout.