Recycling Old News

There are news items and then there are news items. Some News items capture perfectly what you’re trying to say about a concept or an assignment, and you know you will want to use that item again in the future. So, what to do when you’re asked by your instructional designer “Do you want me to copy your News items forward?”

The sticky part of having all those old News items is getting the ones you want to use timed to appear exactly when they’re needed and making sure the others don’t show at all. Timing is everything. Here are a couple of strategies for dealing with News items from a previous semester.

Our Recommendation: Copy/paste

When asked about your old News items, say “no, don’t copy my News forward.” Then, when you need to reprise an old News item, simply go to your previous course and copy it. Come back to the current course and paste it. This is our recommendation for a few reasons:

• Chances are what seemed like a perfect announcement could use a little updating or tweaking.
• This strategy reduces clutter in the News tool.
• You won’t have to delete unused news items or change their dates.
• You can more easily see the old News items in the context of the old course and can better evaluate its place in your current course.

Manage Dates Tool

If you do have your News items copied forward, you’ll need to set the dates so that only the items you want appear when you want them to. D2L’s Manage Dates tool can help. Here’s what to do:

1. Using the Manage Dates tool, set an end date for all News items to a date prior to the beginning of your current course.
   This assures that none of the old News items will display in the current course. It also maintains the order in which they appeared in the old course. It is important to use the Filter in the Manage Dates tool. Detailed instructions are available.
2. Delete News items you know you won’t use again.
3. For the News items you want to use:
   • set the appropriate Start Date and
   • remove the End Date

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Jeri Weiser

As a part-time instructional designer on the iDocs team, I partner with faculty in our online programs to design course content for successful delivery. I spend the other part of my time on the UW-Eau Claire campus providing assistance to College of Business faculty in their research. In addition, I provide D2L support for instructors and students both online and on campus. I’ve been a member of the iDocs team for seven years, have worked at UW-Eau Claire for 15 years, and received my B.A. from UWEC as well.

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