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Course Materials+

Including Course Materials+ in ICON

Best practices for instructors

Make your list more helpful to students by making it:

  • Easy to access: access is provided via the Course Materials+ tool in ICON
  • Clearly laid out: section headings indicate when and what students are expected to read, for example: lists may be organized by theme, week, lecture or seminar topics.
  • Prioritized and annotated: items are prioritized using, ‘Essential’, ‘Recommended’ and ‘Optional’ tags so that students can understand clearly what they are expected to engage with and can manage their time accordingly. Physical items on reserve have loan period tags. Notes are added to highlight relevant chapter, pages, or excerpts and to provide other useful information. Due dates are added when needed.
  • Up to date: lists are regularly reviewed taking into account feedback from students, usage data (click on "View list analysis" button  to access the data) and availability of resources. Students are confident their lists are current.  
  • Realistic: consideration has been given to how many resources students can reasonably be expected to read, watch, or engage with during the courses' session and how essential materials will be accessed. Separate bibliographies may be created using Course Materials+ to encourage students to explore a subject or carry out their own research. Use the student view to make sure students can see and access all of the materials on the list.

Use the "View list as a student" feature to make sure students can see and access everything they need

More Tips

  • Add articles using either the "Search the Library" feature or directly from InfoHawk+ instead of uploading a PDF file. This will increase the accessibility of electronic texts for your students.
  • Work with your librarian to create a course specific Guide that can be integrated into ICON to help students find additional resources on their own. The guides can be used as a tool for teaching research skills, like evaluating sources and citing references, too.
  • Open Course Materials+ in a new tab to use it how it is best viewed. To open it in a new tab, just click on the "Open in new tab" icon on the right side of the top yellow bar:

Troubleshooting Tips

List isn't visible
If students can't see the list, make sure it is 1) published, and 2) has the correct start date set. Test to see if the list is visible by using the “View list as student” feature.

Link to resource isn't working
If an electronic resource can’t be accessed, clear the browser’s cache (and/or try another browser). If it still doesn’t work, mark the link as broken. That will alert library staff who will work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime, locate the resource in InfoHawk+ to see if it is available from an alternative database or as a physical version.

Students report a book isn't on the Course Reserves shelf
Did you add a loan period tag to the book in your list? If not, do that ASAP.
Perhaps the loan period time is too long so not all students are getting a turn with the material. Could some parts of the book be digitized? Could the loan period be altered? Have you warned students that the material on reserve will be harder to come by the closer it gets to test time? They might want to check it out early and make a scanned copy of important pieces.

Library Search isn't finding resource
If the Library Search option isn't finding an item that you know the library owns, add it with an alternate method:

  • Directly from InfoHawk+

  • Directly from an online database that has the resource with the “Cite It!” bookmarklet

Cite It! bookmarklet generates a link without the proxy URL
When using "Cite It!", double-check that the link to the resource includes the proxy server address in the URL. If you don't see the proxy in the URL, add it using the proxy link generator. Contact your subject librarian for assistance.

Course Materials+ FAQ