ANGEL Tip #6: Adding Icons

As you look at how you have organized your course materials in ANGEL, you might want to think about further customizing it.

A great "HELP" icon?

Icons are a great way of adding a bit of particular detail to your course.  You can use specific icons to point your students to specific content.  For example, you might want to use an arrow for the “start here” section.  I like a "group" icon to designate the Discussion Board Folder or one that shows a box for the Drop Box folder.  A student would clearly know what type of content is located in these folders.  Once in the folder, you can use an icon to designate a particular week . 

It is important to be consistent with your icons. Too many different ones would make it confusing for your students.  

ANGEL has a few icons you can use but, to add a specialized icon for a folder, you will need to download icon images to your desktop and then upload them into ANGEL. The icon must be saved as a GIF or JPEG file.  If, after you upload them, you notice the image is not clear it means the image is too small.  You might have to either resize it or find another image.

A great "Video" icon.

You can use icons of your own or there are plenty of free sites on the web for you to choose from.   I found some fun icons at iconbazar and findicons.  Note: Make sure you only use images that are free and not copyright protected.  A good site for free and open icons is Open Icon Library.

To add customization icons for a content item:

• Always select the Advanced option under that item’s Settings link.
• Under the Content tab scroll to the “Link Settings” area. There are two ways to add your icon image:      

           (1) Use one already in ANGEL by clicking on “Browse” in the Link Settings area. Click the Icons tab, select one of the folders, and then click on an icon.  Lastly, click Save. 

           (2) Or to add a special icon, click on “Browse” in the Link Settings area and then the Browse button.  Find the location where you saved the icon on your computer (remember to save it as a jpeg), click Open, and then Upload File.  Click the icon link in the path box and then Save.

If you have special icons that you might use frequently, you might want to upload the icon image to your personal content links in ANGEL.  You can do this by going to the content settings URL link settings area again and click browse. You will see a tab called Personal where you can upload icons you might use consistently.

Hope you enjoy the tip and please let us know of any interesting things you do in ANGEL so we can pass it along!