What is Activity Feed? 
Activity Feed is a new widget that provides instructors with a quick an easy way to engage with students. You’ll notice that it borrows features from familiar social media platforms. It also provides instructors with an easy way to share class announcements, files, links to existing activities like quizzes. What makes this tool powerful is that unlike News, which is one-way communication, Activity Feed allows for two way communication. Instructors have the ability to turn on/off commenting for any posting. For example, if you post a link to a news article relevant to your course, you can turn on commenting and allow your students to discuss the article directly from the homepage. Important posts, like links to Submissions, Quizzes or announcements about classroom changes can be pinned to the top of the page so they don’t get lost.
Why did it replace News?
Both DePaul and D2L are making changes to make the system more user friendly, especially for those faculty who are occasional users. This change is designed to make it easier to communicate with your students.
Where did News go?
The News widget still exists, but all courses that used the Default Course Homepage have been updated. This update replaced the News widget with the new Activity Feed widget.
Can I go back to News?
Yes. To go back to the old default, use the directions below:
- Log into D2L and navigate to your course
- Click Edit Course in the Navigation Bar
- Click Homepages from the Course Administration page
- From the “Active Homepage” dropdown menu, select the homepage you want to use.
- If you were using a custom homepage before, select the name of the custom homepage. Otherwise, you can select “Course Homepage w/NEWS” to return to the old Default Homepage
- Click Apply to save your changes.
If you have further questions, feel free to contact our office at fits@depaul.edu.