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What are Content Pages?

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  • In Ecto you use content pages to create and assign/share content of any kind.

    • The Ecto content page format is flexible and can contain anything from audio or video clips with accompanying questions to RSS feeds to traditional essay and multi-choice questions.
    • Pages can also be used to deliver static content such as a reading or video for discussion.
    • Also, teachers can create a syllabus as a page containing links to the other pages that they will be assigning in the course.
  • Note that any Ecto user (whether teacher, student, parent, or lifelong learner) can create content pages. This creates some unique pedagogical opportunities. For instance, your students could create their own content pages as an assignment, submit them to one another and offer feedback.

  • Let’s take a look at an example. Before we see an actual learning page let’s take a look at how it appears on the GROUP page for a course. Here we have the GROUP page for a Biology course taught by Dr_B.

    • The instructor, Dr_B, has created a page called Intro to Photosynthesis, which consists of a YouTube movie and some quiz questions.
    • The page resides in the Ecto Library and Dr_B has added the page to the Content section of his Biology course group page as an internal link. 
    • When Dr_B assigns the page to his class, it will appear in the Assigments section, which is also located on the right side of the group page as you can see in the screenshot. 
  • Let's take a look at the page Dr_B created for his students on the subject of photosynthesis. He made this page using Ecto.


  • Notice that content pages are comprised of one or more sections. In this case, Dr_B created each section separately as he built his photosynthesis page. The sections of Dr_B’s page are as follow (from top to bottom):

    Heading and introductory content – Dr_B created the large green header “Introduction to Photosynthesis” and the Definition/Introduction content in Ecto using the text editor. Dr_B decided to offer his students a brief definition of photosynthesis followed by some content that sets up the assignment.

    Section break – The bold line separating the introduction text from the section with the video was created in Ecto and inserted by Dr_B. Adding some formatting like this will help to clarify the information on the page.

    Video clip – As the author of an Ecto learning page you can insert any number of multimedia items from the web—videos from YouTube (or links to videos from United Streaming, which would appear in a pop-up window), audio clips, or images. The video clip on this page explains photosynthesis and was found on YouTube by Dr_B, himself. When he searched YouTube he found a number of video clips on the topic, many of which were made as class projects by students themselves.

    Multichoice question – Dr_B created a multichoice question to accompany the video. He may have written the question in Microsoft Word and cut and pasted it into Ecto or he may have typed it into Ecto from the ground up—either method works. For grading purposes, he assigned a value of 20 points to the question.

    Essay/short-answer question – The next question is also accompanies the video and asks the student to free form type a short answer.

    Links to additional resources (also, section break and header) – As the author of a learning page you can add links to other websites. There are many possible uses for adding links. In this case, Dr_B wanted to add links to some supplementary reading for the students. He created a section break and added some text in a large, bold font that says “Additional Resources.”

    Submit for Grading – Once Dr_B turns this page into an active assignment it will be received by the students in the course. After they complete the page, the learners click the Submit for Grading button to submit the results to the page owner (the teacher, Dr_B). Remember any Ecto user can create a content page, so for instance, students could create their own pages as an assignment, submit them to one another and offer feedback. Note the submit for grading area is not technically a page "section"—this area appears automatically if the page creator decides to make the page gradable.

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