How does an instructor view a course site as a student?
Instructors and Secondary Instructors in a course site can use the View Site As menu to get an approximate student view of tools and content in their site.
For a more accurate student view of your site, add a guest account to your site as a student and log in using that account.
Video Guide
Step-by-Step Instructions
View your site normally (before entering Student View).
- When an instructor views a site normally, the Tool Menu includes hidden tools. These tools are identified with italicized, grayed-out text and an eyeball with a slash icon (Hidden from site members).
- Instructors can also access the hidden tools, such as Resources in the example above, and interact with them.
Select View Site As.
When in your course site, select the View Site As menu in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, then select Student. The menu is in the blue bar to the left of My Sites.
Explore your site.
Access tools in your site to get an approximation of how students view the site. The examples below demonstrate how a site might appear for an instructor in Student View.
Example of a site's Overview in Student View
If you were viewing any tool other than the site's Overview, switching to Student View will automatically place you on the Overview page.
Hidden tools in the Tool Menu will not be available because students would not be able to see them.
Example of a lesson page in Student View
Because students do not have access to hidden tools, they will only be able to access site content via tools that are available to them. In the example pictured above, a lesson page includes content such as an image from Resources and a link to a discussion topic in Forums.
Important: Some content will look and respond differently when an actual student is accessing the site.
For example, if an instructor has linked content into the current site from a past semester's course site that he or she owns, the students in the current site will not be able to see the linked content because they are not members of the past semester's site. Additionally, submissions to assignments or assessments made by an instructor while viewing a site as a student cannot be accessed in the instructor's grading screens for these items.
For an accurate student view of your site, add a guest account to your site as a student and log in using that account.
Exit Student View.
When you are done viewing your site as a student, be sure to select the Exit Student View link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. The link is in the blue bar to the left of My Sites.
Note: If you have any tools hidden to students, you will need to exit the Student View to see them in the Tool Menu of your site.