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Creating a Courses Home Page

IT Connect > Web > Publishing > Getting Started > Creating a Courses Home Page

The UW Courses Web Server ( courses.washington.edu) hosts Web pages for UW courses and courses sections. If you want to create a course Web page, follow these guidelines and instructions.

Instructions

Follow these four steps to create a home page for your Web site.

  1. Get a Shared UW NetID
  2. Activate Web Publishing
  3. Compose a Home Page
  4. Move Your Home Page to Your Web Directory
  5. Open Your Home Page
  1. StepsActions
  2. Get a Shared UW NetID Account

    Using the UW Courses Web Server requires a Shared UW NetID account. Any UW faculty or staff member can request a Shared UW NetID. If you already have a Shared UW NetID (supplemental) account, proceeed to "Activate Web Publishing" below.

    1. Go to the Request other services area of the Manage your UW NetID Resource page.
    2. Click the "Shared UW NetID" link.
    3. Fill out the Shared UW NetID Account Request Form and select Course as type of Shared UW NetID account.
    4. Submit the form.

    You will receive an email from help@u.washington.edu within a few days confirming your Shared UW NetID Account request.

    Note: although the official owner assigned to a Shared UW NetID account must be UW faculty or staff, students can be added as account administrators and therefore help develop the Web pages.

  3. Activate Web Publishing

    Web publishing is a service tied to your UW NetID and Homer account.

    To activate Web publishing:

    Activate necessary services.

    There are two services that you must activate.

    You can manage which services you have active on the Add or change services area of the Manage your UW NetID Resources page.

    1. The Web Publishing service:

      On the "manage services" page, you should see "Web Publishing" under the list of services that are turned on. If the service " Web Publishing" is not turned on, then you must activate it:

      1. Find it in the list of services that are inactive
      2. Check the checkbox beside it
      3. Click the Subscribe button and follow the remaining instructions
    2. The Homer Account service:

      Your Homer account will let you manage the files on your Web site.

      On the "manage services" page, you should see "Homer Account" in the list of services turned on. If the service "Homer Account" is not turned on, then you must activate it:

      1. Find it in the list of services that are inactive
      2. Check the checkbox beside it
      3. Click the Subscribe button and follow the remaining instructions

    Activating Web Publishing and the Homer services creates your Web directory called public_html on your Homer account. Files placed into public_html will be immediately viewable on your Web site.

  4. Compose a Home Page

    You have some options for composing a home page:

    Note: if you compose your home page by hand or with an HTML authoring tool, save the file as index.html (or index.htm). This is the filename associated with your home page.

  5. Move Your Home Page to Your Web Directory

    If you need to manually upload your home page to your Web directory, use a secure file transfer program, such as Win SCP for Microsoft Windows or Fugu for Apple Macintosh. These programs are available for free on the Tools for Safe and Secure Computing page.

    You will find your Web directory (public_html) by connecting your file transfer program to homer.u.washington.edu.

    You can read more about moving files to your Web directory.

  6. Open Your Home Page

    Once your home page is in your Web directory, you and others can view it by opening your home page address in a Web browser. The URL depends on your UW NetID:

    http://courses.washington.edu/your_uwnetid/

    Substitute your UW NetID for your_uwnetid.

    Refer to the UW Web Server URL page for a complete reference of these URLs.

Reviewed 8/20/12 | News Feed | News Archive | About IT Connect
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