[ARCHIVED] Home page and Front page and the next button

[katherine_newto]

Hi everyone

I don't know why the "Next" button is not showing up on the Home page of my new course.  When I click on the same page from the Modules list the "Next" button is there and this page is listed as the Front page of the course.  I know I'm missing something simple but can't think how to get the Next button onto the Home page.  Should I add my own button with a link to the next page in the course?

Thanks so much, Katherine

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @katherine_newto ...

I think that's by design, to be honest.  This is a bit of speculation on my part, but here's what I've found just by doing a little testing in my own course.  I have a page set as my "Front Page" called "First Page".  So, when navigate to the course, I see the content on my "First Page".  If you click on your own "Home" button, take note of what the URL in your browser's address bar looks like.  It will probably be rather short...similar to:

https://SchoolName.instructure.com/courses/12345

Now, assuming that you have your "Front Page" somewhere on your "Modules" index page...  go to your "Modules" page, and then click on the page you've designated as your "Front Page".  As you've noted, you would see "Previous" and "Next" buttons at the bottom of this page...depending on where you've placed the page in your module.  But, take a look at the URL in your browser's address bar.  It's probably longer than what you saw when you clicked on your "Home" page, right?  It might have something like this appended to the end of the URL:

?module_item_id=123456789

So, even though it's the same content, there's things going on behind the scenes in Canvas to tell that page that "Previous" and "Next" buttons should be placed at the bottom because you can move back and forth from content page to content page via the modules of your course.

If you wanted to add a button on your "Front Page" to point to the next page in your modules, you could certainly do that.  Just be aware that if you do that, if your students visit that same page via your "Modules" screen, there will not only be the button you created, but there will also be the built-in "Next" button provided by the Canvas interface.

I hope this will help a bit.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this...thanks!  Take care...be well.