Linking to the module directory
The
module directory is a very useful resource, and it makes sense to incorporate it into
departmental websites wherever possible. It's important to stress to those viewing the
information that, although some courses can be taken on an individual basis, the majority
exist as integral elements of degree schemes and may therefore not be available
independently.
A good example of how the directory can be integrated into a departmental
website is
the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering's course
profile pages,
which combine information on the department's site with links to information in the
module directory.
An alternative approach is to include the module directory's content
directly within a department's web pages. An example of this in practice is the
Department of Economics' course profile pages (such as EC111). For full details of how to achieve this, see
Including content from other pages. (Note: those using this method
are unaffected by the changed URLs referred to below.)
How to link to the module directory
NOTE: the structure of links described here changed in March 2008,
so old links need to be amended. (Redirects are currently in place to keep
old-format links working, to ease the transition to the new system.)
To link to the information for an individual module, simply find the
module by searching the module directory and copy the URL for the module's page.
For
example, the listing for the Department of Biological Sciences' BS002-3-AU: Cell
and Molecular Biology can be found at:
http://www.essex.ac.uk/courses/Default.aspx?coursecode=BS002&level=3&period=AU
(this should be all on a single line, no line-breaks)
That always shows the module for the current course catalogue year, which
rolls over in April to show the module information for the coming academic
year, and a link like this never needs to be updated unless the module is
dropped.
It is possible to show the module for a chosen academic year, by specifying
the year in the querystring, like this:
http://www.essex.ac.uk/courses/Default.aspx?coursecode=BS002&level=3&period=AU&yearofcourse=08
The disadvantage of that method is that you have to update the link every
year.