Accessing Courseload Offline
Table of Contents
If you're using the Google Chrome browser and have installed the Courseload offline application, you're ready to use Courseload offline. If you haven't installed the Courseload offline application, refer to the Courseload offline setup instructions.
Below you'll find instructions for checking out a book to read with Courseload offline. Please do not use a public or shared computer when following these instructions.
If you prefer, you can view a screencast of how to check in a book.
Note: You must be connected to the Internet when checking out a book.
- Access Courseload as usual through the browser.
- Open a course and decide which book to download for offline access.
- Click the drop-down next to the book title and choose Checkout.
- As the book is downloading to your computer, you'll see a progress bar. You can cancel the checkout process at any time by clicking on the X in the progress bar. The download process may take a few minutes depending on the size of the book.
- When the download is complete, the progress bar will read "Checked Out | Expires: 14 days". Your book is now checked out and can be read offline for up to 14 days. You can check it back in by clicking Check In while connected to the Internet. After a book has been checked out for 14 days, your offline copy will expire. You must re-connect to the Internet and check in the book to continue reading.
Note: Repeat steps 2 & 3 for each book you want to check out.
- Open Google Chrome and click on the Courseload app under the Apps section of the New Tab page. If you don't see the New Tab page by default, click File » New Tab.
- Navigate to the desired course and click on the book title that you previously checked out for offline reading.
Note: After a book has been checked out, some online features like highlights and annotations are not available. See below for details.
After you've checked out your book, you may no longer search, view notes made by other students, change settings related to sharing your notes, or print, even while online. You must check in your book to resume using these features. More information is below.
While using Courseload offline:
- A blue bar will appear at the top of your browser to indicate that you're in Offline Mode. You can close this bar by clicking on the X on the right side of the bar. This bar will reappear each time you access Courseload offline in a new browser window.
Features that are not currently available with Courseload offline:
- Search
- Viewing Other Student's Annotations
- Changing Settings for Notes Sharing
- Asking a Question for your Instructor
- Printing
If you prefer, you can view a screencast on checking in a book.
Note: You must be connected to the Internet when checking in a book.
- Access Courseload as usual through the browser.
- Open the course that contains the book you want to check in.
- Locate a book that was previously checked out and click Check In. You can now resume using all of the features of Courseload online.
Note: Repeat steps 2 & 3 for each book you want to check in.
To navigate to the first page of a chapter, use the table of contents. You can open the table of contents by clicking the Chapters tab in the left panel of the Courseload screen.
To move through your course materials use the left/right page icons at the bottom of the screen.
If you prefer the keyboard, you can also use the arrow keys to move through your course materials:
- Left/Right Arrow Keys: Change page
- Up/Down Arrow Keys: Move within a page
You can also use the "scrubber" (the small rectangle near the bottom of the screen with the page number inside) to quickly move between pages and even see previews and the amount of "markups" on a page. Simply click the "scrubber" and drag it to the area of the material you'd like to look at. A pop-over screen will appear allowing you to see page information.
To navigate to a specific page, use the "scrubber" along the bottom of the page.
- Simply begin to drag the "scrubber" and pages will pop-up over the textbook.
- You can scroll until you see the page you wish to view (the numbers are displayed above each page).
- Or, you may enter a number in the "Go to page" box on the right side of the screen.
Courseload offers multiple Zoom levels in order to allow the user to adjust to different reading sizes. The zoom controls near the top middle of the Courseload viewer.
- To zoom in, click the plus icon
- To zoom out, click the minus icon.
Courseload offers the ability to view two pages at one time or just a single page. Two-page view can be useful in science, health, or other books with figures that may need to be compared. These icons are located near the top middle of the Courseload viewer.
- To view two pages, click the two-page icon.
- In order to view a single page again, simply click the one-page icon.
Courseload offers the ability to expand the viewing area for the digital materials to the whole browser window in order to maximize reading space.
- To utilize full screen view, click the Full Screen icon located near the middle of top bar in the Courseload viewer.
- To exit full screen view, click the Full Screen exit icon, located in the top right corner of the browser window.
Both the left and right side panels can slide off the screen to increase the viewing area of the digital materials.
- To slide the left panel, click the white arrow in the margin.
- To slide the right panel, click the brown arrow between the material and the notes panel.
If a user has utilized Courseload in previous terms, it is possible to switch between current and past terms.
- To change terms, click the up/down arrows to the right of the current term's name.
- To bookmark important pages, click on the gray ribbon with the plus icon at the top left of any page.
- Delete a bookmark by clicking on the blue ribbon with the minus icon at the top left of a bookmarked page.
- Access your saved bookmarks on the left panel of the screen. Click on a bookmark to access that page.
- To create a highlight, simply click and drag over the text you wish to highlight. When the pop-up dialog appears, select a highlight color.
- To create an annotation, click and drag over the text you wish to annotate. When the pop-up dialog appears, click Add Note.
- Save your note by clicking the "Save" link in the dialog.
Courseload also offers sticky notes that you can place anywhere on the page, including over figures or diagrams.
- To create a sticky note, click anywhere on the page where there is not text.
- The dialog will be the same as if you were creating a note. Once you click "Save" - you will see the sticky note icon. Now you can drag and drop the sticky note icon anywhere on the page.
- Tags can be added directly within the Add Note/Add Sticky Note dialog right under the "note" text box. Be sure the separate tags with commas.
- To delete an annotation, simply click on the highlighted text or sticky note and click the "Delete" link that appears.
- To view a summary of your personal and shared peer annotations, leverage the "Summary View" from the main textbook page. Simply click the "Notes" tab in the left panel to view this page. You can click the filters along the top to select whether to view your notes, the instructor's notes, or only questions or only notes with a specific tag