---
title: "Dashboard: Layout and Function"
canonical: "https://helpcentre.macewan.ca/space/ETS/1813743491/Dashboard%3A%20Layout%20and%20Function"
format: markdown
---
**AUDIENCE: ****FACULTY**** | ****STAFF**
The **Dashboard** is the control centre for your courses - where you can access all your courses, view notifications and messages, and interact with elements in the block drawn on the right-side navigation.
**Dashboard**: This is a link to the dashboard. It is visible on the dashboard and within individual course pages.
| | |
| --- | --- |
|  | **Search**: Mouse over the magnifying glass icon to expand the search bar, and search for items within mêskanâs. |
|  | **Notifications**: This is where notifications for calendar events, assignments, and other miscellaneous notifications can be accessed. |
|  | **Chat**: Add contacts and compose messages to other registered users. |
|  | **User Menu**: Access user menu settings, messages, grades for courses, and set preferences. |
|  | **Toggle**: The navigation drawer goes between hide/visible on the far-right arrow tab. |
**Recently accessed items block**: This is a more visible way to access recently accessed items. Items are displayed in button form. The Recently accessed items are found by opening the Toggle to open the navigation drawer.
**Course overview block**: Directs navigation to the enrolled course (as a student) or an instructor’s course. It can be found under **My courses** on the top menu.
**Faculty Centre self-service application**: This is where new courses are created. Please see the *Create a course in mêskanâs* document for further information.
**Blocks**: Any blocks installed or installed by default can be found and interacted with here. Blocks add functionality to the course site and can be added from the navigation drawer or Dashboard main page. (Please refer to the *Getting Started *tutorial for adding blocks.)
## Notifications
1. Access notifications by clicking on the notification icon on the right side of the header. Select the gear menu to customize notifications.
2. Disable all notifications by checking the box next to **Disable notifications**, or manage notifications individually from the right-hand side of the notifications menu. **Web **notifications** **refer to browser notifications**. Email **notifications are also available.** **To modify notifications, move the tab on or off.
## User menu
The user menu allows access to your user profile, grades, preference and language settings.
1. Under **Profile**, an overview of activity on mêskanâs is provided. Select **Edit profile** to edit your personal profile.
2. A personal description can be added in the** Description **box**, **providing** **anyone with access to the course with a brief description about you. A profile picture can also be added.
3. Various settings can be edited at the bottom of the profile editor page. When finished with your changes, click the **UPDATE PROFILE** button.
## Grades menu
1. To access the grades menu, select the user menu in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard and choose **Grades** from the drop-down menu.
2. The grades screen will show courses as an instructor and any courses registered as a student. Students can see grades for any assignment by accessing this window.
3. To access grades for courses, select a course from the list under **Courses I am teaching**. This will bring up an overview of the students in that course and their grades to date.
> ℹ️ For detailed information on setting up and using the gradebook and all of its features, please refer to the tutorial for *Gradebook Setup and Use.*
## Messaging menu
**Note:** It is recommended to use conventional email (such as your MacEwan email account) for communication with students. If you choose to use the built-in course messaging, follow the steps below.
1. To access the messaging menu, click the chat bubble at the top of the page.
2. To be able to message someone through messages in mêskanâs, add the person as a contact. Type the name of the person’s name in the search bar of the messages homepage, and then select the contact.
3. Select **Add to contacts **from the three-dots menu on the right-hand side of the page.
On the contact’s end, this is how it will appear to them. The username will show as the contact that wants to message you, and the option to accept or decline is given.
4. The image below indicates how to interact with messaging. It will show an ongoing message thread and the message box to reply at the bottom.
## Preferences menu
To access the preferences menu, locate the user menu in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard and select **Preferences** from the drop-down menu.
Here you can access various areas of your user account. Users can edit their profile, change their password, set language and notification preferences, and manage other settings. **Badges** can be managed in the menu along with **Badge preferences** and **Backpack settings**. If the blog block is installed, **Blog preferences **can be edited, including managing **External blogs** and **Register for an external blog**.
## Log out and role change
To log out of mêskanâs, click on the drop-down menu in the user menu and select **Log out**.
The ability to view a course from a different role can help test the appearance of items from a student's perspective. To change the role, click on the drop-down menu in the user menu and select **Switch role to… **as indicated in the image above. Select from the list of roles on the following screen, and the course will now display in the chosen role.
To return to the normal role, select **Return to my role from the profile's drop-down** menu.
> Macro (details)
>
> **Related Keywords**
>
>
>
>
>
> | Related Issues | dashboard | settings | notifications | profile | preferences |
> | --- | --- |