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School-level feature — managed within your school portal at yourschool.deandesk.com.

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Video walkthrough

This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
Every course in DeanDesk has its own sidebar. When you open a course, the sidebar on the left lists the course’s tabs, and everything you do as the teacher — sharing materials, grading, taking attendance — starts from one of them. This section walks through each tab from the teacher’s point of view. Screenshots and videos use the fictional Northstar Academy demo school.

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Open a course

From your home page, find the course under My Teaching Courses and click View Course. The course opens on its Overview tab. The top of the course sidebar shows the course name and a role badge: Instructor for course staff, or Admin for school admins. Click All Courses above it to leave the course.
On a phone or narrow window, the course sidebar becomes a row of scrollable tabs across the top of the course.

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Who counts as course staff

Some tabs and buttons only appear for course staff. In a course, staff are:
  • the course instructor
  • any assistants added to the course
  • anyone assigned to teach a session in the course’s weekly schedule
  • school admins, in every course
Everyone else enrolled in the course sees the student view.

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The tabs

Students see the same tabs as you, without Students, Attendance, and Gradebook. Inside each tab, staff also get the buttons to create and manage content, such as Create Material or Create Announcement.
Discussions and Chat are different features. Discussions are threaded topics that stay organized and can be graded. Chat is a live conversation for quick messages. See Chat & discussions.

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The course action bar

Above the tab content, course staff see an action bar with shortcuts:
  • Edit Course opens the course settings.
  • Course Curriculum opens the curriculum editor.
  • Save as Template saves the course as a reusable course template (school admins only).
  • Gradebook jumps to the course gradebook.
  • A call button, such as Start Call, starts the course’s live class. Students see Join Call instead. See Live classes.

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Hide tabs a course doesn’t use

You can turn off any tab except Overview for a single course. A hidden tab disappears from the course sidebar for everyone in the course, staff included. Course staff and school admins can change this.
1

Open the course settings

Inside the course, click Edit Course in the action bar.
2

Find the Course sidebar card

Scroll to the Course sidebar card, which reads “Choose which sections appear in the course sidebar.”
3

Turn tabs on or off

Use the switch next to each tab: Materials, Assignments, Surveys, Curriculum, Announcements, Discussions, Chat, Students, Attendance, and Gradebook.
4

Save

Click Update Course.
When you create a course with the Create Course dialog, the same choices appear under Course Sidebar on its Features step. See Courses for the full course setup.

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Next steps

Start with the Overview tab, then add content in Materials.