--- title: "How do I add documents and external links to my course?" isPublished: true --- # How do I add documents and external links to my course? > Please be aware that not all functionality covered in this and linked articles may be available to you. Course activities provide access to documents, external links, and other learning components in classes, course assignments, and learning paths. These activities provide direct access to document or web pages on the web. When the student clicks the Launch button on the activity, the document or web page will open. You control if it opens in new window or within a frame in the same window. The steps below assume you have completed the Basic Information section in the course ([How do I create a basic course?](../overall/create-course.md)). Before adding a course activity, you should select whether the course will available instructor-led and/or available self-paced on the Basic Information tab. This will affect the defaults for visibility of the activities you add for classes and course assignments. To add a document or external link to your course: 1. On the **Create Course** or **Edit Course** page, click **Activities**. 1. Click **Add Document** or **Add External Link**. 1. In the activity, 1. In **Name**, set the name of the activity. This will appear in the list of activities in the course. 1. In **URL**, set the URL for the document or external link. (See [Related Articles](#related-article) for more information on crafting URLs for capturing user information.) 1. (Optional) Enter the description of the document or external link to be displayed below the name of the activity in the course. Each activity has the following fields you can set for more control over that it: - **Duration** - sets the estimated amount of time the student should spend on the document or external link. This may affect the overall duration of the class. - **Availability** - limits who can access the document or external link. It defaults to Everyone but you can limit it to Instructors only if the activity is intended only for instructors. - **Required for course completion** - requires a student to launch the video for the course assignment or class enrollment to be marked **Complete**. - **Available Instructor-Led** - makes the activity visible in classes and class enrollments. - **Available Self-Paced** - makes the activity visible in course assignments. - **Open in New Window** - sets the document or external link to open in a different window. ## Related Article For more information regarding crafting URLs to capture user date, please see [How can I capture user data for users who access my externally hosted activities from the TMS?](capture-user-data-for-externally-hosted-activities.md)