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WHAT IS AN EXTERNAL LINK?
External links are simply connections from your web pages to web pages created by other web developers. Links are usually activated directly by a user clicking on words or icons and images. As the web becomes more interactive, links to certain content can be activated indirectly on the basis of how a learner interacts with an online resource.

In the CourseInfo tool suite, faculty can create folders for various topics, then place external links to remote web sites within these folders (click thumbnail image for an enlarged view).

Click the thumbnail image for an enlarged illustration of external links within a CourseInfo link folder. Note, the links can and should be annotated so the learner has an "advance organizer" or quick summary of the link content.
Stanton and Baber (1994, p. 236) list nine common functions of web links: to provide more information about a topic, to provide contrast/perspective about a topic, to link to a related page, to return to a previously accessed page, to give an example, to animate something, to provide pop-up information off the current page, to return to the home page or first page accessed, and to exit.