Courses
Overview
A Course is packaged content that consists of a number of Learning Components.Let's say Learndot decided to introduce a course that explains all the system features. You as a user can purchase the course. I, as a staff or Administrator, am able to enroll contacts that I would like to share the course with. To pass the course all participants need to complete the course to its end along with all assignments and exams.
Creating Courses
Courses are created through the Admin Dashboard by Staff, in 2 steps: Create Course information and Add content to the course.
Note that Learning Components or Course that will be included must first be created before they can be added to the new Course.
It is recommended to create different parts (ILT, eLearning, Content, Assessment, Course) first.
Step 1: Create Course Information
To create a course follow the steps:
- Login as an Administrator
- Navigate to Catalog > Courses
- Click New
- Fill up the form provided:
Take Note:
Mandatory fields are Name, Primary Category, and Price.
Duration and Visibility if not filled up, the system will fill it up by default (1 minute and visible to everyone).
- The Duration field is estimative of how long the learner will take to finish the component. It will appear on the Course tile on the Learner Dashboard, on the top right corner, and also on the Course description on the catalog/public page;
- Click Save;
- Upon successful creation, a successful message will be shown.
1.1: Configure Course Expiry
As an Administrator, you can configure a course to expire after "X" amount of days. To configure course expiry:
- Enter a number in the Expiry field
The expiry field will add "X" amount of days to the enrolment date and expire the course thereafter. Example: If the Expiry was set to 10, this means 10 days after the learners enrolment date the course will expire.
- Press Save
If you change the Expiry value after enrolments have been made to the Course, the new value will only reflect towards new enrolments.
View as a Learner
When learners register for a course with an expiry date, they will see:
- A card on their learner dashboard with a message informing them when the course is about the expire
- Also, in the Course consumption page
Unless the status of the enrollment is completed, if the Course expires, the enrollments will be moved to 'Missed'.
Configure Course Notifications
Learndot offers Survey and Expiry notifications for Courses, which the administrator can configure. These notifications will be triggered based on it's configuration. Click here to learn more about Course Notifications.
1.2: Configure Sequencing
As an administrator, you can configure a Course to be consumed in order of creation. To configure sequencing:
- Click 'Yes' on the field 'Sequencing'
The default value for Sequencing is 'No', allowing the Learner to consume the components of a course in any order.
- Press 'Save'
View as a Learner
When learners register for a course with sequencing activated, on the consumption page they will see:
- The first component will always be available
- The rest of the components in a course will be grayed out, if the previous component is not yet completed
- A tooltip will be shown when the Learner hovers over the grayed out components
Step 2: Configuring Course Content with Configure Wizard
Then, you can directly add Learning Components and Courses by launching the 'Configure Wizard'.
This is done by clicking on the Configure link that appears at the top of the window, or at right navigation bar under Update.
In the configure Course screen, all types of Learning Components can be added to this Course (as shown in the screenshot below):
Configuring Modules with Availability dates
The Learndot Administrator can configure when modules are available for consumption by learners. This allows the Administrator to configure the whole course, but let certain modules get released according to the time set by them.
Things you should know:
- The configuration of Availability date and time is done at the Module level.
- Timezone for the availability of the Module is based off the Server (PST/PDT, depending on the time of the year)
To configure the date and time of Module availability, follow the steps below:
If you have an existing course, you are free to add additional module(s) to the course with a configurable date and time of availability. Also, existing modules' availability dates can be modified.
- Login as an Administrator
- Navigate to Catalog > Courses, you can either create a new course or modify an existing course
- Using the Configure button, add Modules to the course
- Click on Add Module
Availability date and time are supported at a Module level.
- A pop-up window will be presented, proceed to fill in the necessary information:
- Display Name: This name will be displayed for this Module when viewing the Course in the website
- Name: This name will be shown in the Administrator interface
- Summary: The summary of this Module
- Description: The description of this Module
- Availability: Date and time of when this Module will be made available to learners
- Click Add Module after you complete filling in the details
- Now that you have set up the Module to be available at a certain Date & Time, its time to associate the Module with a Learning Component (which will be made available to the Learner when the date and time has reached)
- For illustration purposes, let's add an eLearning component to the Module. From the sub-set of available options, click the eLearning component
- Enter the Display name for the eLearning component and select the eLearning component as well
- Click on Add eLearning
- Success! Now the eLearning component will respect the 'Availability date' set on the Module and only become available on the specified date and time
Pro Tip:
You can also associate other Learning components (like Assessments, ILTs, or Content) with the same Module, in case you want to unlock more content on the same date and time.
- If you want to unlock other Learning Components at a different date and time, continue to add other Modules and associate them with the Learning Components.
- Here's how your Course should look like after a few more Modules are added (which are available on a later date & time)
Viewing Modules as a Learner
When Learners register for the Course above, they will have access to some content from the Course while some will be locked till the respective date and time has reached. To understand this better, here is what the Learner will see after registering for this course.
- Navigate to your Learner profile and find the Course;
- Once found click on start Course:
- Notice how the first two modules are greyed-out. This is because the set date and time has NOT reached yet.
Pro Tip:
Hover over the greyed out modules to reveal when the Modules will be made available.
- After the respective date and time has reached, the Modules will be unlocked and available for the learners consumption
- Click on any module and proceed to consume the learning components
Configuring Suggested Target Completion Day
The Learndot Administrator can configure a suggested completion date for Modules, which indicate by when should the learners consume the modules by. This allows Learners to know what is the completion date.
Things you should know:
- The configuration of target completion day is done at the Module level.
- This will only be a Suggested target date and the module will STILL continue to be available after that date.
To configure the Target Completion day, follow the steps below:
- Login as an Administrator
- Navigate to Catalog > Courses, you can either create a new course or modify an existing course
- Using the Configure button, to add Modules to the course
- Click on Add Module
Target completion day is supported at a Module level.
- A pop-up window will be presented, proceed to fill in the necessary information:
- Display Name: This name will be displayed for this Module when viewing the Course in the website
- Name: This name will be shown in the Administrator interface
- Summary: The summary of this Module
- Description: The description of this Module
- Availability: Date and time of when this Module will be made available to learners
- Target Completion Day: Date of when this Module is "suggested" to be completed by. However, this Module will continue to remain there after the date has passed
- Click Add Module after you complete filling in the details
The target completion day follows the below formula:
Target completion date = Date of enrollment + Amount of days selected in the field.
- It's time to associate the Module with a Learning Component
- For illustration purposes, let's add an eLearning component to the Module. From the sub-set of available options, click the eLearning component
- Enter the Display name for the eLearning component and select the eLearning component as well
- Click on Add eLearning
- Success! Now the eLearning component will respect the "target completion day" set on the Module
Pro Tip:
You can also associate other Learning components (like Assessments, ILTs, or Content) with the same Module, in case you want to apply the same target completion day to more content.
- If you want to set a different target completion day for other Learning Components, simply add other Modules and associate them with different target completion days. Finally, proceed to enroll Contacts as desired
Viewing Modules as a Learner
When Learners register for the Course above, it will show a suggested completion date. To understand this better, here is what the Learner will see after registering for this course.
- Navigate to your Learner profile and find the Course
- Once found click on start Course
- Notice how the module has an additional description of the suggested completion date
- As a learner, you have been informed that the specific module is expected to be finished by the Suggested date.
This date is ONLY meant to act as a suggestion, the Module will still continue to be available after the date has passed.
Viewing Courses
Courses are viewed and purchased on the website. Enrollments can also be created directly from admin dashboard.
Purchased Course and enrollment can be viewed by users in the User Profile page, under My Activity.
Each part of the course (Learning Components and Courses) can be listed and viewed individually.
Public Classes can be selected for Instructor-Led Training, while Resources can also be viewed or downloaded when selecting a Learning Component or within the Course Digital Library.
Learners will view their course within the LDE dashboard:
Terminology - What are the differences between Learning Components, Courses, Learning Pathways, and Learning Plan?
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Course | A Course is all the content covered by a number of different Learning Components and other Courses. A user can purchase a Course and complete each part in order to pass the course. |
Learning Component | A part of learning material within a course. A section contains 1 or more Learning Components within a course. |
Learning Pathway | It contains many Courses, which can be compulsory or optional. Very much like a University degree with a compulsory core of certain courses and a quota of optional elective courses. |
Learning Plan | A Learning Plan is an individual user's plan for their learning. A Contact can add available items such as Courses and Learning Components to their learning plan and track their progress. Suggested Dates and Enrollment links are also provided for the user. |
Course Actions
Action | Category | Description |
---|---|---|
Configure | Components | Manage the list of Learning Components within the Course.
|
Resource | Content | This creates a Resource link for contacts enrolled into the Content Component. |
Enroll | Enrollment | This allows you to enroll a single contact into the Component. The contact will then be able to access the content component in My Learning Plan. |
View How To Create A Multi Module Course for a step by step complete guide to create a full-fledged multi module Course using all Learning Components and Resources types in Learndot Enterprise
A resource can also be added to any Learning Component or Course as supplementary content. There are three types of Resources:
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