Developing Course Sections
What Is a Section?
A course is created from a series of building blocks that are
branched into different categories. Based on the structure of a course, a Section is the topmost level, which then branches out into one or more subsections,
units, and components respectively. Each section may be dedicated to periods,
chapters, or other organizational principles of a course.
The image below depicts the
sections visible within the course outline. The Studio view of the course
outline can be seen on the left. Whilst an instance of the course outline can
be seen within the LMS on the right side of the image.
The numbers annotated on
the figure correspond to the following levels named below.
1. Sections
2. Subsections
3. Units
Please note that components are not shown on the Course Outline page. In fact, if you would like to
manage or access components you may do so by selecting and entering units that contain
them.Learners’
Visibility of Section Content
If the section's release date is unscheduled or has not passed
yet, learners will not be able to view any content in that section.
Once the section has been published, learners can access section
content if the following conditions apply:
- Release
dates scheduled for subsections have passed and the content has been
released.
- The unit
within the subsection, containing the content
- Learners
can access the unit openly, and it has not been hidden from them.
Managing the Release Status of Sections
For learners to view and access content within a section, the
section must first be published. Furthermore, the creator of the course has the
ability to manage the release status for each of the sections within the
course. To learn more about the types of release statuses that may be applied
to each section, read more on the following topics.
- Unscheduled Section Status
- Scheduled Section Status
- Released Section Status
- Section Released with Unpublished Changes Status
- Section Containing Staff Only Content Status
Unscheduled Section Status
The default course start date is set to 1/1/2030 00:00:00 UTC. When creating a
new section within the course, given the course author does not alter the
default value assigned, the section’s release date will be displayed as Unscheduled.
Correspondingly, learners will not be able to view any content in that section
regardless of the publishing status of the content itself, as the section has
been deemed unscheduled.
On the other hand, in case the course author has modified the
course start date, hence the default release date of a newly created section,
is the course start date itself.
Therefore, if you wish to make content visible to learners, you
must make sure to set your desired time of release.
Scheduled Section Status
On the occasion that a section has been scheduled for publication
on an expected date and time in the future, the content will not be accessible
to students till after it has been published and the scheduled release date has
passed. To put it differently, the whole section will be inaccessible for
learners to view with disregard to the release status of the content within the
section.
Released Section Status
If
a section is marked with a ‘released’ status it will be visible to learners. As
a matter of fact, the learners can only view the published subsections and
units within a given section.
Section Released with Unpublished Changes Status
Under the circumstances that you make any modifications to a unit within
a section that has been released, but do not publish the changes, the students
can only see the newest published version of the modified unit.
For that reason it is important you publish the unit in order for
learners to be able to view the updates and changes.
Section Containing Staff Only Content Status
It is possible for content to be available only to members of the creating
team, meaning the unit will be hidden from the participants of the course and
learners cannot view content regardless of the section or subsection’s release
date.
How to Create
a Section
To put it
shortly, when you are creating a new section within a course, the date and time
of publication will be marked ‘Unscheduled’ if the author does not change the course start date from
the default value of 1/1/2030.
Moreover, if
you have altered the default course start date to a desired value and have not
left it unchanged, the section’s default release date will equal the course
start date.
Newly created
sections will be immediately accessible by learners if the course start date has
already passed.
Here is a
step-by-step guide on how to create a new section.
1. Click on the Course Outline page option that appears both at the top of the page as well as below the current section within the outline. Hence, click on New Section.This will add a new section at the end of the course content, with the section name selected.2. Type in your desired title for the new section. Also, using a descriptive name is recommended so that learners can navigate through course content in a simpler manner. This will also enable you to analyze insights by selecting content with ease.3. Build your newly created section by Adding subsections as you see fit.
Preferably,
it’s best to test course content as you create new sections.
Renaming
Sections
You can
rename a section via the Edit icon that appears next to the section name
once you hover your mouse over it.
Hence, click
on the Edit icon to activate the name field, making it editable. Then simply type a new
name to replace the previous one, and press the tab or click anywhere outside
the name field to save the name.
Scheduling a
Release Date for a Section
Follow the
steps below to schedule a date and time for your section to be released and
made public.
1. Within the section box, click on the Configure icon to launch the Settings popup.2. Define an appropriate release date and time for the section.
The regulated
time standard used when scheduling is UTC, known as the Coordinated Universal
Time. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to ensure you have specified the
correct time according to the time zone you intended to use. You can verify the
time using a time zones converter like Dateful or Time.is, for
instance.3. Click on Save to maintain any changes.
Read about Release Dates to learn
more.
How to
Publish All the New Section Units
Click on the Publish icon in the section box to publish all the new and modified units in a section.
Please note
that the Publish icon is only active and appears next to the Section name when there are unsaved
changes made to a section.Check out Unit Publishing Statuses for more information about release date statuses and the visibility of content to
learners.
How to Hide a
Section from Learners
It is
possible to keep learners from accessing certain content by hiding all the
content in the section. This can be done regardless of the subsections and
units’ status within the section.
Check out Visibility Settings to
learn more.
You can hide
a section from course participants by following the steps below.
1. Click
on the Configure icon located within the section box to launch the Settings dialog box.
2. Select Hide from Learners under the Section Visibility section.
3. Finish
off by clicking Save.
Now, the
section content is no longer available to learners.
In contrast,
by repeating these steps and deselecting the Hide from Learners option,
you can make the content accessible to the learners once more.
Deselecting Hide from
learners does not imply that all the hidden content in the section has been
unlocked and made visible to participants. This is because you may have previously set a particular subsection or unit to be hidden from learners.
Therefore, some content will remain hidden. Additionally, unpublished units and
any changes made to published units will remain unpublished.How to Delete
a Section
Deleting a
section would mean that all the constituting subsections and sections will also
be deleted along with it.
It is not
possible to restore content that has been deleted; therefore, a good solution
to be safe is to store a copy of the unused content within a section in your
course and schedule the section to never release. This allows you to ensure you
do not delete content that may come in handy in the future.
Follow these
steps to delete a section.
1. Within the section you wish to delete, click on the Delete icon.2. Once you receive a confirmation prompt, approve the operation by selecting Yes, delete this section.
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