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Getting Started with Course Content Development

This section provides an outline of the steps involved in developing your course content, with links to more details.

Before you begin, you should understand the building blocks of a course in Xen.

a) The course outline is the container for all of your course content. The outline contains one or more sections.

b) Course sections are at the top level of your course and typically represent a time period. A section contains one or more subsections.

c) Course subsections are parts of a section, and usually represent a topic or other organising principle. A subsection contains one or more units.

d) Course units are lessons in a sub-section that learners view as single pages. A unit contains one or more components.

e) Course components are objects within units that contain your content.

Creating New Course Content

Once you understand how courses are structured, you can start organising your content and entering it into the Authoring Tool.

You create sections, subsections, and units in the course outline.

For graded subsections, you also set the assignment type and due date.

You create components on the unit page.

In addition, you control content visibility by setting release dates on the outline and publishing units.

It is recommended that you test course content throughout the creation process, including making sure that the content is available for learners.

Making Course Content Visible to Students

Course content visibility depends on the following factors.

a) The course start date.

b) The release dates of the section and subsection.

c) The prerequisite subsections that you configure.

d) The publishing status of the unit.

e) The Hide content from learners setting.

f) The content groups or enrolment track groups that you have allowed to access the content.

g) The use of the Results Visibility setting.

Revising Content

You can revise your course content at any time.

a) When you reorganize sections, subsections, and units in the outline, the new order is immediately visible to learners if the section and subsection are released.

b) When you edit a unit or components within a unit, you must publish those changes to make them visible to learners.

It is recommended that you test course content during the revision process, including making sure that the content is available for learners.