4.1. Creating a New Course

This topic describes how to create and set up your course with Studio.

Another way to create a course is to re-run an existing course. See Re-running a Course.

You can also Export a Course and Import a Course through Studio. You can do this when you need to edit the course in XML.

4.1.1. Create a New Course

  1. Log in to Studio.
  2. Select New Course.
  3. Enter course information as needed and select Create.

Note

Enter new course information carefully. This information becomes part of the URL for your course. For courses on edx.org and edX Edge, to change the URL after the course is created, you must contact edX through the Help site (http://help.edge.edx.org). Additionally, because this information becomes part of your course URL, the total number of characters in the following four fields must be 65 or fewer.

Image of the course creation page in Studio.
  • For Course Name, enter the title of your course. For example, the name may be “Sets, Maps, and Symmetry Groups”. Use title capitalization for the course title.

  • For Organization, enter the identifier for your organization. Do not include spaces or special characters.

  • For Course Number, enter both a subject abbreviation and a number. For example, for public health course number 207, enter PH207. For math course 101x, enter Math101x. Do not include spaces or special characters in the course number.

    Note

    If your course will be open to the world, be sure to include the “x”. If it is exclusively an on-campus offering, do not include the “x”.*

  • For Course Run, enter the term in which your course will run. For example, enter 2014SOND or T2_2014. Do not include spaces or special characters.

    The value that you enter for the run does not affect the course start date that you define for the course. For more information, see Setting Start and End Dates.

  1. Select Save.

You then see the empty course outline.

4.1.2. Edit Your Course

After you create a course, the course opens in Studio automatically and you can begin editing.

When you return to Studio later, the Studio My Courses dashboard page lists the courses that you created as well as any courses for which you have course team privileges.

Image of the course on the Studio dashboard

To open a course, select the course name. The Studio Course Outline page appears.

4.1.3. Use the Course Checklist

You can use a Course Checklist within Studio to help you work through the tasks of building a course.

Categories of tasks in the Course Checklist include:

  • Getting Started with Studio
  • Draft a Rough Course Outline
  • Explore edX’s Support Tools
  • Draft Your Course About Page

From the Tools menu, select Checklists.

Image of the course checklist in Studio.

As shown in the example above, for the Add Course Team Members task, if you hover over a task, a button is displayed that takes you to the page to complete that task.

You can expand and collapse sections of the checklist as needed.

You can check tasks as you complete them. Studio saves your changes automatically. Other members of the course team can see your changes.

4.1.4. Add Course Team Members

Course team members are users who help you build your course. Before you can assign Staff or Admin access to a team member, you must meet these prerequisites.

  • You must be an Admin.
  • The team member that you want to add must register a user account and activate the account.
  • You need the same, registered email address for the team member you want to add.

Other course team members can edit the course and perform all tasks except adding and removing other team members and granting Admin access.

Note

Any course team member can delete content created by other team members.

To add a course team member:

  1. Ensure you have Admin access.
  2. Ensure that the new team member has registered and activated an account.
  3. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Course Team.
  4. Select Add a New Team Member.
  5. Enter the new team member’s email address, then select ADD USER.

The new team member can now work on the course in Studio.

  • To preview the course in the LMS, the team member must enroll in the course.
  • To moderate course discussions, the team member must also have one of the discussion roles. For more information, see Assign Discussion Administration Roles.

You can also assign privileged roles to users when you work in the LMS.

Regardless of where the role is assigned, these administrative team members can work on your course in Studio immediately, and use the LMS and Insights after enrollment. For more information about assigning roles while you run your course, see Staffing.

You can also designate teams of people to beta test your course and to moderate and manage its discussions by assigning other LMS roles. The beta testers and discussion administrators must be enrolled in your course, but they do not need to have Staff or Admin access. For more information, see Beta Testing a Course and Assign Discussion Administration Roles.