4.4. Setting Details About Your Course

This topic describes how to set details about your course in Studio. The details you set affect the information learners see on their dashboards. For more information, see Exploring Your Dashboard, Settings, and Profile.

For information about setting important dates, see Setting Start and End Dates.

For information about setting the course license, see Licensing a Course.

4.4.1. The Course About Page

The following example shows the course About page. Learners can see the About page before they enroll in the course, and may decide to enroll based on the content of the page.

An image of the course About page.

You configure the contents of this page in Studio, as described in this topic.

Note

Given the diversity of MOOC learners, be careful to clearly communicate the target audience, level, and prerequisites for your course. Aim for concrete, unambiguous words (for example, understand eigenvalue decomposition rather than intermediate linear algebra).

4.4.2. The Learner Dashboard

If a learner enrolls in your course, the course is then listed on the Current Courses dashboard, with the course image. From the dashboard, a learner can open a course that has started. If the course has not started, the learner can see the start date, as explained in Setting Start and End Dates.

An image of two courses in the dashboard, with the start dates and times.

4.4.3. Describe Your Course

Learners see the description of your course on the course About page.

For example, the course description is circled in the following course About page.

Image of a course summary with the description circled.

Note

For courses on edX.org, you must communicate the course description to your edX Program Manager, to ensure the content is accurate on the course About page.

  1. From the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.

  2. Scroll down to the Introducing Your Course section, then locate the Course Overview field.

    Image of the HTML course description.
  3. Overwrite the content as needed for your course, following the directions in the boilerplate text. Do not edit HTML tags. For a template that includes placeholders, see A Template For Your Course Overview.

  4. Select your course summary page in the text beneath the field to test how the description will appear to learners.

  5. When you make changes, a Save Changes button appears at the bottom right of the page. Select Save Changes when you have completed the course description.

4.4.4. Add a Course Image

The course image that you add in Studio appears on the dashboard. It should be a minimum of 378 pixels in width by 225 pixels in height, and in .jpg or .png format. Make sure the image that you upload maintains the aspect ratio of those dimensions so that the image appears correctly on the dashboard.

In the following example, the course image that was added in Studio is circled in the dashboard.

Image of the course image in the dashboard.
  1. From the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.
  2. Scroll down to the Course Image section.
  3. To select an image from your computer, click Upload Course Image, then follow the prompts to find and upload your image.
  4. When you make changes, a Save Changes button appears at the bottom right of the page. Select Save Changes when you have added the course image.
  5. View your dashboard to test how the image will appear to learners.

Note

On edX.org, the course image you add in Studio is used on the learner dashboard, but does not automatically appear on the course About page. Work directly with your edX program manager to set up the About page assets and course image for the course summary page.

4.4.5. Add a Course Video

The course video appears on the course About page.

In the following example, the course video is circled in the course About page:

Image of the course video in the course summary page.

The course video should excite and entice potential learners to enroll, and reveal some of the personality that the course team brings to the course.

The video should answer these key questions:

  • Who is teaching the course?
  • What university or college is the course affiliated with?
  • What topics and concepts are covered in your course?
  • Why should a learner enroll in your course?

The video should deliver your message as concisely as possible and have a run time of less than 2 minutes.

Ensure your course introduction video follows the same Recommended Compression Specifications and Supported Video Formats guidelines as course content videos.

  1. Upload the course video to YouTube. Make note of the code that appears between watch?v = and &feature in the URL. This code appears in the green box below.

    Image of a sample course video.
  2. From the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.

  3. Scroll down to the Course Introduction Video section.

  4. In the field below the video box, enter the YouTube video ID (the code you copied in step 1). When you add the code, the video automatically loads in the video box.

  5. When you make changes, a Save Changes button appears at the bottom right of the page. Select Save Changes when you have added the course video.

  6. View your course About page to test how the video will appear to learners.

Note

On edX.org, you work directly with your Program Manager to set up the course video in the summary page.

4.4.6. Set Course Effort Expectations

The estimated effort the course requires appears in the course About page.

You set the hours and minutes a week estimate in Studio.

  1. From the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.
  2. Scroll down to the Requirements section.
  3. In the Hours of Effort per Week field, enter the number of hours you expect learners to work on this course each week.
  4. When you make changes, a Save Changes button appears at the bottom right of the page. Select Save Changes when you have added the estimated effort.
  5. View your course About page to test how the requirements will appear to learners.

4.4.7. A Template For Your Course Overview

Replace the placeholders in the following template with your information.

<section class="about">
  <h2>About This Course</h2>
  <p>Include your long course description here. The long course description
  should contain 150-400 words.</p>
  <p>This is paragraph 2 of the long course description. Add more paragraphs
  as needed. Make sure to enclose them in paragraph tags.</p>
</section>
<section class="prerequisites">
  <h2>Requirements</h2>
  <p>Add information about the skills and knowledge students need to take
  this course.</p>
</section>
<section class="course-staff">
  <h2>Course Team</h2>
  <article class="teacher">
    <div class="teacher-image">
      <img src="/static/images/placeholder-faculty.png" align="left"
      style="margin:0 20 px 0" alt="Course Team Image #1">
    </div>
    <h3>Team Member #1</h3>
    <p>Biography of course team member #1</p>
  </article>
  <article class="teacher">
    <div class="teacher-image">
      <img src="/static/images/placeholder-faculty.png" align="left"
      style="margin:0 20 px 0" alt="Course Team Image #2">
    </div>
    <h3>Team Member #2</h3>
    <p>Biography of course team member #2</p>
  </article>
</section>
<section class="faq">
  <section class="responses">
    <h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
    <article class="response">
      <h3>Do I need to buy a textbook?</h3>
      <p>No, a free online version of Chemistry: Principles, Patterns, and
      Applications, First Edition by Bruce Averill and Patricia Eldredge
      will be available, though you can purchase a printed version (
      published by FlatWorld Knowledge) if you’d like.</p>
    </article>
    <article class="response">
      <h3>Question #2</h3>
      <p>Your answer would be displayed here.</p>
    </article>
  </section>
</section>