Building and Running an Open edX Course: Ficus Release¶

Resources for edx.org Learners¶

The edX Partner Portal¶

The edX Partner Portal is the destination for partners to learn, connect, and collaborate with one another. Partners can explore rich resources and share success stories and best practices while staying up-to-date with important news and updates.

To use the edX Partner Portal, you must register and request verification as an edX partner. If you are an edX partner and have not used the edX Partner Portal, follow these steps.

1. Visit partners.edx.org, and select Create New Account.
2. Select Request Partner Access, then fill in your personal details.
3. Select Create New Account. You will receive a confirmation email with your account access within 24 hours.

After you create an account, you can sign up to receive email updates about edX releases, news from the product team, and other announcements. For more information, see Release Announcements by Email.

The Open edX Portal¶

The Open edX Portal is the destination for learning about hosting an Open edX instance, extending the edX platform, and contributing to Open edX. In addition, the Open edX Portal provides product announcements and other community resources.

All users can view content on the Open edX Portal without creating an account and logging in.

To comment on blog posts or the edX roadmap, or subscribe to email updates, you must create an account and log in. If you do not have an account, follow these steps.

1. Visit open.edx.org/user/register.
2. Fill in your personal details.
3. Select Create New Account. You are then logged in to the Open edX Portal.

System Status¶

For system-related notifications from the edX operations team, including outages and the status of error reports. On Twitter, you can follow @edxstatus.

Current system status and the uptime percentages for edX servers, along with the Twitter feed, are published on the edX Status web page.

Resources for edx.org Course Teams¶

Course teams include faculty, instructional designers, course staff, discussion moderators, and others who contribute to the creation and delivery of courses on edx.org or edX Edge.

Resources for Researchers¶

At each partner institution, the data czar is the primary point of contact for information about edX data. To set up a data czar for your institution, contact your edX partner manager.

Data for the courses on edx.org and edX Edge is available to the data czars at our partner institutions, and then used by database experts, statisticians, educational investigators, and others for educational research.

Resources are also available for members of the Open edX community who are collecting data about courses running on their sites and conducting research projects.

Resources for Developers¶

Software engineers, system administrators, and translators work on extending and localizing the code for the edX platform.

Resources for Open edX¶

Hosting providers, platform extenders, core contributors, and course staff all use Open edX. EdX provides release-specific documentation, as well as the latest version of all guides, for Open edX users. The following documentation is available.

• Open edX Release Notes provides information on the contents of Open edX releases.
• Building and Running an Open edX Course is a comprehensive guide with concepts and procedures to help you build a course in Studio, and then use the Learning Management System (LMS) to run a course.
• Open edX Learner’s Guide helps students use the Open edX LMS to take courses. This guide is available on the docs.edx.org web page. Because learners are currently only guided to this resource through the course, we encourage course teams to provide learners with links to this guide as needed in course updates or discussions.
• Installing, Configuring, and Running the Open edX Platform provides information about installing and using devstack and fullstack.
• The edX Platform Developer’s Guide includes guidelines for contributing to the Open edX project, options for extending the Open edX platform, instrumenting analytics, and testing.
• Open edX XBlock Tutorial guides developers through the process of creating an XBlock, and explains the concepts and anatomy of XBlocks.
• Open edX XBlock API Guide provides reference information on the XBlock API.
• EdX Open Learning XML Guide provides guidelines for building edX courses with Open Learning XML (OLX). Note that this guide is currently an alpha version.
• EdX Data Analytics API provides reference information for using the data analytics API to build applications to view and analyze learner activity in your course.
• EdX Platform APIs provide reference information for building applications to view course information and videos and work with user and enrollment data.

Overview¶

After you create an account, you can view information about your courses, change course or account settings, or create a profile.

You can access course, account, or profile information from any page on the website, whether you are in a course or browsing the course catalog. Select the dropdown menu icon next to your username, and then choose one of the following menu options.

• Dashboard gives you access to your courses and to course information, such as start and end dates, certificates, and email settings.
• Profile gives you the option to provide personal information about yourself for that other course participants, such as an image and biographical information.
• Account gives you access to your account settings and preferences. For example, you can update your password or email address and set your time zone.

Accessing Your Courses from the Dashboard¶

Your dashboard lists all of the courses that you are enrolled in. When you create an account or enroll in a course, you automatically go to your dashboard. You can also access your dashboard by selecting the dropdown menu icon next to your username at the top of any page.

You can find information about your courses and change course settings on your dashboard. For more information, see Updating Course-Specific Settings.

Starting a Course¶

This section describes how to start a course and begin doing course work, and how to change settings that apply to a specific course.

As soon as you enroll in a course, you can access some information about the course and change course-specific settings on your dashboard. You cannot access course lessons or assignments.

After the course start date, you can start working in the course.

Updating Course-Specific Settings¶

This section describes how you update course-specific settings.

Updating Your Account Information¶

You can find and update information about your account on the account settings page. You access your account settings page by selecting the dropdown menu icon next to your username at the top of any site page.

The account settings page presents information in these categories.

• Account Settings provides access to information about your account.

  Note

  You cannot change your username.

• Linked Accounts lists social media and other accounts that you can connect to your account.

• Order History lists information about payments you have made, such as fees for verified certificates. For more information, see Verify a Payment.

You can view this information at any time. You can also make changes to keep information about yourself up to date.

Adding Profile Information¶

Your personal profile allows you to specify information about yourself that you want to share with other participants in the courses that you take. Adding a profile is optional. If you add profile information, course teams and other learners in your courses can view the information that you share.

In addition to your username, your profile can include a picture, your location, and other biographical information.

You can share either a limited profile or a full profile.

• A limited profile shares only your username and an optional profile picture.

  Note

  If you are under 13 years of age, you can only share a limited

  profile. You cannot share a profile picture.

  

• A full profile includes biographical information in addition to your username and profile image.

  

Deactivate Your Account¶

To deactivate your account, you unenroll from all of your courses. You can reactivate your account at any time by enrolling in a new course.

What is Studio?¶

Studio is the edX tool you use to build your courses.

You use Studio to create a course structure, and then add problems, videos, and other resources for learners.

With Studio, you can also manage the course schedule, identify members of the course team, set the grading policy, publish your course, and more.

You use Studio directly through your browser. You do not need any additional software.

Create Your First Course¶

When you log in to Studio, you see the following page, which is your My Courses dashboard.

1. Select Create Your First Course.
2. Enter course information as needed, and then select Create.

Note

Enter new course information carefully. This information becomes part of the URL for your course. Because this information becomes part of your course URL, the total number of characters in the following three fields must be 65 or fewer.

• 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 name of your institution. Do not include whitespace 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 whitespace or special characters in the course number.

1. Select Save.

Your new course opens to the Course Outline page. Because no content has been added, this page is empty.

In your browser’s address bar, notice that the URL of your course includes the course organization, number, and course run.

The other sections of this guide describe how you now build and run your course.

Testing Your Course For Mobile Devices¶

If you have included some of the more complex problem types, or have highly customized the way course content displays, edX recommends that you test your course for multiple devices and displays.

To test the mobile experience of your course, sign in to your course using the edX Android or iPhone app, and view each course unit to make sure that it renders as you expect it to.

Who Are Our Learners?¶

In the following sections, we provide guidance on creating and delivering course content that allows students to use built-in accessibility functionality (such as text-to-speech and magnification features), assistive technologies, and alternative formats. These practices consider learners with diverse needs, such as those in the following list.

• Blind learners who use a screen reader, which reads page text aloud, or a Braille display device, which renders page text in refreshable Braille.
• Low-vision learners who use screen magnification software to enlarge or modify the contrast of text and other onscreen content.
• Learners with vision impairments, such as difficulty seeing in low-light conditions, who modify their browser or operating system to change background colors and text settings to make text easier to read.
• Learners with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, who use text-to- speech technology that reads page content aloud.
• Physically disabled learners who control their computers using switching devices, voice recognition software, or eye gaze-activated technology instead of mouse devices or keyboards.
• Learners who modify their operating system settings to make the mouse or keyboard easier to use.
• Learners with hearing impairments who cannot access audio content and need the equivalent information in an alternative format, such as captions.

Removing Barriers to Learning¶

EdX highly recommends that you implement the best practices in this document and in other resources. If you cannot easily address any of these barriers to providing accessible course content, edX recommends that you consult with resources at your organization such as Disability Services, or assistive technology and accessibility specialists.

The following resources might also assist you in producing accessible course content.

• User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0
• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0
• WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
• WCAT2ICT
• EPUB 3.0
• DAISY Consortium
• MathJax
• MathML

While your ability to support students in the MOOC context might be different from supporting on-campus students, we encourage you to develop a plan to respond to students who inform you of accessibility barriers to learning. However, given the large numbers of learners enrolling in many of the courses, you will quickly see how important it is to address accessibility concerns when creating a course.

Make Sure Your Course Content is Perceivable¶

The WCAG 2.0 guidelines are organized around several principles, one of which is that web content must be perceivable. That is, information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive; it cannot be invisible to all of their senses. In almost all cases, this means that the information should be available as text, which can be rendered or transformed into a format that can be perceived.

To produce content that is perceivable by all learners, follow these guidelines.

Make Sure Your Course Content is Understandable¶

Make sure your course content is readable and understandable. EdX courses have a global and diverse audience, including learners whose native language is not the language in which you created your course, as well as learners who have a disability that affects reading, such as dyslexia or a visual impairment.

Learners will be better positioned to access concepts in your content if you write in clear, straightforward language and the content is well structured.

Use Best Practices for Describing Images¶

When you use images (including diagrams, maps, charts, or icons) in your course content, you must provide text alternatives that provide information equivalent to the visual content, or that identify the purpose of such non-text content.

The text alternative for an image depends on the image’s context and purpose, and might not be a simple description of the image’s visual characteristics. In general, for every image, edX recommends that you provide a text alternative that provides the equivalent information that a sighted learner would obtain from viewing the image. If the image contains words that are important for understanding the content, include the words in the text alternative. If the image itself is being used as a link, the text alternative should describe the destination or action that will be performed when the link is activated.

The primary mechanism for providing a text alternative for an image in HTML is the alt attribute. The text value of this attribute is what screen reader users hear when they encounter the image in your content.

Create useful and meaningful text alternatives for images in your course by following these guidelines for particular situations.

Create Accessible Course Materials¶

The source teaching materials for your course might exist in a variety of formats. For example, your syllabus might be in MS Word, your presentation slides in MS PowerPoint, and your textbooks in publisher-supplied PDF. It is important to consider how accessible these supplemental materials are before making them available through your course.

Carefully consider the document format you choose for publishing your course materials, because some formats support accessibility better than others. Whenever possible, create course materials in HTML format, using the tools available to you in edX Studio. When you make digital textbooks (ebooks) available within your course, ask digital book publishers for books in either DAISY or EPUB 3 format, or both. Both of these digital book formats include unparalleled support for accessibility. However, simply supporting accessibility does not always mean a document will be accessible. When you source ebooks from third parties, it helps to ask the right questions about accessibility.

• Can screen readers read the document text?
• Do images in the document include alternative text descriptions?
• Are all tables, charts, and math provided in an accessible format?
• Does all media include text equivalents?
• Does the document have navigational aids, such as a table of contents, index, headings, and bookmarks?

Natively accessible formats like those mentioned above might not always be available options. Other popular document formats included in edX courses include PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Many of the same accessibility techniques and principles that apply to authoring web content apply to these document formats as well.

• Images must have descriptive text associated with them.
• Documents should be well structured.
• Information should be presented in a logical order.
• Hyperlinks should be meaningful and describe the destination.
• Tables should include properly defined column and row headers.
• Color combinations should be high contrast.

The information that follows provides some practical guidance to publishing accessible course materials in popular formats.

Use Best Practices for Mathematical Content¶

Math in online courses can be challenging to deliver in a way that is accessible to people with vision impairments. Non-scalable images of mathematical content cannot be sufficiently enlarged or navigated by low-vision users and are not accessible to blind users at all.

EdX uses MathJax to render math content in a format that is clear, readable, and accessible to people who use screen readers. MathJax works together with math notation such as LaTeX and MathML to render mathematical equations as text instead of images. EdX recommends that you use MathJax to author your math content. MathJax renders math in a variety of formats on the client side, offering the end user the ability to consume math content in their preferred format. EdX Studio supports authoring math directly in LaTeX using the LaTeX Source Compiler to transform LaTeX into MathJax.

Use Best Practices for Custom Content Types¶

Using different content types in your courses can significantly add to the learning experience for your learners. This section covers how to design several custom content types so that your course content is accessible to all learners.

Create Accessible Media¶

Media-based course materials help to convey concepts and can bring course information to life. We require all videos in edX courses to include timed text captions in SubRip (SRT) format. The edX media player displays caption files in an interactive sidebar that benefits a variety of learners, including learners who are hard of hearing or whose native language differs from the primary language of the media. This built-in universal design mechanism enhances your course’s accessibility. When you create your course, you need to factor in time and resources for creating timed text captions.

Use Best Practices for HTML Markup¶

HTML is the best format for creating accessible content. It is well supported and adaptable across browsers and devices. Also, the information in HTML markup helps assistive technologies, such as screen reader software, to provide information and functionality to people with vision impairments.

Most of the problem type templates in edX Studio conform to our recommended best practices in terms of good HTML markup. You can manually add appropriate HTML tagging even if it does not exist in the component template. Depending on the type of component you are adding to your course in edX Studio, the raw HTML data is available either automatically or by selecting the “Advanced Editor” or “HTML” views.

Keep the following guidelines in mind when you create HTML content.

• Use HTML tags to describe the meaning of content, rather than changing its appearance. For example, you should tag a section title with the appropriate heading level (such as <h3>) rather than making the text appear like a heading by applying visual elements such as bold text and a larger font size. Format list items into a list rather than using images of bullets or indents. Using HTML to describe your content’s meaning is valuable for learners who use screen readers, which, for example, can read through all headings of a specific level or announce the number of items in a list.

• Use HTML heading levels in sequential order to represent the structure of a document. Well-structured headings help learners and screen reader users to navigate a page and efficiently find what they are looking for.

  In your HTML and problem components, be sure to apply only heading levels 3 through 6 to your content. Because the components that you add are part of a complete page, and heading levels 1 and 2 are already in use by other elements on the page, any text with a heading 1 or 2 style within an HTML or problem component can interfere with the functionality of tools such as screen readers.

• Use HTML list elements to group related items and make content easier to skim and read. HTML offers three kinds of lists.

  • Unordered lists, where the order of items is not important. Each item is marked with a bullet.
  • Ordered lists, where the order of items is important. Each item is listed with a number.
  • Definition lists, where each item is represented using term and description pairs (like a dictionary).

• Use table elements to format information that works best in a grid format, and include descriptive row and column headings. Tag row and column headers with the <th> element so screen readers can effectively describe the content in the table.

Apply Universal Design for Learning¶

Universal Design for Learning focuses on delivering courses in a format so that as many of your learners as possible can successfully interact with the learning resources and activities you provide them, without compromising on pedagogic rigor and quality.

The principles of Universal Design for Learning can be summarized by the following points.

1. Present information and content in various ways.
2. Provide more than one way for learners to express what they know.
3. Stimulate interest and motivation for learning.

Course teams can apply these principles in course design by following several guidelines.

• Design resources and activities that can be accessed by learners in a variety of ways. For example, if there is a text component, provide the ability to enlarge the font size or change the text color. For images and diagrams, always provide an equivalent text description. For video, include text captions.
• Provide multiple ways for learners to engage with information and demonstrate their knowledge. This is particularly important to keep in mind as you design activities and assessments.
• Identify activities that require specific sensory or physical capability and for which it might be difficult or impossible to accommodate the accessibility needs of learners. For example, an activity that requires learners to identify objects by color might cause difficulties for learners with visual impairments. In these cases, consider whether there is a pedagogical justification for the activity being designed in that way. If there is a justification, communicate these requirements to prospective learners in the course description and establish a plan for responding to learners who encounter barriers. If there is no justification for the requirements, edX recommends that you redesign the learning activities to be more flexible and broadly accessible.

Identifying the Course¶

Before you create a course, consider the identifying information that you will provide for it carefully.

• For Course Name, you enter the title of your course. For example, the name might be “Sets, Maps, and Symmetry Groups”. Use title capitalization for the course title, and normal spacing and punctuation.

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

• For Course Number, you 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 public, be sure to include the “x”. If it is exclusively an on campus offering, do not include the “x”.

• For Course Run, you 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.

The organization, course number, and course run values that you enter are used to create the URL for your course. Because URLs do not have an unlimited length, the total number of characters that you enter for these values must be 65 or fewer.

Create a Course¶

To create a course, follow these steps.

1. Sign in to Studio.

2. Select New Course.

3. Enter the identifying course information, and then select Create.

   

   The Course Outline page opens. You can start developing course content. For more information, see Getting Started with Course Content Development.

Edit a Course¶

After you create a course, the course opens in Studio automatically and you can begin editing. Your next steps might include adding other course team members, setting the course start and end dates, or developing the course outline.

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

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

License Options¶

For your course content and for each video in your course, you can select one of the following license options.

• All Rights Reserved
• Creative Commons

Set Course Content Licensing¶

When you create a new course, the license is set to All Rights Reserved. You can change the license for your course in the Schedule & Details page in Studio.

The license options that you select apply to all course content, including videos, unless you explicitly specify different licensing options for your videos. Learners see the license at the bottom of all pages in the course.

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

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view the Course Content License section.

   

3. Select the license option for your course.

   • To grant learners to right to share and use course content, select Creative Commons. The Creative Commons options are displayed.

     

     Select the Creative Commons license options to apply.

   • To reserve all course content rights, select All Rights Reserved.

4. Select Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Set Video Licensing¶

If you intend for a specific video to have a different license than the course as a whole, you must set the license in the Setting Advanced Options.

For example, you might license for your course under Creative Commons, but use a video from another party that is copyrighted. In this case, you can set the license for that particular video to All Rights Reserved.

If a video is to have the same license as the course as a whole, you do not need to set the license for the video.

Learners’ View of Licenses¶

When they view content in the Course tab, learners see the license that you set for the course at the bottom of the page.

If the video has a different license than the course as a whole, learners see the license at the bottom right of the video player.

For the course and for videos, if you choose All Rights Reserved, learners see All Rights Reserved; if you choose Creative Commons and select any allowed combination of options, learners see Some Rights Reserved and can select the link to see details.

Overview¶

The start and end dates you set for your course and for course enrollment are important for prospective and current learners. As soon as enrollment starts, prospective learners can see your course in the course catalog, view the course About page, and enroll in the course. Current learners see your course start or end date on their dashboards.

Determining Start and End Dates¶

EdX recommends that you consider your course start and end dates, and its enrollment start and end dates, carefully. After you determine the dates for your course, you set these dates and times on the Schedule & Details page in Studio. EdX recommends that you verify all important dates in Studio one week before you plan to start the course.

Set Course and Enrollment Dates and Times¶

To set dates and times for the course and for course enrollment in Studio, follow these steps.

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

2. In the Course Schedule section, replace the placeholder dates and times with your own information.

   When you make changes on this page, a panel with options to save or cancel your work appears.

3. Select Save Changes.

EdX recommends that you verify that all important dates are correct one week before you plan to start the course.

View Start and End Dates as a Learner¶

Learners can view the start date for a course on the course About page, and, after they enroll in the course, on their dashboards.

To find the URL of your course’s About page in Studio, select Settings and then Schedule & Details.

After learners enroll in your course, the course appears on their course dashboards. To access the dashboard, learners select their usernames and then Dashboard.

For a course that is in progress or has not yet started, the start date is shown. For a course that has ended, the course end date is shown.

Overview of Course Pacing¶

When you create an edX course, you can set the schedule of the course, including due dates for assignments or exams, or you can allow learners to work at their own pace. Courses that follow a schedule that you set are known as instructor-paced courses. Courses that allow learners to submit assignments at any time before the course ends, without internal due dates, are known as self- paced courses.

An indicator for the pacing for your course appears on the Course Outline page. By default, courses are instructor-paced.

Instructor-Paced and Self-Paced Courses¶

Instructor-paced courses progress at the pace that the course author sets. You set release dates for content and due dates for assignments, and assignment due dates are visible in the LMS. Learners cannot access course content before its release date, and learners must complete assignments by their due dates.

In self-paced courses, learners can access all course materials when the course begins, and assignments do not have due dates. You do not have the option to set release dates for course content or due dates for assignments. Due dates do not appear in the LMS.

For more information about the way learners experience instructor-paced and self-paced courses, see sfd self paced.

Set Pacing for Your Course¶

Before you can use this feature to set up a self-paced course, it must be enabled using the Open edX Django admin panel. Follow these steps, or contact your Open edX site administrator for assistance.

1. Log in to your Open edX Django Admin panel.
2. In the Self_Paced section, locate Self paced configurations and then select Add.
3. Check the Enabled and Enable course home page improvements checkboxes.
4. Select Save.

To set the pacing for your course, follow these steps.

1. On the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.
2. Scroll down to the Course Pacing section.
3. Under Course Pacing, select either Instructor-Paced or Self-Paced.

Specify Prerequisite Courses¶

You can require that your learners pass a particular edX course before they enroll in your course. Learners see information about course prerequisites on the course About page.

If learners have not completed the prerequisite course, they can enroll in your course and then see your course on their learner dashboards. However, unlike with other courses, the dashboard does not provide a link to the course content. The dashboard includes a link to the About page for the prerequisite course. Learners can enroll in the prerequisite course from the About page.

To define one course as the prerequisite for another, you must be the course creator in both the current course and in the prerequisite course.

To specify a prerequisite course, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, open your course.
2. On the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.
3. On the Schedule & Details page, locate the Requirements section.
4. Under Prerequisite Course, select a course from the list.
5. Select Save Changes.

Require an Entrance Exam¶

You can require your learners to pass an entrance exam before they access your course materials. If you include an entrance exam, learners who enroll in your course can only access the Entrance Exam page until they pass the exam. After learners pass the exam, they can access all released materials in your course.

To require an entrance exam, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, open your course.
2. On the Settings menu, select Schedule & Details.
3. On the Schedule & Details page, locate the Requirements section.
4. Select the Require students to pass an exam before accessing course materials check box.
5. Select Save Changes.

After you save your changes, Studio automatically creates an Entrance Exam section in your course outline. To add content to your entrance exam, go to the course outline.

The Learner Dashboard¶

After a learner enrolls in a course, the course is listed on that learner’s dashboard. From the dashboard, a learner can open a course that has started. If the course has not started, or has already ended, the dashboard shows the start or end date.

For more information, see View Start and End Dates as a Learner.

The Course About Page¶

The course About page, sometimes called the course summary page, provides information about your course to learners. In addition to the course start and end dates and an overview of course objectives, the About page can include information such as a course description with course prerequisites, requirements, and team biographies. Learners can see the About page before they enroll in the course, and might decide to enroll based on the content of the page.

If the CourseTalk widget is enabled for your instance of the Open edX platform, the About page for every course also includes the CourseTalk widget. Learners who have enrolled in your course use this widget to write reviews of your course on the Home page in the LMS. These reviews are then visible on the course About page. For more information, see Adding the CourseTalk Widget.

Adding Information to the Course About Page¶

You configure the contents of this page in Studio.

• Describe Your Course
• Add a Course Image
• Adding a Course About Video
• Set Course Effort Expectations
• Course Overview Template

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.

Given the diversity of online learners, be sure to review your course description to ensure that it clearly communicates the target audience, level, and prerequisites for your course. Use concrete, unambiguous phrasing, such as a prerequisite of “understand eigenvalue decomposition” rather than “intermediate linear algebra”.

To provide a description for your course, follow these steps.

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

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

   

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 these placeholders, see the Course Overview Template.

4. To test how the description will appear to learners, from the text that follows the Course Overview field select your course summary page.

5. Select Save Changes.

Add a Course Image¶

The course image that you add in Studio appears on the About page for the course and on the learner dashboard. It must 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.

An example of a course on the dashboard with a course image follows.

To add a course image, follow these steps.

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

2. In the Course Image section, select Upload Course Image, and then follow the prompts to find and upload your image. To specify an image that has already been added to the course, select files & uploads.

   When you make changes on this page, a panel with options to save or cancel your work appears.

3. Select Save Changes.

4. View your dashboard to test how the image will appear to learners.

Adding a Course About Video¶

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

This video should answer these key questions.

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

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

Before you upload a course about video, make sure that it follows the same Recommended Compression Specifications and Supported Video Formats guidelines as your course content videos.

Note

• If you upload both a course image and a course about video, the course image appears on learner dashboards with a play icon superimposed on it. If you upload only a course video, the first frame of the the video file appears with the play icon.
• The process for adding a course about video is different than the process for including videos as part of the content of your course. For more information about including video content, see Working with Video Components.

To upload a course about video, follow these steps.

1. Upload the video file 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.

   

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 option appears at the bottom right of the page. Select Save Changes after you add the course video.

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

Set Course Effort Expectations¶

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

To set the hours and minutes a week estimate in Studio, follow these steps.

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

2. In the Requirements section, locate the Hours of Effort per Week field.

3. Enter the number of hours you expect learners to work on this course each week.

   When you make changes on this page, a panel with options to save or cancel your work appears.

4. Select Save Changes.

5. View your course About page to test how the requirements will appear to learners.

Course Overview Template¶

Replace the placeholders in the following template with information for your course.

<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>

About the Course Team Roles¶

To give team members access to Studio, the instructor dashboard in the LMS, and Insights, you assign one of these course team roles to them.

• Staff
• Admin

You can assign these privileged roles when you work in either the LMS or Studio. The people who have these roles can work on your course in Studio, the LMS, and Insights. For more information about assigning roles to team members in Studio, see Add Course Team Members.

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

Administrative Team Roles¶

To provide access to features on the instructor dashboard in the LMS, you assign the Staff role or the Admin role.

Team members with the Staff role can complete the following tasks.

• View the course before the course start date.
• Enroll and unenroll learners.
• Access and modify grades for individual learners. For example, users with the Staff role can reset an individual learner’s attempt to answer a question.
• See course HTML errors.
• Send email messages to course participants.
• Activate course certificates.

Course team members who have the Admin role can complete all the tasks that course team members who have the Staff role can complete. They can also complete the following tasks.

• Access and modify grades for all learners in a course. For example, users with the Admin role can reset all learners’ attempts to answer a question.

• Add and remove staff.

• Add and remove other admins.

• Add and remove beta testers.

• Add and remove discussion admins, discussion moderators, and discussion community TAs.

  Note

  To moderate course discussions, team members must have one of these discussion roles assigned to them in addition to the Staff or Admin role. For more information, see Assign Discussion Administration Roles.

Assign Course Team Roles¶

Before you can assign the Staff or Admin role to a team member, you must meet these prerequisites.

• You must have the Admin role.
• You need the email address or username of each team member you want to add.
• Each of those team members must register a user account for that email address or username, activate the account, and enroll in your course.

To assign a privileged role to a course team member, follow these steps.

1. View the live version of your course.
2. Select Instructor, and then select Membership.
3. In the Course Team Management section, select Staff or Admin.
4. Under the list of users who currently have that role, enter an email address or username, and then select Add for the role type.

To remove an assigned role, view the list of users and then select Revoke access.

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.

To add a course team member, follow these steps.

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 by selecting Instructor and then Membership.

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.

Overview¶

Using Studio, you create certificates that learners can earn in your course.

Certificates and Course Start Dates¶

If your course is configured to issue certificates, you cannot start the course until the required certificates are activated.

For information about starting the course, see Determining Start and End Dates.

Certificate Design¶

The design of certificates for your course, including your institution’s logo, are configured on your instance of Open edX. For more information, see Enabling Certificates in Installing, Configuring, and Running the Open edX Platform.

Enable Certificates¶

Before you can create certificates, you must enable certificates for your course.

1. From the Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.
2. In the Certificate Web/HTML View Enabled field, enter true.
3. At the bottom of the page, select Save Changes.

Create a Certificate¶

To create a certificate for your course, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

2. On the Certificates page, select Add your first certificate or Add a new certificate.

3. Optionally, specify an alternative course title to use on the certificate in the Course Title Override field.

   You might want to use a different title on your course certificates if, for example, the official course name is too long to fit on the certificate.

   To specify an alternative course number, see Set a Course Number Override.

4. Add a signatory for each person associated with the course or organization whose name and title you want to appear on the certificate. You must specify at least one signatory. You can add as many signatories as needed.

5. Optionally, upload an image file showing the signature of each signatory.

   The image file must be a transparent .PNG file, 450px by 150px.

6. When you have finished creating your certificate, select Create.

   You can preview the certificate to see how it will appear to a learner taking the course in the selected mode.

   Your course certificate is not available for issuing to learners until it is activated.

Edit a Certificate¶

You can edit a certificate before it is activated.

After a certificate is activated, only a course team member with the Admin role can edit the certificate. As a best practice, the administrator should deactivate the certificate before making edits.

To edit a certificate, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

2. On the Certificates page, at the top of the certificate form, select the Edit icon.

3. When you have finished editing the certificate, select Save.

   After you save your changes, you can preview the certificate to make sure it appears as you want it to. You then need to activate the certificate configuration before certificates can be issued.

Set a Course Number Override¶

Optionally, you can specify an alternative course number to use on the certificate.

You might want to use a different number on your course certificates if, for example, the official course number is meaningful only within your institution.

1. In Studio, select Settings, and then Advanced Settings.

2. Locate the Course Number Display String field. This field contains the course number you set to override the official course number on certificates.

3. Between quotation marks (" "), enter the course number you want displayed on certificates.

4. Select Save Changes.

   A message lets you know whether your changes were saved successfully.

Delete a Certificate¶

You can delete a certificate that is not activated.

To delete a certificate, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

2. On the Certificates page, at the top of the certificate form, select the “Delete” icon.

   

3. In the confirmation dialog, confirm that you want to delete the certificate.

Preview Certificates¶

After you have finished editing your certificate, you can preview a certificate for verification purposes. You select from the available course modes (such as “verified”) to see how a certificate will appear to a learner taking the course in the selected mode.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Certificates.

2. On the Certificates page, select the course mode of the certificate you want to preview, then click Preview Certificate.

   You see the web view for the certificate, as a learner in the selected course mode would see it.

After previewing the certificate, you can edit the certificate further or activate your certificate configuration.

Activate a Certificate¶

When you have verified your certificate, a course team member with the Admin or Staff role can activate the certificate.

To activate a certificate, follow these steps.

1. Make sure that you have the Admin or Staff role for the course. For more information, see Staffing.
2. In Studio, on the Settings menu, select Certificates.
3. On the Certificates page, select Activate.

After certificates are activated, learners in your course who attain a passing grade or otherwise qualify receive certificates.

Deactivate a Certificate¶

In some situations, after you have activated a certificate, you might need to deactivate the certificate to make changes.

As a best practice, do not make changes to certificates in a running course if the course has already issued certificates to learners.

A course team member with the Admin or Staff role can deactivate the certificate.

To deactivate a certificate, follow these steps.

1. Make sure that you have the Admin or Staff role for the course. For more information, see Staffing.
2. In Studio, on the Settings menu, select Certificates.
3. On the Certificates page, select Deactivate.

The certificate is no longer active and the course team can edit it. No new certificates can be issued to learners while it is deactivated. Learners who have already been issued certificates can continue to access them.

Manage Certificate Images¶

When you add signatory image files to a certificate, the uploaded files are listed in Studio on the Files & Uploads page.

When you delete a certificate, images that you uploaded for use with that certificate are also deleted. However, if you edit a certificate and replace images, the unused image files remain on the Files & Uploads page. You can manually remove unused images. For information, see Delete a File.

Enable or Disable Badges for Your Course¶

Badges provide a way for learners to share their course achievements. For courses that have course completion badges enabled, learners receive a badge at the same time as they receive a course certificate, and have the option of sharing their badges to a badging site such as Mozilla Backpack.

The Open edX platform supports Open Badges, an open standard developed by the Mozilla Foundation. For more information about Open Badges, see the Open Badges web site.

If badging is enabled for your platform, course completion badges are enabled by default for your course. If you are unsure whether badging is enabled for your platform, or if you need help with configuring your course badges, contact your platform administrator.

To stop issuing badges in your course, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.
2. Locate the Issue Open Badges policy key. The default value is True.
3. Change the setting to False and save your changes.

To enable badging for your course if it was previously disabled, change the value of the key to True.

Overview¶

You can create a custom course in the edX platform (CCX) to reuse course content. By using a CCX, you can run some or all of an existing course for a group of students on a new schedule.

A CCX can contain only content from an existing course; you cannot author new content in a CCX.

Custom Courses and Roles¶

There are three roles involved in creating and running a CCX.

• Admins create the existing course and have privileges to create CCX coaches for their course.
• CCX Coaches select content from the existing course for the CCX. CCX coaches also enroll learners, set start and due dates for their scheduled content, and manage the grading policy for the CCX.
• Learners take the CCX and view the selected content on the specified schedule.

Enable Custom Courses for an Existing Course¶

CCX for a course is disabled by default.

You enable CCX in Studio. Ensure you have access to the course in Studio, then complete the following steps.

1. In Studio, from the Settings menu, select Advanced Settings.
2. Find the Enable CCX key and change the value to true.
3. Click Save Changes.

You can now add a CCX coach.

Add a CCX Coach¶

The first step to create a CCX is to create a CCX coach in an existing course. A CCX can have only one CCX coach.

You add a CCX coach through the Instructor Dashboard in the LMS. Ensure you have the Admin role in the course.

In addition, ensure that the user whom you would like to add as a CCX coach has registered in the LMS.

1. In the LMS, select Instructor, and then select Membership.
2. In the Course Team Management section, from Select a course team role, select CCX Coaches.
3. Enter the CCX coach’s username or email address and select Add CCX Coach.

The user is added as a coach and enrolled in the course if she is not already enrolled.

If she’s enrolled when she’s added as a CCX coach, the coach will get an email to let her know.

When the CCX coach next logs into the LMS, the CCX Coach tab will be visible. The CCX coach dashboard is not accessible by course team members with other roles.

Create the Custom Course¶

When you have been made the CCX coach for a course, you can then access the course and create a CCX.

1. In the LMS, select the CCX Coach tab.
2. From the CCX coach Dashboard, enter the name for your CCX, then select Coach a new Custom Course for edX.
3. When the CCX is created, you are re-directed to the full CCX coach Dashboard.

You can revisit your CCX by opening the original course and selecting the CCX Coach tab.

The CCX Coach Dashboard¶

The CCX coach Dashboard provides the tools for you to manage the CCX. The CCX coach Dashboard contains four tabs, described in the following sections.

Understanding Course Building Blocks¶

Before you begin, you should understand the building blocks of an edX course.

• The course outline is the container for all of your course content. The outline contains one or more sections.
• Course sections are at the top level of your course and typically represent a time period. A section contains one or more subsections.
• Course subsections are parts of a section, and usually represent a topic or other organizing principle. A subsection contains one or more units.
• Course units are lessons in a subsection that learners view as single pages. A unit contains one or more components.
• Course components are objects within units that contain your actual course content.

Creating New Course Content¶

Once you understand the way edX courses are structured, you can start organizing your content and entering it into Studio.

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 in the unit page.

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

The following diagram summarizes the content creation workflow:

It is recommended that you test course content throughout the creation process, including making sure that the content is available for learners who access courses using the edX mobile apps. For more information, see Designing Your Course For a Mobile Experience.

Making Course Content Visible to Students¶

When you create your content, you also specify if and when learners will be able to see it. Content visibility depends on several factors.

• The course start date
• The release dates of the section and subsection
• The prerequisite subsections that you configure
• The publishing status of the unit
• The Hide content from learners setting
• The use of content groups

For more information, see Controlling Content Visibility.

Making Course Content Searchable¶

Learners can search course text in HTML components and video transcripts by using the Search box at the top of the Course page.

Before learners can search your course, Studio must index the content. Studio indexes all new course content automatically when you publish the content.

If necessary, you can manually reindex all of the content in your course at any time. Typically, you would only manually reindex your course content if learners see unexpected search results. To reindex your course content, select Reindex Content at the top of the Course Outline page. Reindexing usually takes less than 30 seconds.

Revising Content¶

You can revise your course content at any time.

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

The following diagram summarizes the content revision workflow and content visibility:

It is recommended that you test course content during the revision process, including making sure that the content is available for learners who access courses using the edX mobile apps. For more information, see Designing Your Course For a Mobile Experience.

Open the Course Outline¶

To view the course outline, follow these steps.

1. Sign in to edX Studio.

2. On the My Courses page, select the course you want to develop.

   The course outline opens by default when you open a course.

To open the outline when you are working in a course, from the Content menu, select Outline.

The first time you view an outline for a course, it contains no content. The following message is visible.

You haven't added any content to this course yet.

To add content, you create a section.

Understanding a Course Outline in Studio¶

The following example shows a partial course outline in Studio, with indications for sections, subsections, and units. As you develop your course, it will begin to look like this example.

In this example, the course is organized into the following levels.

1. Sections
2. Subsections
3. Units

Components are not shown in the outline. You add or access components by selecting the units that contain them.

Use the links above for more information and instructions on working with each type of object in the course. The topics in the rest of this section provides more detail about the course outline.

View the Course Organization as a Learner¶

The content you see in the outline in Studio is displayed to learners in the Course page in the LMS. The following image shows how a learner sees your course content.

1. Sections are listed in the course navigation pane. Learners select a section to see the subsections that it contains.

2. Subsections are listed in the course navigation pane after a learner expands a section.

3. Units appear in the unit navigation bar, represented by icons, after learners select a subsection. A tooltip with the unit’s name appears when learners move the pointer onto an icon.

   Learners select icons in the unit navigation bar to access course units. They can also use the Previous and Next options at either end of the unit navigation bar to move back to the previous unit or forward to the next unit. The current unit is indicated with bold underlining in the unit navigation bar.

Navigate the Course Outline¶

In Studio, you navigate the course outline by expanding and collapsing sections and subsections. Use the “drop-down” icon next to a section or subsection name to expand or collapse its contents.

When you expand a subsection, all units in the subsection are visible.

Select the name of a unit to open the unit page.

Add Content in the Course Outline¶

You can add content in the course outline by creating a new section, subsection, or unit, or by duplicating an existing unit, subsection, or section.

Modify Settings for Objects in the Course Outline¶

You modify settings for sections, subsections, and units in the course outline. Specifically, you can complete the following tasks.

• Set a Section Release Date
• Hide a Section from Learners
• Set a Subsection Release Date
• Set the Assignment Type and Due Date for a Subsection
• Hiding a Subsection from Learners
• Hide a Unit from Learners

To modify settings for a section, subsection, or unit, select the Configure icon for that object. In the following example, the Configure icon is circled for a section, a subsection, and two units.

For more information, see the links above.

Publish Content from the Course Outline¶

You can publish new and changed units for an entire section or subsection. You can also publish individual units.

To publish new and changed units, select the Publish icon for a section, subsection, or unit. In the following example, the Publish icon is circled for a section, subsection, and unit.

For more information, see the following topics.

• Unit Publishing Statuses
• Publish all Units in a Section
• Publish All Units in a Subsection
• Publish a Unit

Reorganize the Course Outline¶

You can reorganize your course content by dragging and dropping sections, subsections, and units to new locations in the outline.

To move a section, subsection, or unit, move your cursor over the handle on the right of the object’s box until the cursor changes to a four-headed arrow. For example, in the image below, the handle for the subsection Lesson 1 - Getting Started is selected.

Then, click and drag the object to the location that you want.

If you expanded the section or subsection you are moving the object to, when you move the object, a blue line indicates where the object will land when you release the mouse button. For example, in the image below, the subsection Lesson 1 - Getting Started is being moved to the end of the section Introduction.

If you did not expand the section or subsection you are moving the object to, the outline of that section or subsection turns blue when you have moved the object to a valid location. You can then release the mouse button. For example, in the image below, the subsection Lesson 1 - Getting Started is being moved to the collapsed section Introduction.

Delete Content in the Course Outline¶

You delete sections, subsections, and units from the course outline.

Select the Delete icon in the box for the object you want to delete.

You are prompted to confirm the deletion.

What Is a Section?¶

A section is the topmost category in your course. A section can represent a time period in your course, a chapter, or another organizing principle. A section contains one or more subsections.

Viewing Sections in the Outline¶

The following example shows four sections, all collapsed, in the course outline.

The Learner View of a Section¶

Learners see sections in the Course page. Learners can expand one section at a time to see its contents. In the following example, three sections are circled, and the third one is expanded to show its subsections.

Sections and Visibility to Learners¶

Learners cannot see any content in the section if the section’s release date is unscheduled or has not passed.

If a section’s release date has passed, learners can see content in the section if:

• The release date for the subsection that contains that content has passed.
• The unit has been published.
• The unit is not hidden from learners.

Release Statuses of Sections¶

As an course author, you control the release status of sections. For the content of a section to be visible to learners, the section must be released. See the following topics for more information about the possible release statuses of sections.

Create a Section¶

If you do not change the course start date default value, 1/1/2030, when you create a new section, its release date will be Unscheduled.

If you have modified the course start date, when you create a new section, the default release date is the course start date.

To create a new section, follow these steps.

1. On the Course Outline page, select New Section. This option appears at both the top of the page and below the current sections in the outline.

   A new section appears at the end of the course content, with the section name selected.

2. Enter the name for the new section. A descriptive name can help learners locate content in the course. It can also help you select content when you analyze performance in edX Insights.

3. Add subsections to the new section as needed.

It is recommended that you test course content as you create new sections.

Change a Section Name¶

To edit a section name, move your cursor over the section name to show the Edit icon.

Select the Edit icon next to the section name. The name field becomes editable. Enter the new name, and then tab or click outside of the field to save the name.

Set a Section Release Date¶

To set the section release date, follow these steps.

1. Select the Configure icon in the section box.

   

   The Settings dialog box opens.

2. Enter the release date and time for the section.

Note

The time that you set is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You might want to verify that you have specified the time that you intend by using a time zone converter such as Time and Date Time Zone Converter.

1. Select Save.

For more information, see Release Dates.

Publish all Units in a Section¶

To publish all new and changed units in a section, select the Publish icon in the box for the section.

For more information about statuses and visibility to learners, see Unit Publishing Statuses.

Hide a Section from Learners¶

You can hide all content in a section from learners, regardless of the status of subsections and units within the section.

For more information, see Hiding Content from Learners.

To hide a section from learners, follow these steps.

1. Select the Configure icon in the section box.

   

   The Settings dialog box opens.

2. In the Section Visibility section, select Hide from learners.

3. Select Save.

Now, none of the content in the section is visible to learners.

To make the section visible to learners, repeat these steps and deselect Hide from learners.

Delete a Section¶

When you delete a section, you delete all subsections and units within the section.

To delete a section, follow these steps.

1. Select the Delete icon in the section that you want to delete.

2. When you receive the confirmation prompt, select Yes, delete this section.

What Is a Subsection?¶

Sections are divided into subsections, which in turn contain one or more units. A subsection may represent a topic in your course, or another organizing principle. Subsections are sometimes called “lessons” or they might represent a week’s worth of material.

Viewing Subsections in the Outline¶

The following example shows three subsections in a section, all collapsed, in the course outline.

The Learner View of a Subsection¶

Learners see subsections on the Course page, listed beneath the expanded section. In the following example, two subsections are circled, and the first one is open in the LMS.

Subsections and Visibility to Learners¶

Learners cannot see any content in a subsection until you schedule a release date, and that release date has passed.

If a subsection’s release date has passed, learners can see content in the subsection if the following conditions are met.

• The release date of the parent section has passed.
• The units have been published.
• The subsection or the units are not hidden from learners.

To control whether learners have access to the subsection and its units after a subsection’s release date, you can apply various visibility settings.

By default, the subsection and its units are available to learners, except for any units that you have explicitly hidden from learners.

You can also choose to entirely hide a subsection so that the subsection and its units are not visible to learners at all in the course navigation, or you can hide the contents of a subsection after the subsection due date has passed. For more information about subsection visibility settings, see Hiding a Subsection from Learners.

Release Statuses of Subsections¶

As a course author, you control the release status of subsections. For the content of a subsection to be visible to learners, the subsection must be released. See the following topics for more information about the possible release statuses of subsections.

Create a Subsection¶

To create a new subsection, follow these steps.

1. In the outline, expand the section in which you want to create a new subsection.
2. Select New Subsection at the bottom of the expanded section. A new subsection appears at the end of the section, with the subsection name selected.
3. Enter the name for the new subsection. A descriptive name can help learners locate content in the course. It can also help you select content when you analyze performance in edX Insights.
4. Add units to the new subsection as needed.

It is recommended that you test course content as you create new subsections.

Change a Subsection Name¶

To change a subsection name, select the Edit icon next to the subsection name. The name field becomes editable. Enter the new name, and then tab or click outside of the field to save the name.

Set a Subsection Release Date¶

To set the subsection release date, follow these steps.

1. Select the Configure icon in the subsection box.

   

   The Settings dialog box opens.

2. Enter the release date and time for the subsection.

   Note

   The time that you set is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You might want to verify that you have specified the time that you intend by using a time zone converter such as Time and Date Time Zone Converter.

   Learners who have specified a time zone in their account settings see course dates and times converted to their specified time zone. Learners who have not specified a time zone in their account settings see course dates and times on their dashboards, in the body of the course, and on their Progress pages in the time zone that their browsers specify. Learners see other course dates and times in UTC.

3. Select Save.

For more information, see Release Dates.

Set the Assignment Type and Due Date for a Subsection¶

You set the assignment type for problems at the subsection level.

When you set the assignment type for a subsection, all problems within the subsection are graded and weighted as a single type. For example, if you designate the assignment type for a subsection as Homework, then all problem types in that subsection are graded as homework.

To set the assignment type and due date for a subsection, follow these steps.

1. Select the Configure icon in the subsection box.

   The Settings dialog box opens.

2. In the Grading section, select the assignment type for this subsection in the Grade as field.

3. Enter or select a due date and time for problems in this subsection.

   Note

   The time that you set is in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You might want to verify that you have specified the time that you intend by using a time zone converter such as Time and Date Time Zone Converter.

   Learners who have specified a time zone in their account settings see course dates and times converted to their specified time zone. Learners who have not specified a time zone in their account settings see course dates and times on their dashboards, in the body of the course, and on their Progress pages in the time zone that their browsers specify. Learners see other course dates and times in UTC.

4. Optionally, for a course that has the timed exam feature enabled, select the Advanced tab to set the subsection to be timed.

5. Select Save.

For more information, see Establishing a Grading Policy For Your Course.

Publish All Units in a Subsection¶

To publish all new and changed units in a subsection, select the Publish icon in the box for the subsection.

See Unit Publishing Statuses for information about statuses and visibility to learners.

Hiding a Subsection from Learners¶

You can hide a subsection from learners in the following ways.

• Entirely hide the subsection so that it does not appear in course navigation. Subsections that are hidden in this way are not included when grades are calculated.
• Prevent learners from accessing a subsection’s contents after its due date has passed, but keep the subsection visible in course navigation. Subsections that are hidden in this way remain included when grades are calculated.

For more information, see Hiding Content from Learners.

Delete a Subsection¶

When you delete a subsection, you delete all units within the subsection.

To delete a subsection, follow these steps.

1. Select the Delete icon in the subsection that you want to delete.

2. When the confirmation prompt appears, select Yes, delete this subsection.

What Is a Unit?¶

A unit is a part of a subsection that learners view as a single page.

A unit contains one or more components, such as text with HTML markup, problems, a discussion, or a video.

Viewing Units in the Outline¶

To view units in the outline, you expand the parent section and subsection.

1. The section.
2. The subsection.
3. The units in the subsection.

Viewing the Unit Page¶

When you select a unit name in the outline, the Unit page opens.

The following example shows a unit page with two components, with circles and text to show different areas and controls in the page.

1. A component in the unit.
2. Options for testing the unit.
3. Status panel for the unit.
4. Location of the unit in the course outline.

Viewing Units as a Learner¶

To a learner using the edX learning management system (LMS), each unit in the subsection is represented by an icon in the unit navigation bar at the top of the Course page. The current unit is indicated with bold underlining in the unit navigation bar. The components in the current unit appear below the unit navigation bar.

The following image shows a subsection in the LMS that contains several units.

The Unit Workflow¶

When you have set up the section and subsection in the course outline, you then work with units.

The typical workflow includes these steps.

1. Create a unit.
2. Add components to the unit.
3. Modify components in the unit.

You publish the unit after you add all of its components. If you make additional modifications, you must publish the unit again for the changes to be visible to learners.

As you work through these steps, the publishing status of the unit changes. The publishing status controls the content available to learners, along with release dates (in an instructor-paced course). See the next section for more information.

Unit Publishing Status and Visibility to Learners¶

The following information summarizes whether or not learners can see a unit.

• Learners never see a unit with the publishing status Draft (Never Published).
• Learners never see a unit with the publishing status Visible to Staff Only. For more information, see Hide a Unit from Learners.
• Learners do not see a unit with the publishing status Published Not Yet Released until the release date (in an instructor-paced course). On the release date, the status changes to Published and Live.
• If the publishing status is Published and Live, learners see the current version of the unit.
• If the publishing status is Draft (Unpublished Changes), learners see the last published version of the unit if the release dates for the containing section and subsection have passed.

For more information, see Controlling Content Visibility.

Unit Publishing Statuses¶

As a course author, you work with units that have the following statuses.

Draft (Never Published)¶

When you create a new unit and add components to it, the unit’s publishing status is Draft (Never Published), as shown in the status panel.

Note

The Release section applies only to instructor-paced courses. It does not appear for units in self-paced courses. For more information about instructor-paced and self-paced courses, see Setting Course Pacing.

In Studio, you see the draft content as you develop the unit. Though you do not see the unit in the LMS, you can preview the unit.

Learners never see a unit with this status, even after the release date (in an instructor-paced course). You must publish the unit for it to be included in the LMS.

Published and Live¶

You published the unit and have not modified it. The release dates for the section and subsection have passed (in an instructor-paced course). You, and enrolled learners, see the current version of the unit.

The Release section applies only to instructor-paced courses. It does not appear for units in self-paced courses. For more information, see Setting Course Pacing.

Published (not yet released)¶

You published the unit, but the release date is still in the future. Learners cannot see this unit until the release date passes.

This status applies only to instructor-paced courses. It does not apply to self-paced courses.

Draft (Unpublished changes)¶

When you edit a published unit, whether or not it is released, the unit’s publishing status changes to Draft (Unpublished Changes), as shown in the status panel.

The Release section applies only to instructor-paced courses. It does not appear for units in self-paced courses.

In Studio, you see the draft content as you develop the unit. You can preview the changes to a unit to test how your changes will appear to learners after you publish the unit.

If the release date has passed in an instructor-paced course, learners see the last published version of the unit. If the release date is in the future, learners cannot see your content. You must publish the unit for learners to see your changes.

Visible to Staff Only¶

When you hide a unit from learners, the unit’s publishing status changes to Visible to Staff Only.

The publishing status of a unit also changes to Visible to Staff Only if you hide the parent section or subsection from learners.

Learners never see a unit with this status, even if it has been published and the release date has passed (in an instructor-paced course).

The Release section applies only to instructor-paced courses. It does not appear for units in self-paced courses.

Create a Unit¶

You can create a unit from the outline or create a unit in the same subsection from the unit page.

To create a unit from the outline, follow these steps.

1. In the outline, expand the subsection in which you want to create a new unit.
2. Select New Unit at the bottom of the expanded subsection. A new page opens for you to add components to the unit.
3. On the unit page, the unit name is selected. Supply an identifying name. A descriptive name can help learners locate content in the course. It can also help you select content when you analyze performance in edX Insights.
4. Add components to the new unit as needed.

To create a unit from a unit page, follow these steps.

1. In the Unit Location panel, select New Unit.

   

   The unit page for the new unit opens automatically.

2. On the unit page, the unit name is selected. Supply an identifying name. A descriptive name can help learners locate content in the course. It can also help you select content when you analyze performance in edX Insights.

3. Add components to the new unit as needed.

You must then publish the unit to make it visible to learners.

Edit a Unit¶

You can edit a unit in the following ways.

• Edit the unit name
• Develop components
• Reorganize Components in Units

When you make any of these changes, if you previously published the unit, the state changes to Draft (Unpublished Changes). You must then publish the unit to make your edits visible to learners.

Edit the Unit Name¶

To edit a unit name, select Edit next to the name.

The name field becomes editable. Enter the new name, and then tab or click outside of the field to save the name.

Reorganize Components in Units¶

You can reorganize components within a unit by dragging and dropping them to new locations.

To change the location of a component, move your mouse pointer over the Drag to reorder handle on the component toolbar. The pointer changes to a four- headed arrow. You can then drag the component to the location that you want.

In the image that follows, the handle for the discussion component is selected.

A blue outline indicates where the component will land when you release the mouse button. For example, in the image below, the discussion component is being moved to the top of the unit.

Preview a Unit¶

You preview a unit to review and test the content before it is visible to learners.

You can preview a unit before it is published and before the course is live. In a live course, after the unit is published and if there are no pending changes, previewing a unit is exactly the same as viewing the live version of the unit.

To preview the unit, in the unit page above the status panel, select Preview.

The unit opens in preview mode.

When you are revising a previously published unit, it can be helpful to preview your changes in one browser window and view the published unit in a second window.

For more information about previewing course content, see Preview Course Content.

Publish a Unit¶

Publishing a unit makes the current version of the unit in Studio available to learners. In an instructor-paced course, the release dates for the section and subsection must also have passed for learners to access a published unit.

You publish a unit that has a status of Draft (Never Published) or Draft (Unpublished Changes). When you publish a unit, the status changes to Published and Live or Published Not Yet Released.

You can publish a unit from the unit page or the course outline.

For more information about instructor-paced and self-paced courses, see Setting Course Pacing.

Use the Outline to Publish a Unit¶

To publish a unit from the outline, select the Publish icon in the box for the unit.

Note

The Publish icon only appears when there is new or changed content in the unit.

Discard Changes to a Unit¶

When you modify a published unit, your changes are saved in Studio, though the changes are not visible to learners until you publish the unit again.

If you decide that you never want to publish your changes, you can discard the changes so that Studio reverts to the last published version of the unit.

To discard changes and revert the Studio version of the unit to the last published version, select Discard Changes in the status panel.

View a Published Unit¶

To view the last published version of a unit in the LMS, select View Live Version at the top of the page.

The unit page opens in the LMS in Staff view. You might be prompted to log in to the LMS.

If the unit status is Draft (Unpublished Changes), you do not see your changes in the LMS until you publish the unit again.

If the unit status is Draft (Never Published), View Live Version is not enabled.

Hide a Unit from Learners¶

You can prevent learners from seeing a unit regardless of the unit status or the release schedules of the section and subsection.

For more information, see Hiding Content from Learners.

You can hide a unit from learners using the course outline or the unit page.

Delete a Unit¶

You delete a unit from the course outline.

When you delete a unit, you delete all components within the unit.

To delete a unit, follow these steps.

1. Select the Delete icon in the box for the unit you want to delete.

   

2. When you receive the confirmation prompt, select Yes, delete this unit.

What is a Component?¶

A component is the part of a unit that contains your actual course content. A unit can contain one or more components.

By default, Studio includes four types of components for you to add to your course.

• Discussion components provide discussion spaces in the body of your course. Learners can explore ideas about a lesson with their peers in a discussion space.
• HTML components allow you to add text, images, and some types of learning tools to your course. Content in HTML components is formatted as HTML.
• Problem components enable you to add many different types of exercises and problems to your course, from simple multiple choice problems to complex circuit schematic exercises.
• Video components contain the videos that you want to include in your course.

Add a Component¶

To add a component to the unit, follow these steps.

1. In Studio, open the page for the unit.
2. Under Add New Component, select a component type. The default component types are discussion, HTML, problem, and video.

For more information, see the documentation for the specific component type that you want to work with.

• Working with Discussion Components
• Working with HTML Components
• Working with Problem Components
• Working with Video Components

After you add a component, it is not visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Edit a Component¶

To edit a component, you select Edit.

Then, follow instructions for the type of component you are editing.

After you edit a component, the changes are not visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Set the Display Name for a Component¶

The display name identifies the component. This name appears as a heading above the component in the LMS, and it identifies the component for you in Insights.

The following illustration shows the display name of a problem in Studio, in the LMS, and in Insights.

Unique, descriptive display names help you and your learners identify components quickly and accurately.

To set the display name for a component, follow these steps.

1. Edit the component. A dialog box opens.

   • For a discussion or video component, the dialog box opens to the list of settings, including the Display Name field.
   • For an HTML or problem component, the dialog box opens to an editing view. Select Settings to show the list of settings, including the Display Name field.

2. Edit the Display Name field.

   

3. Select Save.

Different types of components have different fields in the Settings dialog box, but all of them have a Display Name field.

Duplicate a Component¶

When you duplicate a component, a new copy of that component is added directly beneath the first component. You can then modify the duplicate. In many cases, duplicating a component and editing the copy is a faster way to create new content.

To duplicate a component, select the Duplicate icon in the component header.

Then, follow instructions for the type of component you are editing.

After you duplicate a component, the new component is not visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Delete a Component¶

To delete a component, follow these steps.

1. Select the Delete icon in the component header.

2. When you receive the confirmation prompt, select Yes, delete this component.

After you delete a component, the component remains visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Components that Contain Other Components¶

For specific use cases, you configure course content so that components contain other components. For example, if you want to include conditional components or content experiments, you have to create components inside components. See Creating Content Experiments for more information.

The component that contains other components is referred to as the parent; the contained components are referred to as children.

In the unit page, a parent component appears with the display name and a View link. For example:

View Child Components¶

When you select View in the parent component, the parent component page opens, showing all child components. In this example, Child Component A contains an HTML component and a video.

Select the arrow next to a child component name to collapse it and hide the component’s contents.

Select the arrow again to expand the component.

For more information, see the following topics.

• Edit a Component
• Set the Display Name for a Component
• Duplicate a Component
• Delete a Component

<vertical display_name="Unit 1">
    <html url_name="6a5cf0ea41a54b209e0815147896d1b2"/>
    <vertical url_name="131a499ddaa3474194c1aa2eced34455"/>
</vertical>

<vertical display_name="Parent Component">
    <vertical url_name="2758bbc495dd40d59050da15b40bd9a5"/>
    <vertical url_name="c5c8b27c2c5546e784432f3b2b6cf2ea"/>
</vertical>

<vertical display_name="Child Component A">
    <html url_name="4471618afafb45bfb86cbe511973e225"/>
    <video url_name="fbd800d0bdbd4cb69ac70c47c9f699e1"/>
</vertical>

<vertical display_name="Child Component B">
    <html url_name="dd6ef295fda74a639842e1a49c66b2c7"/>
    <problem url_name="b40ecbe4ed1b4280ae93e2a158edae6f"/>
</vertical>

The Learner View of Nested Components¶

For learners, all parent and child components appear on the unit page. The following example shows the learner view of the unit described above.

Note

The visibility of nested components depends on the visibility of the parent unit. The parent unit must be public for learners to see nested components. For more information, see Unit Publishing Status and Visibility to Learners.

Reorganizing Child Components¶

You can reorganize child components through the same drag and drop process you use for other objects in your course outline. You hover over the element handle on the right side of the screen until the mouse pointer changes to a four- headed arrow. Then, click and drag the element to the location that you want.

Furthermore, when you have multiple levels of nesting, you can drag a child component into a different parent component, if both parents are expanded. For example, you can select the video component that is in Child Component A and drag it into Child Component B. Select the video component, and as you drag it into Child Component B, release the mouse button when a dashed outline of the component you are moving appears in the new location.

You can also drag a child component outside of a parent, so that the child moves to the same level as the parent.

Release Dates¶

You specify release dates and times for the sections and subsections in an instructor-paced course. By defining release dates, you ensure that content is available to learners on a planned schedule, without requiring manual intervention while the course is running.

By default, a subsection inherits the release date and time of the section it is in. You can change the release date of the subsection to another date.

Published units are not visible to learners until the scheduled release date and time. When the section and subsection have different release schedules, published units are not visible until both dates have passed.

Prior to release, content is visible to course team members by previewing the course or viewing the live course as staff.

For more information about setting release dates in an instructor-paced course, see the following topics.

• Set a Section Release Date
• Set a Subsection Release Date

Unit Publishing Status¶

You publish units to make them visible to learners. In both instructor-paced and self-paced courses, units must be published to be visible to learners. Learners see the last published version of a unit if the section and subsection it is in are released.

Learners do not see units that have never been published, and they do not see unpublished changes to units or components within units. Therefore, you can make changes to units in released subsections without disrupting the learner experience.

For more information, see Unit Publishing Statuses.

You can publish all changes in a section or subsection at once, or publish changes to individual units. For more information about publishing units, see the following topics.

• Publish all Units in a Section
• Publish All Units in a Subsection
• Publish a Unit

Hiding Content from Learners¶

You can hide content from learners in both instructor-paced and self-paced courses. Such content is never visible to learners, regardless of the release and publishing status.

You might hide a unit from learners, for example, when that unit contains an answer to a problem in another unit of that subsection. After the problem’s due date, you could make the unit with the answer visible.

You might also hide a unit from learners if you want to use that unit to provide instructions or guidance meant only for the course team. Only course team members would see that unit in the course.

You can hide content at different levels, as described in the following topics.

• Sections
• Subsections
• Units

Content Groups¶

If you have cohorts enabled in your course, you can use content groups to designate particular components in your course as visible only to specific groups of learners.

For details, see Content Groups and Creating Cohort-Specific Course Content.

Configuring Prerequisite Course Subsections¶

You can hide subsections of your course until learners complete other, prerequisite subsections. If a subsection has a prerequisite, it is not visible in the course navigation unless a learner has earned a minimum score in the prerequisite subsection.

Preview Course Content¶

You can preview course content before the course is live, or before you publish specific units in a live course, to test how content will appear to students when it is released.

When you preview course content, you see the latest course content that is configured in Studio. You see content in units with the publishing status Draft (Never Published), Draft (Unpublished changes), or Visible to Staff Only.

• You do not see units that are in Draft (Never Published) status. To see these units, you must use Preview mode, as described in Previewing Draft Content.

For example, you publish a unit that includes a video component and a discussion component.

Students see the same content in the LMS.

You later decide to add a knowledge check problem to the unit, between the video and the discussion. Before you publish this change, you can see how the question will look to students by previewing the unit in the LMS.

When you select Preview and select to view the course as a Student, you see the unit in the LMS with the multiple choice question. This preview shows how students will experience the unit after you publish the change.

In the live course, students continue to see the existing content, without the multiple choice question, until you publish the change.

View Your Live Course¶

While you are working in Studio, you can test your live course by viewing it in the LMS as all students, or a particular student, would see it. You can see your course in Staff View, Student View, or Specific Student View. If you are using content groups to designate specific content as visible only to particular content groups, you can see your course as a content group would see it.

You can view the course as a member of these groups.

To switch to your live course and see how it appears to members of the groups in the table above, follow these steps.

1. From the Studio Course Outline page, select View Live. Alternatively, from a unit page, select View Live Version.

   A separate browser tab opens for the course in the LMS.

2. In the LMS, select one of the View this course as options, as described in the table above.

The course view refreshes to present course content as a member of the selected group would see it.

For details about each view, see Staff View, Student View, or Specific Student View.

Open Studio from Your Live Course¶

When you are viewing your course in the LMS as Staff View, you can open Studio directly.

• On a unit page, select View Unit in Studio.

  The unit page opens in Studio.

• After you select Instructor to access the instructor dashboard, select View Course in Studio to open the course outline in Studio.

  For information about the tasks you can complete from the instructor dashboard, see Managing a Running Course.

• Select the Progress page, and then select View Grading in Studio to open the Grading page in Studio.

  For information about checking a student’s progress, see Review How Grading Is Configured for Your Course.

HTML Component Overview¶

HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the standard markup language used to create web pages. Web browsers present HTML code in a more readable format.

When students see text and images in your course, they are seeing HTML code that is formatted and presented by their browsers. For more information about HTML, see Wikipedia.

Options for Editing HTML Components¶

You can use two different editing interfaces to work with an HTML component.

• The Visual Editor

  With the visual editor you create, edit, and format content in a word processing-like interface, without using HTML markup directly. With the visual editor, you can more easily format your content, and add links and images. The visual editor includes an HTML option for you to review the HTML markup and make small formatting changes to your content. However, this HTML option does not provide the detailed control you can get with the raw HTML editor, and does not support custom formatting or scripts.

  If you add an HTML component and select Text, when you select Edit the visual editor opens by default.

• The Raw HTML Editor

  If you prefer to mark up your content directly with HTML markup, you can use the raw HTML editor. If you need to include custom formatting or scripts in your content, you must use the raw HTML editor.

  If you add an HTML component and select Raw HTML, when you select Edit the raw HTML editor opens by default.

You can switch back and forth between these two editing interfaces at any time. For more information, see Set the Editor for an HTML Component.

The Visual Editor¶

The visual editor provides a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) interface that allows you to format text by selecting options at the top of the editor.

The following image shows callouts for the editing options and is followed by descriptions.

1. Choose a formatting style for the selected text, such as paragraph, preformatted (monospace), or a heading level. The heading levels available for an HTML component begin with Heading 3. Because HTML components are part of a complete page, and heading levels 1 and 2 are in use by other elements on the page, any text with a heading 1 or 2 style within an HTML component can interfere with the functionality of tools such as screen readers.
2. Choose a font family for selected text, such as Arial, Courier New, or Times New Roman.
3. Format the selected text in bold, or remove bolding. The editor inserts <strong> tags around the selected text.
4. Format the selected text in italics, or remove italicization. The editor inserts <em> tags around the selected text.
5. Underline the selected text, or remove underlining. The editor encloses the selected text in the tag <span style="text-decoration: underline;">.
6. Apply a color to the selected text. The editor encloses the selected text in the tag <span style="color: color-hex-code;">.
7. Format the selected text as a code block, or remove this formatting. The editor inserts <code> tags around the selected text, which is then displayed in a monospace font.
8. Create a bulleted list, or remove this formatting. The editor inserts <ul> tags around the selected text, and encloses each paragraph in <li> tags.
9. Create a numbered list, or remove this formatting. The editor inserts <ol> tags around the selected text, and encloses each paragraph in <li> tags.
10. Decrease and increased the indentation of the selected paragraph.
11. Format the selected paragraph as a blockquote. The editor inserts <blockquote> tags around the selected text, which is then displayed as a separate paragraph in a monospace font.
12. Create a hypertext link from the selected text. See Add a Link in an HTML Component.
13. Remove a hypertext link from the selected text.
14. Insert an image at the cursor. See Add an Image to an HTML Component.
15. Review the HTML markup.

Review HTML Markup in the Visual Editor¶

To review the HTML markup added to content in the visual editor, select HTML from the visual editor’s toolbar. The HTML source code editor opens.

You can edit text and the HTML markup in this editor. However, you cannot add custom styles or scripts in this editor. Use the raw HTML editor instead.

Select OK to return to the visual editor. The visual editor attempts to correct any problems with the markup that you entered. For example, if you do not provide a close paragraph tag, the editor adds the tag for you.

You can then continue working in the visual editor.

Warning

Selecting OK in the source code editor does not save your changes to the HTML component. To save your changes and close the component, select Save in the visual editor. If you select Cancel, the changes you made in the HTML source code editor are discarded.

The Raw HTML Editor¶

The raw HTML editor is a text editor. It does not offer a toolbar with formatting options.

When you use this editor, you must supply valid HTML. The raw HTML editor does not validate your HTML code. If you use this editor, you should thoroughly test the HTML content in your course.

HTML Component Templates¶

When you create an HTML component, you select from a list of templates.

The raw HTML template uses the raw HTML editor by default. All of the other templates use the visual editor by default. You can switch between the editors in any HTML component. For more information, see Set the Editor for an HTML Component.

Create an HTML Component¶

1. Under Add New Component, select HTML.

2. Select the template.

   The rest of these instructions assume that you selected Text, which creates an empty HTML component with the visual editor selected.

   An empty HTML component appears at the bottom of the unit.

3. In the component, select Edit.

   The HTML component opens in the visual editor.

4. Enter and format your content. You can review the HTML markup if needed.

   

5. Enter a display name for the component. The display name identifies the component for learners, so it should describe the content effectively. To do so, select Settings, and then enter text in the Display Name field.

   Each HTML template supplies a default display name. Changing the default to a unique, descriptive display name can help you and your learners identify course content quickly and accurately. If you delete the default display name and do not enter your own identifying name, the platform supplies “html” for you.

   To return to the visual editor, select Editor.

6. Select Save.

When using the visual editor, you can also perform the following tasks.

• Add a Link in an HTML Component
• Add an Image to an HTML Component
• Import LaTeX Code into an HTML Component

Add a Link in an HTML Component¶

When using the visual editor, to add a link to a website, course unit, or file in an HTML component, you work with the Insert link dialog box.

For more information, see the following tasks.

• Add a Link to a Website
• Add a Link to a Course Unit
• Add a Link to a File

Import LaTeX Code into an HTML Component¶

You can import LaTeX code into an HTML component. You might do this, for example, if you want to create “beautiful math” such as the following.

Warning

The LaTeX processor that Studio uses to convert LaTeX code to XML is a third- party tool. We recommend that you use this feature with caution. If you do use it, make sure to work with your partner manager.

Enable the LaTeX Processor¶

The LaTeX processor is not enabled by default. To enable it, you have to change the advanced settings in your course.

1. In Studio, select Settings, and then select Advanced Settings.
2. In the field for the Enable LaTeX Compiler policy key, change false to true.
3. At the bottom of the page, select Save Changes.

Add an HTML Component that Contains LaTeX Code¶

When the LaTeX processor is enabled, you can create an HTML component that contains LaTeX code.

1. In the unit where you want to create the component, select html under Add New Component, and then select E-text Written in LaTeX. The new component is added to the unit.

2. Select Edit to open the new component. The component editor opens.

   

3. In the component editor, select Launch Latex Source Compiler. The LaTeX editor opens.

   

4. Write LaTeX code as needed. You can also upload a LaTeX file into the editor from your computer by selecting Upload in the bottom right corner.

5. When you have written or uploaded the LaTeX code you need, select Save & Compile to edX XML in the lower-left corner.

   The component editor closes. You can see the way your LaTeX content looks.

   

6. On the unit page, select Preview to verify that your content looks the way you want it to look in the LMS.

   If you see errors, go back to the unit page. Select Edit to open the component again, and then select Launch Latex Source Compiler in the lower left corner of the component editor to edit the LaTeX code.

Overview¶

You can create videos and add them to a course to supplement active learning components, such as discussions and problems. Videos can be effective for a number of purposes, such as presenting motivating material, showing experiments, and reducing cognitive load for complex content.

For more information about how learners can interact with course videos, see Watching Videos on the edX Video Player in the EdX Learner’s Guide or Watching Videos on the edX Video Player in the Open edX Learner’s Guide.

Step 1. Create the Video¶

Your videos can contain whatever content you want to include in the course. The Creating Videos section of edX101 Overview of Creating an edX Course has some helpful pointers for creating good video content.

When you create videos, follow Richard E. Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning. The principles in this document are based on extensive experimental research of student learning.

Step 2. Create or Obtain a Video Transcript¶

Transcripts are required for your videos. Transcripts help learners with hearing impairments understand audio content, and they are helpful for learners who speak other languages. You can allow learners to download transcripts so that they can read them offline. You associate a transcript with a video when you create the video component.

Timed transcripts in the SubRip Text (.srt) format are strongly recommended. Learners can select the Show transcript (”) icon in the video player’s control bar to show the transcript next to the video. The transcript automatically scrolls as the video plays, and learners can select a line in the transcript to jump to the point in the video where that word is spoken.

Learners can also choose to show the transcript file as overlaid closed captions for the video by selecting the CC icon in the video player’s control bar.

To create or obtain a transcript in .srt format, you can work with a company that provides captioning services.

When you upload an .srt file, a text (.txt) file is created automatically. You can allow learners to download these transcript files. If you allow your learners to download transcripts, the video player includes an option to download the video transcript as either an .srt file or a .txt file.

Step 3. Post the Video Online¶

All course videos should be posted to YouTube. By default, the edX video player accesses your YouTube videos.

Because YouTube is not available in all locations, however, edX recommends that you also post copies of your videos on a third-party hosting site such as Amazon S3. When a learner views a video in your course, if YouTube is not available in that learner’s location or if the YouTube video does not play, the video on the backup site starts playing automatically. You can also allow the learners to download the video from the backup site.

After you post your video online, make sure you have the URL for that copy of the video. If you post copies of your video in more than one place, make sure you have the URL for each video location.

Step 4. Create a Video Component¶

To add a video and its transcript to your course, follow these steps.

1. Under Add New Component, select Video.

2. When the new video component appears, select Edit. The video editor opens to the Basic page.

   

   You replace the default values with your own.

3. In the Component Display Name field, enter an identifying name for this video. This name appears as a heading above the video in the LMS, and it identifies the video for you in Insights.

   The default display name for new video components is “Video”. Changing the default to a unique, descriptive display name can help you and your learners identify different videos quickly and accurately. If you delete this default and do not enter an identifying name, the platform supplies “video” for you.

4. In the Default Video URL field, enter the URL of the video. Example URLs follow.

   http://youtu.be/OEoXaMPEzfM
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoXaMPEzfM
   https://s3.amazonaws.com/edx-course-videos/edx-edx101/EDXSPCPJSP13-G030300.mp4
   

   Note

   To be sure that all learners can access a video, you can create multiple versions that use different encodings or hosting services. After you post different versions on the Internet, you add each URL below the default video URL. These URLs cannot be YouTube URLs. To add a URL for another version, select Add URLs for additional versions. The first listed video that is compatible with the learner’s computer plays.

5. Next to Default Timed Transcript, select an option.

   • If edX already has a transcript for this video, Studio automatically finds the transcript and associates the transcript with the video. This situation can occur when you reuse a video from an existing course.

     If you want to modify the transcript, select Download Transcript for Editing. You can then make your changes and upload the new file by selecting Upload New Transcript.

   • If edX does not have a transcript for the video, but YouTube has a transcript, Studio automatically finds the YouTube transcript and asks if you want to import it. To use this YouTube transcript, select Import YouTube Transcript. (If you want to modify the YouTube transcript, import the YouTube transcript into Studio, and then select Download Transcript for Editing. You can then make your changes and upload the new file by selecting Upload New Transcript.)

   • If both edX and YouTube have a transcript for your video, but the edX transcript is out of date, you receive a message asking if you want to replace the edX transcript with the YouTube transcript. To use the YouTube transcript, select Yes, replace the edX transcript with the YouTube transcript.

   • If neither edX nor YouTube has a transcript for your video, and your transcript uses the .srt format, select Upload New Transcript to upload the transcript file from your computer.

     Note

     • If you want to provide a transcript in a format such as .pdf, do not use this field to upload the transcript. For more information, see Add a Supplemental Downloadable Transcript.
     • If your transcript uses the .sjson format, do not use this field. For more information, see Upload an .sjson File (Deprecated).

6. Optionally, select Advanced to set more options for the video. For a description of each option, see Setting Advanced Options.

7. Select Save.

Including Optional Collateral¶

After you add a video component to your course, you can provide optional collateral to accompany the video.

Add a Transcript in Another Language¶

You can provide transcripts for your video in more than one language. To do this, you work with a third-party service to obtain an .srt transcript file for each language, and then associate the .srt file with the video in Studio.

Before you add a transcript file, make sure that each file has a unique name. If you use the same transcript name more than once, only the most recently added transcript will appear for every video component that is set up to use a transcript with that name. To avoid this problem, a best practice is to name additional transcript files by appending the transcript’s language to the video file name.

For example, you have two videos, named video1.mp4 and video2.mp4, and their original transcripts are named video1.srt and video2.srt. When you add Spanish transcripts for these videos, you name them video1_ES.srt and video2_ES.srt. Later, when you add Russian transcripts for the videos, you name them video1_RU.srt and video2_RU.srt.

To add a transcript to a video component, follow these steps.

1. After you obtain the .srt files for additional languages, open the video component for the video.
2. On the Advanced tab, scroll down to Transcript Languages, and then select Add.
3. Select the language for the transcript that you want to add.
4. Select Upload, browse to the .srt file for the transcript in that language, and then select Open.
5. In the Upload translation dialog box, select Upload.
6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 for any additional languages.

When your learners view the video, they can select the Language menu to select a language.

Overview¶

You can add discussion components to a unit to pose questions about other components, such as videos or text, in the unit. A discussion component gives learners a chance to respond to and interact with each other about a specific subject.

Discussion topics that you create by adding discussion components in your course are known as content-specific discussion topics.

For more information about discussions, see these topics.

• Managing Course Discussions
• Guidance for Discussion Moderators
• Setting up Discussions in Courses with Cohorts

Create a Discussion Component¶

1. Under Add New Component, select Discussion.

   Warning

   You should always use these steps to create a discussion component. Do not create discussion components by using the Duplicate button in Studio. Duplicated discussion components result in discussion topics containing the same conversations, even if users post in different discussions.

2. In the discussion component that appears, select Edit.

   

3. Follow the guidelines in the editor to fill in the Category, the Display Name, and the Subcategory fields.

   

   The value in the Display Name field identifies the discussion in the course content. The default display name for new discussion components is “Discussion”. Changing the default to a unique, descriptive display name can help you and your learners identify different topics quickly and accurately. If you delete the default display name and do not enter your own identifying name, the platform supplies “discussion” for you.

   The values in the Category and Subcategory fields are visible to learners in the list of discussion topics on the Discussion page.

   Note

   Each Category/Subcategory pair for the discussion topics in your course must be unique.

   

4. Select Save.

A Learner’s View of the Discussion¶

When you add a content-specific discussion topic to a unit, learners see only the Show Discussion and New Post options. EdX recommends that you add an HTML component before each discussion component to introduce the topic that you want learners to discuss.

In the following example, the discussion component follows video and HTML components.

Learners must select Show Discussion to expand the discussion space and read the contributions, or select New Post to post their own contributions.

On the Discussion page, learners can find the category and subcategory of the discussion in the discussion thread list.

Adding a Problem¶

To add interactive problems to a course in Studio, In the course outline in Studio, at the unit level, you select Problem. You then choose the type of problem that you want to add from a list of Common Problem Types or Advanced problem types.

The common problem types include relatively straightforward CAPA problems such as multiple choice and text or numeric input. The advanced problem types can be more complex to set up, such as math expression input, peer assessment, or custom JavaScript problems.

The common and advanced problem types that the problem component lists are the core set of problems that every course team can include in a course. You can also enable more exercises and tools for use in your course. For more information, see Enabling Additional Exercises and Tools.

The Learner View of a Problem¶

All problems on the edX platform have these component parts, some of which can be configured. For configurable options, you can specify whether and when an option is available in problems.

1. Problem text. The problem text can contain any standard HTML formatting.

   Within the problem text for each problem component, you must identify a question or prompt, which is, specifically, the question that learners need to answer. This question or prompt also serves as the required accessible label, and is used by screen readers, reports, and Insights. For more information about identifying the question text in your problem, see The Simple Editor.

2. Response field. Learners enter answers in response fields. The appearance of the response field depends on the type of the problem.

3. Rendered answer. For some problem types, the LMS uses MathJax to render plain text as “beautiful math.”

4. Submit. When a learner selects Submit to submit a response for a problem, the LMS saves the grade and current state of the problem. The LMS immediately provides feedback about whether the response is correct or incorrect, as well as the problem score. The Submit option remains available if the learner has unused attempts remaining, so that she can try to answer the problem again.

5. Attempts. You can set a specific number of attempts or allow unlimited attempts for a problem. By default, the course-wide Maximum Attempts advanced setting is null, meaning that the maximum number of attempts for problems is unlimited.

   In courses where a specific number has been specified for Maximum Attempts in Advanced Settings, if you do not specify a value for Maximum Attempts for an individual problem, the number of attempts for that problem defaults to the number of attempts defined in Advanced Settings.

6. Save. The learner can select Save to save his current response without submitting it for grading. This allows the learner to stop working on a problem and come back to it later.

7. Reset. You can specify whether the Reset option is available for a problem. This setting at the problem level overrides the default setting for the course in Advanced Settings.

   If the Reset option is available, learners can select Reset to clear any input that has not yet been submitted, and try again to answer the question.

   • If the learner has already submitted an answer, selecting Reset clears the submission and, if the problem includes a Python script to randomize variables and the randomization setting is On Reset, changes the values the learner sees in the problem.
   • If the problem has already been answered correctly, Reset is not available.
   • If the number of Maximum Attempts that was set for this problem has been reached, Reset is not available.

8. Show Answer. You can specify whether this option is available for a problem. If a learner selects Show Answer, the learner sees both the correct answer and the explanation, if any.

9. Feedback. After a learner selects Submit, an icon appears beside each response field or selection within a problem. A green check mark indicates that the response was correct, a green asterisk indicates that the response was partially correct, and a red X indicates that the response was incorrect. Underneath the problem, feedback text indicates whether the problem was answered correctly, incorrectly, or partially correctly, and shows the problem score.

   

In addition to the items above, which are shown in the example, problems also have the following elements.

• Correct answer. Most problems require that you specify a single correct answer.
• Explanation. You can include an explanation that appears when a learner selects Show Answer.
• Grading. You can specify whether a group of problems is graded. If a group of problems is graded, an icon of a pen and a piece of paper is shown for that assignment in the course navigation pane.
• Due date. The date that the problem is due. Learners cannot submit answers for problems whose due dates have passed, although they can select Show Answer to show the correct answer and the explanation, if any.

There are also some attributes of problems that are not immediately visible. You can set these attributes in Studio.

• Accessible Label. Within the problem text, you can identify the text that is, specifically, the question that learners need to answer. The text that is labeled as the question is used by screen readers, reports, and Insights. For more information, see The Simple Editor.
• Randomization. In certain types of problems, you can include a Python script to randomize the values that are presented to learners. You use this setting to define when values are randomized. For more information, see Randomization.
• Weight. Different problems in a particular problem set can be given different weights. For more information, see Problem Weight.

Editing a Problem in Studio¶

When you select Problem and choose one of the problem types, Studio adds an example problem of that type to the unit. To replace the example with your own problem, you select Edit to open the example problem in an editor.

The editing interface that opens depends on the type of problem you choose.

• For common problem types, the simple editor opens. In this editor, you use Markdown-style formatting indicators to identify the elements of the problem, such as the prompt and the correct and incorrect answer options.

• For advanced problem types (with the exception of peer assessment), the advanced editor opens. In this editor you use open learning XML (OLX) elements and attributes to identify the elements of the problem.

  For peer assessment problem types, you define the problem elements and options by using a graphical user interface. For more information, see Create an Open Response Assessment Assignment.

You can switch from the simple editor to the advanced editor at any time by selecting Advanced Editor from the simple editor’s toolbar.

The Simple Editor¶

When you edit one of the common problem types, the simple editor opens with a template that you can use as a guideline for adding Markdown formatting. The following templates are available.

• Checkbox Problem and Checkboxes with Hints and Feedback
• Dropdown Problem and Dropdown with Hints and Feedback
• Multiple Choice Problem and Multiple Choice with Hints and Feedback
• Numerical Input Problem and Numerical Input with Hints and Feedback
• Text Input Problem and Text Input with Hints and Feedback

Blank common problems also open in the simple editor but they do not provide a template.

Adding Markdown Formatting¶

The following image shows the multiple choice template in the simple editor.

The simple editor includes a toolbar with options that provide the required Markdown formatting for different types of problems. When you select an option from the toolbar, formatted sample text appears in the simple editor. Alternatively, you can apply formatting to your own text by selecting the text and then one of the toolbar options.

Descriptions of the Markdown formatting that you use in the simple editor follow.

1. Heading: Identifies a title or heading by adding a series of equals signs (=) below it on the next line.
2. Multiple Choice: Identifies an answer option for a multiple choice problem by adding a pair of parentheses (( )) before it. To identify the correct answer option, you insert an x within the parentheses: ((x)).
3. Checkboxes: Identifies an answer option for a checkboxes problem by adding a pair of brackets ([ ]) before it. To identify the correct answer option or options, you insert an x within the brackets: ([x]).
4. Text Input: Identifies the correct answer for a text input problem by adding an equals sign (=) before the answer value on the same line.
5. Numerical Input: Identifies the correct answer for a numerical input problem by adding an equals sign (=) before the answer value on the same line.
6. Dropdown: Identifies a comma-separated list of values as the set of answer options for a dropdown problem by adding two pairs of brackets ([[ ]]) around the list. To identify the correct answer option, you add parentheses (( )) around that option.
7. Explanation: Identifies the explanation for the correct answer by adding an [explanation] tag to the lines before and after the text. The explanation appears only after learners select Show Answer. You define when the Show Answer option is available to learners by using the Show Answer setting.
8. Advanced Editor link: Opens the problem in the advanced editor, which shows the OLX markup for the problem.
9. Toggle Cheatsheet: Opens a list of formatting hints.
10. Question or Prompt: Identifies the question that learners need to answer. The toolbar does not have an option that provides this formatting, so you add two pairs of inward-pointing angle brackets (>> <<) around the question text. For example, >>Is this the question?<<.
    • You must identify a question or prompt in every problem component. In problems that include multiple questions, you must identify each one.
    • The Student Answer Distribution report uses the text with this formatting to identify each problem.
    • Insights also uses the text with this formatting to identify each problem. For more information, see Using edX Insights.
11. Description: Identifies optional guidance that helps learners answer the question. For example, when you add a checkbox problem that is only correct when learners select three of the answer options, you might include the description, “Be sure to select all that apply.” The toolbar does not have an option that provides this formatting, so you add it after the question within the angle brackets, and then you separate the question and the description by inserting a pair of pipe symbols (||) between them. For example, >>Which of the following choices is correct? ||Be sure to select all that apply.<<.

Adding Text, Symbols, and Mathematics¶

You can also add text, without formatting, to a problem. Note that screen readers read all of the text that you supply for the problem, and then repeat the text that is identified as the question or prompt immediately before reading the answer choices for the problem. For problems that require descriptions or other text, you might consider adding an HTML component for the text immediately before the problem component.

When you enter unformatted text, note that the simple editor cannot interpret certain symbol characters correctly. These symbols are reserved HTML characters: greater than (>), less than (<), and ampersand (&). If you enter text that includes these characters, the simple editor cannot save your edits. To resolve this problem, replace these characters in your problem text with the HTML entities that represent them.

• To enter >, type >.
• To enter <, type <.
• To enter &, type &.

To add mathematics, you can use LaTeX, MathML, or AsciiMath notation. Studio uses MathJax to render equations. For more information, see Using MathJax for Mathematics.

The Advanced Editor¶

When you edit one of the advanced problem types, the advanced editor opens with an example problem. The advanced editor is an XML editor that shows the OLX markup for a problem. You edit the following advanced problem types in the advanced editor.

• Circuit Schematic Builder Problem
• Custom JavaScript Display and Grading
• Custom Python-Evaluated Input
• Drag and Drop (Deprecated)
• Image Mapped Input Problem
• Math Expression Input Problems
• Problem Written in LaTeX
• Problem with Adaptive Hint and Problem with Adaptive Hint in LaTex
• Molecular Structure

For the Peer Assessment advanced problem type, a dialog box opens for problem setup.

Blank advanced problems do not provide an example problem, but they also open in the advanced editor by default.

The following image shows the OLX markup in the advanced editor for the same example multiple choice problem that is shown in the simple editor above.

For more information about the OLX markup to use for a problem, see the topic that describes that problem type.

Defining Settings for Problem Components¶

In addition to the text of the problem and its Markdown formatting or OLX markup, you define the following settings for problem components. To access these settings, you edit the problem and then select Settings.

If you do not edit these settings, default values are supplied for your problems.

Display Name¶

This required setting provides an identifying name for the problem. The display name appears as a heading above the problem in the LMS, and it identifies the problem for you in Insights. Be sure to add unique, descriptive display names so that you, and your learners, can identify specific problems quickly and accurately.

The following illustration shows the display name of a problem in Studio, in the LMS, and in Insights.

For more information about metrics for your course’s problem components, see Using edX Insights.

Problem Weight¶

Note

The LMS scores all problems. However, only scores for problem components that are in graded subsections count toward a learner’s final grade.

This setting specifies the total number of points possible for the problem. In the LMS, the problem weight appears near the problem’s display name.

By default, each response field, or answer space, in a problem component is worth one point. You increase or decrease the number of points for a problem component by setting its Problem Weight.

In the example shown above, a single problem component includes three separate questions. To respond to these questions, learners select answer options from three separate dropdown lists, the response fields for this problem. By default, learners receive one point for each question that they answer correctly.

For information about how to define a problem that includes more than one question, see Including Multiple Questions in One Component.

Computing Scores¶

The score that a learner earns for a problem is the result of the following formula.

Score = Weight × (Correct answers / Response fields)

• Score is the point score that the learner receives.
• Weight is the problem’s maximum possible point score.
• Correct answers is the number of response fields that contain correct answers.
• Response fields is the total number of response fields in the problem.

Examples

The following are some examples of computing scores.

Example 1

A problem’s Problem Weight setting is left blank. The problem has two response fields. Because the problem has two response fields, the maximum score is 2.0 points.

If one response field contains a correct answer and the other response field contains an incorrect answer, the learner’s score is 1.0 out of 2 points.

Example 2

A problem’s weight is set to 12. The problem has three response fields.

If a learner’s response includes two correct answers and one incorrect answer, the learner’s score is 8.0 out of 12 points.

Example 3

A problem’s weight is set to 2. The problem has four response fields.

If a learner’s response contains one correct answer and three incorrect answers, the learner’s score is 0.5 out of 2 points.

Randomization¶

Note

This Randomization setting serves a different purpose from “problem randomization”. This Randomization setting affects how numeric values are randomized within a single problem and requires the inclusion of a Python script. Problem randomization presents different problems or problem versions to different learners. For more information, see Problem Randomization.

For problems that include a Python script to generate numbers randomly, this setting specifies how frequently the values in the problem change: each time a different learner accesses the problem, each time a single learner tries to answer the problem, both, or never.

Note

This setting should only be set to an option other than Never for problems that are configured to do random number generation.

For example, in this problem, the highlighted values change each time a learner submits an answer to the problem.

If you want to randomize numeric values in a problem, you complete both of these steps.

• Make sure that you edit your problem to include a Python script that randomly generates numbers.
• Select an option other than Never for the Randomization setting.

The edX Platform has a 20-seed maximum for randomization. This means that learners see up to 20 different problem variants for every problem that has Randomization set to an option other than Never. It also means that every answer for the 20 different variants is reported by the Answer Distribution report and edX Insights. Limiting the number of variants to a maximum of 20 allows for better analysis of learner submissions by allowing you to detect common incorrect answers and usage patterns for such answers.

For more information, see Student Answer Distribution in this guide, or Review Answers to Graded Problems or Review Answers to Ungraded Problems in Using edX Insights.

Important

Whenever you choose an option other than Never for a problem, the computations for the Answer Distribution report and edX Insights include up to 20 variants for the problem, even if the problem was not actually configured to include randomly generated values. This can make data collected for problems that cannot include randomly generated values, (including, but not limited to, all multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown, and text input problems), extremely difficult to interpret.

You can choose the following options for the Randomization setting.

Option	Description
Always	Learners see a different version of the problem each time they select Submit.
On Reset	Learners see a different version of the problem each time they select Reset.
Never	All learners see the same version of the problem. For most courses, this option is supplied by default. Select this option for every problem in your course that does not include a Python script to generate random numbers.
Per Student	Individual learners see the same version of the problem each time they look at it, but that version is different from the version that other learners see.

Including Multiple Questions in One Component¶

In some cases, you might want to design an assessment that combines multiple questions in a single problem component. For example, you might want learners to demonstrate mastery of a concept by providing the correct responses to several questions, and only giving them credit for problem if all of the answers are correct.

Another example involves learners who have slow or intermittent internet connections. When every problem appears on a separately loaded web page, these learners can find the amount of time it takes to complete an assignment or exam discouraging. For these learners, grouping several questions together can promote increased engagement with course assignments.

When you add multiple questions to a single problem component, the settings that you define, including the display name and whether to show the Reset button, apply to all of the questions in that component. The answers to all of the questions are submitted when learners select Submit, and the correct answers for all of the questions appear when learners select Show Answer. By default, learners receive one point for each question they answer correctly. For more information about changing the default problem weight and other settings, see Defining Settings for Problem Components.

>>Who invented the Caesar salad?||Be sure to check your spelling.<<
= Caesar Cardini
[explanation]
Caesar Cardini is credited with inventing this salad and received a U.S. trademark for his salad dressing recipe.
[explanation]
---
>>In what year?<<
= 1924
[explanation]
Cardini invented the dish at his restaurant on 4 July 1924 after the rush of holiday business left the kitchen with fewer supplies than usual.
[explanation]

<problem>
  <stringresponse answer="Caesar Cardini" type="ci">
    <label>Who invented the Caesar salad?</label>
    <description>Be sure to check your spelling.</description>
    <textline size="20"/>
    <solution>
      <div class="detailed-solution">
        <p>Explanation</p>
        <p>Caesar Cardini is credited with inventing this salad and received
         a U.S. trademark for his salad dressing recipe.</p>
      </div>
    </solution>
  </stringresponse>

  <numericalresponse answer="1924">
    <label>In what year?</label>
    <formulaequationinput/>
    <solution>
      <div class="detailed-solution">
        <p>Explanation</p>
        <p>Cardini invented the dish at his restaurant on 4 July 1924 after
         the rush of holiday business left the kitchen with fewer supplies
         than usual.</p>
      </div>
    </solution>
  </numericalresponse>
</problem>

Adding Feedback and Hints to a Problem¶

You can add feedback, hints, or both to the following core problem types.

• Checkbox Problem
• Dropdown Problem
• Multiple Choice Problem
• Numerical Input Problem
• Text Input Problem

By using hints and feedback, you can provide learners with guidance and help as they work on problems.

Feedback in Response to Attempted Answers¶

You can add feedback that displays to learners after they submit an answer.

For example, the following multiple choice problem provides feedback in response to the selected option when the learner selects Submit. In this case, feedback is given for an incorrect answer.

Providing Hints for Problems¶

You can add one or more hints that are displayed to learners. When you add hints, the Hint button is automatically displayed to learners. Learners can access the hints by selecting Hint beneath the problem. A learner can view multiple hints by selecting Hint multiple times.

For example, in the following multiple choice problem, the learner selects Hint after having made one incorrect attempt.

The hint text indicates that it is the first of two hints. After the learner selects Next Hint, both of the available hints appear. When all hints have been used, the Hint or Next Hint option is no longer available.

Awarding Partial Credit for a Problem¶

You can configure the following problem types so that learners can receive partial credit for a problem if they submit an answer that is partly correct.

• Checkbox
• Multiple Choice
• Numerical Input
• Write-Your-Own Grader

By awarding partial credit for problems, you can motivate learners who have mastered some of the course content and provide a score that accurately demonstrates their progress.

For more information about configuring partial credit, see the topic for each problem type.

How Learners Receive Partial Credit¶

Learners receive partial credit when they submit an answer in the LMS.

In the following example, the course team configured a multiple choice problem to award 25% of the possible points (instead of 0 points) for one of the incorrect answer options. The learner selected this incorrect option, and received 25% of the possible points.

Adding Tooltips to a Problem¶

To help learners understand terminology or other aspects of a problem, you can add inline tooltips. Tooltips show text to learners when they move their cursors over a tooltip icon.

The following example problem includes two tooltips. The tooltip that provides a definition for “ROI” is being shown.

Note

For learners using a screen reader, the tooltip expands to make its associated text accessible when the screen reader focuses on the tooltip icon.

To add the tooltip, you wrap the text that you want to appear as the tooltip in the clarification element. For example, the following problem contains two tooltips.

<problem>
    <text>
        <p>Given the data in Table 7 <clarification>Table 7: "Example PV
          Installation Costs", Page 171 of Roberts textbook</clarification>,
          compute the ROI <clarification><strong>ROI</strong>: Return on
          Investment</clarification> over 20 years.
        </p>
     . . .

Problem Randomization¶

Presenting different learners with different problems or with different versions of the same problem is referred to as “problem randomization”.

You can provide different learners with different problems by using randomized content blocks, which randomly draw problems from pools of problems stored in content libraries. For more information, see Randomized Content Blocks.

Creating randomized problems by exporting your course and editing some of your course’s XML files is no longer supported.

Modifying a Released Problem¶

After a learner submits a response to a problem, the LMS stores that response, the score that the learner received, and the maximum score for the problem. For problems with a Maximum Attempts setting greater than 1, the LMS updates these values each time the learner submits a new response to a problem. However, if you change a problem or its attributes, existing learner information for that problem is not automatically updated.

For example, you release a problem and specify that its answer is 3. After some learner have submitted responses, you notice that the answer should be 2 instead of 3. When you update the problem with the correct answer, the LMS does not update scores for learners who originally answered 2 for the problem and received the wrong score.

For another example, you change the number of response fields to three. Learners who submitted answers before the change have a score of 0, 1, or 2 out of 2.0 for that problem. Learners who submitted answers after the change have scores of 0, 1, 2, or 3 out of 3.0 for the same problem.

If you change the weight setting for the problem in Studio, however, existing scores update when the learner’s Progress page is refreshed. In a live section, learners will see the effect of these changes.

Content Libraries Overview¶

In Studio, you can create a library to build a pool of components for use in randomized assignments in your courses. You can add HTML components, problems, and video components to a library. Peer assessment and discussion components are not supported in libraries.

After creating a library and adding components to it, if you have enabled content libraries in your course, you can use these library components in randomized assignments in your course. You do this by adding a randomized content block to a course unit and specifying the name of the library from which the randomized content is to drawn. You also specify the number and type of problems that each learner is assigned. For information about randomized content blocks, see Randomized Content Blocks.

Libraries have separate users and levels of access from courses. Initially, only the person who created the library has access. She can add other users to the library. For details, see Give Other Users Access to Your Library. The libraries that you create or have access to are listed on the Libraries tab on the Studio Home page.

Create a New Library¶

Use content libraries to build a pool of components that can be used in randomized assignments in your courses.

To create a new library, follow these steps.

1. Log in to Studio.

2. Select New Library.

3. Enter the required information for your new library, then select Create.

   Note

   Enter new library information carefully. The values in these fields become part of the URL for your library, therefore the total number of characters in the Library Name, Organization, and Library Code fields must be 65 or fewer.

   

• For Library Name, enter the public display name for your library. Choose a meaningful name that will help you and other course team members to identify the library. For example, “Level 200 Math Problems”. When you add a randomized content block to a course unit, you use the library name to specify this library as a source for the randomized assignment.
• For Organization, enter the identifier for your university. For example, enter HarvardX or MITx. Do not include spaces or special characters.
• For Library Code, enter an identifier for your library that is unique within your organization. This code becomes part of the URL for your library, so do not include spaces or special characters in the code.

4. Select Create.

You see the new library, to which you can now add components. For information about adding components to a library, see Add Components to a Library.

After you create a library, you are automatically assigned an Admin role for the library. For information about adding other users to a library after you create it, see Give Other Users Access to Your Library.

Edit a Library¶

After you create a library, the only change you can make to the initial library information is to the name. However, at any time, you can make changes to the components in your library, including adding or deleting components or editing the settings of components. For details about editing the contents of a library, see Edit Components in a Library and Add Components to a Library.

To change the name of a library, follow these steps.

1. Log in to Studio.

2. Select Libraries, then select the library whose name you want to edit.

3. Select the Edit icon next to the library name.

   The library name field becomes editable.

   

4. In the library name field, make edits or enter a new library name.

5. Select anywhere outside the library name field to save your changes.

For details about giving other users access to the library, see Give Other Users Access to Your Library.

Add Components to a Library¶

To add new components to your library, follow these steps.

1. Log in to Studio.
2. Select Libraries, then select the library that you want to add components to.
3. Select Add Component, then select the component type that you want to add under Add New Component.

For more information about the types of components you can add to a library, see these topics.

• Working with HTML Components
• Working with Problem Components
• Working with Video Components

After you add a component to a library, you can edit its settings. These settings are retained when the component is selected from the library and used in a course.

When a component from the library is used in a randomized content block, you can further edit the component as it exists in the unit, without affecting the original version in the library. For details, refer to Edit Components in a Library and Getting the Latest Version of Library Content.

View the Contents of a Library¶

To view the entire contents of a library in Studio, follow these steps.

1. Log in to Studio.
2. Select Libraries, then select the library whose components you want to view.
3. Optionally, select Hide Previews at the top right of the library page to collapse the component previews and see only the list of component display names. To return to the full preview of components in the library, select Show Previews.

The components in the library are shown in the order in which they were added, with the most recently added at the bottom. If your library has more than 10 components, additional components are shown on other pages.

The range of the components shown on the current page, and the total number of components, are shown at the top of the page.

You can navigate through the pages in the following ways.

• Use the < and > buttons at the top and bottom of the list to navigate to the previous and next pages.

• At the bottom of the page, you can edit the first number in the page range. Select the number to place your cursor in the field, then enter the page number you want to jump to.

  

To view the list of matching components in the library, see View the Matching Components in a Randomized Content Block.

To view the randomized content that was assigned to a specific learner, see Specific Student View.

Edit Components in a Library¶

After you have added components to a library, you can edit, duplicate, or delete them.

For step-by-step instructions for editing, duplicating, or deleting components, refer to the following topics.

• Edit a Component
• Duplicate a Component
• Delete a Component

Delete a Library¶

You cannot delete a library. Instead, you can discontinue use of an unwanted library. To do so, first make sure that none of its components are in use in any courses, then delete all components in the library. You can also edit the name of the library to make it clear to other course team members that the library should not be used as a source of randomized assignment content in courses.

For details about deleting components in a library, see Edit Components in a Library.

Give Other Users Access to Your Library¶

When you create a library, you are automatically assigned an Admin role in that library.

You can give other Studio users access to your library. Depending on the level of access that you give them in the library, additional library users can view and use library content in courses, edit library content, or add and manage other library users. All users to whom you give library access must be registered with Studio and have an active account.

These are the levels of access for libraries.

• User – Users can view library content and can use library components in their courses, but they cannot edit the contents of a library.
• Staff – Staff can use library components in their courses. In addition, as content co-authors, they have full editing privileges in a library.
• Admin – Admins have full editing privileges for a library. In addition, they can add and remove other team members from library access. There must be at least one user with Admin privileges in a library.