6.4. Developing Course Subsections¶

6.4.1. 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.

6.4.2. Viewing Subsections in the Outline¶

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

6.4.3. 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.

6.4.4. 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.

6.4.5. 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.

6.4.6. 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.

6.4.7. 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.

6.4.8. 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.

6.4.9. 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.

6.4.10. 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.

6.4.11. 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.

6.4.12. 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.