7.2. Developing Your Course Outline¶

As you develop your course, you work primarily in the edX Studio course outline. This section includes the following information about working with the course outline.

Open the Course Outline
Understanding a Course Outline
Navigate the Course Outline
Add Content in the Course Outline
Modify Settings for Objects in the Course Outline
Publish Content from the Course Outline
Reorganize the Course Outline
Delete Content in the Course Outline

See the following sections for information about working with the course building blocks in the course outline.

7.2.1. Open the Course Outline ¶

To view the course outline, follow these steps.

Sign in to edX Studio.
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.

7.2.2. Understanding a Course Outline ¶

Course authors build a course outline on the Course Outline page in Studio. Learners see this course outline in the LMS.

To view the course outline in the LMS, go to the Course Outline page in Studio, and then select either Preview or View Live.

In the following image, the Studio view of the course outline is on the left. On the right is the view of the course outline in the LMS.

Sections, subsections, and units in the course outline in Studio and in the LMS.

The numbers represent the following levels.

Note

The Course Outline page does not show components. You add or access components by selecting the units that contain the components.

7.2.2.1. Course Progress Information¶

The course outline in the LMS also indicates a learner’s progress through the course. A green check mark next to the name of a section, subsection, or unit indicates that a learner has completed all the following actions in the section, subsection, or unit.

Viewed all of each video.
Submitted answers for all of the problems.
Viewed all HTML content for at least five seconds.

If a learner selects the Resume Course option, the course opens to the unit that the learner most recently completed.

For information about more specific learner data, including the learner’s grades or answers for individual problems, see Managing Learner Progress and Grades.

7.2.3. 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.

The outline showing an expanded section and a collapsed subsection, with expand and collapse icons circled.

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

The outline showing an expanded subsection.

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

7.2.4. 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.

For information about adding content to a unit, see Developing Course Components.

Note

If you want to require an entrance exam for your course, you also create the exam in the course outline. Before you can create an exam, you must set your course to require an entrance exam in Studio. For more information, see Require an Entrance Exam.

7.2.4.1. Adding New Sections, Subsections, or Units¶

To add a section to the outline, select New Section. This option appears at both the top of the page and below the current sections in the outline. For more information, see Create a Section.
To add a subsection to the end of the section, expand the section and select New Subsection.
To add a unit to the end of a subsection, expand the subsection and select New Unit. The unit page opens.

7.2.4.2. Duplicating Existing Sections, Subsections, or Units¶

To add a section, subsection, or unit by duplicating content that already exists in the course outline, select the Duplicate icon for the item that you want to duplicate. You see a Duplicating indicator at the bottom of the Studio page.

Duplicated items are added to the course outline immediately below the original item, with the name “Duplicate of <original item name>”.

Note

Duplicated items inherit the release date of the item that they are duplicated from, but you must explicitly publish duplicated subsections and units before they are visible to learners. For more information about release statuses and visibility of sections to learners, see Sections and Visibility to Learners.

7.2.5. 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.

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.

7.2.6. 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.

Note

The Publish icon only appears when there is new or changed content within the object.

For more information, see the following topics.

7.2.7. Reorganize the Course Outline ¶

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

You can reorganize components by dragging and dropping them within the same unit, or by moving them from one unit to another unit. For more information, see Reorganizing Components.

To drag a section, subsection, or unit to another position in the course outline, 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.

A subsection handle selected to drag it.

Then, select 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.

A subsection being dragged to a new section.

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.

Note

When you move a subsection to a different section, the release date and time for that subsection does not change.

7.2.8. Delete Content in the Course Outline ¶

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

Warning

You cannot restore course content after you delete it. To ensure you do not delete content you may need later, you can move any unused content to a section in your course that you set to never release.

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

You are prompted to confirm the deletion.

Note

When you delete an object, all objects that it contains are deleted. For example, when you delete a subsection, all units in that subsection are deleted.