Adding a course

An administrator, instructor or reporter who has been given the permission can add courses. Courses are unique to the site by their course ID which is used to select and sort courses in catalogs and reports. A management naming convention should be devised to organize courses based on the Course ID. For example, “ACCT_Budget_Structures” would sort all Accounting courses by the pre-fix ACCT.

You can also specify the prerequisite course sequence, if applicable.

To add the course to CourseMill, you will need to know the location of the course on the server and the course's URL.

For details about assigning courses to a curriculum, see Adding and removing courses from a curriculum.

By default, when you add a course, a session will automatically be created. This default session will initially be named “Web Based” with a location of “Online”. You can choose to change that to your liking, however, do not delete it. Every course must have at least one session. If a course does not have at least one session, you will run into problems.

To add a course to the course list:

  1. Click the Curriculums/Courses side-tab and click Manage Courses. Manage Courses opens.

  2. Use the fields in the search window above the results table to filter the list of courses. Use the fields as follows:

    Search Field Description
    Org ID Org ID under which the course is registered.
    Course ID

    Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the Course ID.
    Title Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the title. 
    Description

    Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the description. 

    Course Type Use the list to the select the type upon which to search.
    Include Inactive Enable this check box to include inactive courses in the results.

  3. Click Add Course. The Add Course window opens.

  4. On the Course tab, complete the fields as follows. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

    Course tab Description

    Course ID*

    The label used to identify the course. The course ID can be sorted on in numerous catalogs and reports.

    A management naming convention should be considered to allow the courses to sort as desired on the My Courses and Course Catalog pages. For example, ACCT_1001 would sort all Accounting courses by the prefix ACCT.

    Active

    Whether the course is active. This check box defaults to enabled; however, you may want to disable it (marking the course inactive) until you are ready for the course to show in the catalog. Also, courses can be inactivated once they are no longer offered for enrollment.
    Last Updated When the course was last updated. This field cannot be changed.

    Title*

    The title of the course.

    Description*

    A short description of the course.

    Notes

    Provide an area for the instructors to maintain information on the course. This information is viewable to students.
    Thumbnail (w:380 x h:250) The full address of a file containing the course thumbnail in jpg or gif format. The thumbnail is displayed to students in the course catalog. If the thumbnail resides on the Web, a full URL can be specified. To select a local file, click Upload to open the Upload window and click Browse. The recommended size is 380 x 250.

  5. Click the Details tab and complete the fields as follows:

    Details tab Description

    Course Type

    How the course is delivered to students. Select between a Web-based/online course or an instructor-led course.

    Credit Hours

    Credit hours received for successful completion of the course. Credit Hours may be credit or continuing education units (CEU).

    Avg. Duration

    The expected time in hours to complete the course. The value can contain a decimal point.

    Student Invitation URL

    The URL to point students directly to courses in the course catalog so they may easily find and enroll in them.

    This URL is automatically generated and can be copied into an email if you want to send out invites to students to take the course. The URL will take them directly to the CourseMill logiin dialog box to enter log in credentials, and then will direct them to the catalog to enroll in the course. For details about sending emails within CourseMill, see Sending email.

    Course Registration

    The type of registration for the course. Select By Enrollment Only if students must receive approval for enrollment into the course. Otherwise, select By Enrollment or Self-Registration. By Enrollment or Self-Registration allows students to see the course in their catalog and to self-enroll in the course. If self-registration requires an access code, select Self-Registration with Access Code and specify the access code in the box to the right. If self-registration requires approval, select Self-Registration requires approval. If Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg is selected, the course can be automatically enrolled in for students within the same sub-org.

    •

    For Self-Registration requires approval, when the user clicks the Enroll button, the request for approval will be sent to the reporter/manager to act upon. The course will specify Waiting for Approval in the user’s catalog until it is approved or denied.
      •

    For Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg, if you assign courses to sub-orgs, only those students in those sub-0rgs will see the courses in their catalog. For details, see Assigning a course to a sub-org.

    Additionally, you must have the managed property, AutoEnrollAssignedCourses, turned on for this to work. For more information about setting properties, see Adding and managing system properties.

    If Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg is checked, any users matching the sub-orgs defined by the rules set in the Assign Course window will be automatically enrolled in the course. If the managed property, IgnoreSubOrgRestrictionsForCourseinCatalog, is also turned on, then all other users will also see the course in their catalog for self-enrollment if they desire. For more information about assigning course, see Assigning a course. For more information about setting sub-org values, see Setting sub-org values.

    If this is unchecked and you still have rules set up in the Assign Course window, those users will be the only ones to see this course in their catalog so they can self-register. For more information about assigning course, see Assigning a course.

    Course Local Dir

    The location of the course on the server. This automatically generated location is used to copy files to when the course is published to CourseMill. The default is set by the DefaultLocalBaseDir property. For more information about setting properties, see Adding and managing system properties.

    Course HTTP Dir

    The URL address of the course. It is automatically generated. The default is set by the DefaultWebBaseDir property. For more information about setting properties, see Adding and managing system properties.

    Width

    The width of the course in pixels. Adjust accordingly for mobile courses.

    Height

    The height of the course in pixels. Adjust accordingly for mobile courses.

    Allow Resizing

    Allow students to resize the window when the course is displayed.

    Full Screen

    Allow students to run the course in full-screen mode.

  6. Click the Due Dates tab and complete the fields as follows:

    Due Dates tab Description

    Course should be completed after this number of days (Still allow access)

    The number of days the course should be completed. This encourages a time period to complete the course. Because this is a due date only, it does still allow the student to access the course even though it is overdue. Courses that are approaching or have passed the due date will be marked with orange (approaching) and red (overdue) indicators next to the course name and these course will be at the top of the students' to-do list.

    Course expires this number of days after enrollment (Does not allow access)

    The number of days access to the course expires after enrollment. Access to the course expires. This establishes the timeframe that the student is required to complete the course. Once the course expires, it will display in red on the student interface, and the student will need to contact the instructor to re-gain access to the course by extending their expiration date.

    The actual course Due Date is derived by adding the number of days to their enrollment date. The Due Date displays under My Courses for the associated course.

    Re-enroll in course after this number of days

    The number of days students must re-enroll in the course after completion to maintain certification. This indicates this is a certification program that is good for only a period of time, and you wish to automatically re-enroll users to ensure they continue their certification on an on-going basis. Enter in the number of days that you want CourseMill to re-enroll the student after the student has completed the course. If there are no days entered in this field, the re-enrollment will not occur.

    Examples

    • A student is taking a Project Management certification course. They should be re-enrolled 275 days (Re-enroll in course after this number of days) after the day they complete the course (because we want to give them three months to prepare for next year’s certification). They should complete the course in 90 days (Course should be completed after this number of days (Still allow access)). If they do not – we can send them a warning notification that they should be completing it soon. But if they do not complete it in time, they will still have access to the course until they complete.

    • When a student is re-enrolled into a course by the system, their transcript will note this activity. Be aware that the transcript defaults to showing a summary which will not show that specific re-enrollment activity. In order to see re-enrollment activity, be sure to click the Options button, uncheck the Summary Transcript check box and then click the Run Report button to reproduce the transcript.

      When the student chooses to certify themselves

      Date Enrolled

      Date Completed (even though it usually takes 90 days). Certification good for one year.

      Re-Enrollment Date (275 days later)

      Days to work on the course to re- certify for the next year.
      Debbie: Jan – Dec 1/1/14 2/20/14 11/20/14

      3 months
      Mike: Mar – Feb 3/1/14 3/30/14 12/30/14

      3 months
      John: June – May 6/1/14 8/15/14 5/15/15

      3 months

    The Automatic re-enrollment for certification message can also be seen in the student’s Gradebook by selecting the comment graphic next to the course name.

    Clicking the comment icon brings up the course Comment window.

  7. Click the Community tab and complete the fields as follows:

    Community tab Description

    Chat/IM Support

    The level of chat and instant messenger capabilities allowed for the course. Select Org Level Chat/IM Allowed to show the chatroom and the instant messenger window for all users in the course. Select No Org Level Chat/IM Allowed to hide the chatroom and the instant messenger window from all users in the course.

    Discussion Board Support

    Whether to allow students within the course to access a discussion board. The discussion board can be internally configured within CourseMill or you can point your users to an external discussion board. Use the External Discussion Board URL to point to the external discussion board Web site.

    If you enable a discussion board at the course level, a discussion board at the session level will also be automatically created.

    External Discussion Board URL

    The URL for the course-wide external discussion board.

    Email Support

    Whether to allow students within the course to send email to each other. The setting can be different from how it is set at the organization level.

    Allow Student to Student Email in the Discussion Board

    Select this check box to allow students to send email to other students within the course in the discussion board.

    Community restricts communication to only those users registered in the course.

    •

    Only users registered in the course can participate in the features that you enable on the Community tab.
      • The default for each of the Community items is set in the organization table. CourseMill can disable these entirely or allow for these to be enabled within the course, curriculum or session.

  8. Click the Prerequisites tab to define a prerequisite sequence. The Prerequisite Courses box lists the courses in the order that students must complete them. The Available Courses box lists the available courses. Select a course and use the arrow buttons to manage the courses and their prerequisite order. For example, to add a course to the prerequisite list, select the course from the Available Courses box and click the left-arrow button. To move the course in the order, select the course and click the up-arrow or down-arrow button.

    Prerequisites block students from accessing the course content prior to completing that prerequisite. Assigned or self-enrolled courses that require a prerequisite will appear on My Courses, but cannot be accessed until the prerequisite is fulfilled.

  9. Click the Instructors tab to assign instructors to the course. The Instructors Assigned box lists the instructors that currently assigned to instruct the course. The Instructors Available box lists the available instructors. Select an instructor and use the arrows buttons to manage the list of instructors assigned to the course. For example, to add an instructor to the instructor list, select the instructor from the Instructors Available box and click the left-arrow button.

    If no instructors are assigned, course notifications will come from the system administrator. If multiple instructors are assigned and an email notification is being sent, it will come from the first instructor in the list.

  10. .Click the Tags tab to define the tags associated with the course. Assigning tags to course makes it easy for students to find a specific course during a search. Enter each word or phrase on a separate line. For more information about tags, see Managing tags.

    Tags can be utilized to identify career paths for the organization. For example, a career path for Restaurant Management might be noted as Restaurant. The use of capital letters can provide a visual distinction between content tags and career path tags.

  11. Click the Course Info tab to provide administrative information about the course. This tab will only display if the administrator has set up categories for courses, like Author. The categories set up for courses will display here so data can be filled in for this particular course. Up to eight categories can be defined at the organization level. The data is only available in custom reporting that you create.

    Course Info can be used for administrative tracking for each course.

  12. Click Save.

The new course is added to the course list.

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