Course Elements

Last modified by Carina Enke on 15.05.2024

You can add various content, so-called course elements, to your course and flexibly implement your teaching and learning scenarios through a variety of setting options. Course elements are for example Enrolment, Forum, and Folder.

Content

Overview of course element types

Different types of course elements are provided within the learning platform. By using these elements, you can create individual courses according to your desired scenario.

The availability of the course elements depends on the configuration of the learning platform.

Impart knowledge

External Page

Folder

SCORM Learning Content

CP Learning Content

Media Centre

Test and evaluate knowledge

Communicate and work together

Get organised

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Other

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From another course

Integrate external tools

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Virtual Classroom

LTI-Tool

Add course element

To integrate a course element into your course, proceed as follows:

1	Open the course you want to edit. Use the pencil icon at the top of the page to open the editing mode.
2	Select a course element from the menu on the right.
3	In the new window, you can define the position of the new course element within your course structure (left navigation pane). The available positions are marked with an insert icon. To insert the new course element into an existing substructure, you need to open the substructure by clicking on the small triangle symbol next to its title. The area will open and you will again see insert icons at the positions which are available. Click on the insert icon at the desired position within the structure. The selected area will be highlighted. Confirm your choice with Insert course element.
4	The element will be inserted into the course structure at the selected position. Depending on the course element, you have to make additional configurations or add content in order to complete the configuration. For these changes to take effect, you must publish the course. The course element will then also become available in the course view.

Edit course element

In the course editor, the different setting options of each course element are structured with tabs. The first three tabs are the same for each course element: Title and description, Visibility, and Access. All other tabs contain specific configuration options of the respective elements, e. g. Configuration, Overview, or Assessment.

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Title and description

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Elements	Description
Title	You need to enter a title for the course element. The title can comprise a maximum of 100 characters. All special characters and numbers are permitted. The title will appear in the navigation menu of the course and also as a heading in the content area. Changes to the title of the first course element, the so-called main course node ... If you change the title of the first course element, the new content will only be applied to the main course node and then displayed in the opened course. If you wish to edit the course title or description, you can do so using the more settings menu of the course.
Subtitle	You can enter a subtitle for the course element with a maximum of 255 characters. All special characters and numbers are permitted. The title will appear as a tooltip in the navigation menu and - if selected and configured accordingly - as a subtitle in the content area.
Description	Here you can describe the course element. The description will appear in the content area below the title. Depending on the settings configured in the element Display, this additional text is displayed to the user when opening the course element. The user can expand or collapse the view of the text.
Display	Define which information about the course element should be displayed in the course view. In addition to the content, you can optionally display the title and description. All course elements are provided with a reasonable presetting, which mostly includes the setting Title, description and content. You can adjust this setting in accordance with the options available for each course element.
Set link for this course element	Each course element can be accessed via fixed link addresses. Therefore, an internal and an external URL is assigned to each course element. These direct links to concrete elements can be used within courses or provided to learners. The URLs are located below the title and description of the element and will appear upon selecting Set link for this course element. External link: To refer to this course element from outside of the course or learning platform, you can use the external link and insert it, for example as a href attribute, into the desired HTML page. Internal link: To set a link to another course element within the same course, you can insert the internal link as a href attribute into the desired HTML page.
ID	You will need the ID number of the course element (on the bottom right), for example, if you wish to use the expert mode in the visibility or access tab.

Visibility and access

In the tab Visibility, you can define under which conditions the course element will appear in the navigation menu of the course. If you do not make any changes, the link of the course element will be visible to all course participants at any time. Note that the visibility settings may overwrite the access settings.

The tab Access defines under which conditions the content of a course element will be displayed in the course area. If you do not make any changes, the course element as well as its functions and content will be accessible for course participants. For some course elements, however, not all functions are enabled for all users, e. g. users are not allowed to moderate in a forum. Further information is provided in the documentation for the individual course elements.

If the course element is visible but access is restricted, the user will receive a general note. Further information for users can be provided in the text field. Via the two checkboxes below the text field, you can further define whether or not this note or information on the course supervisor will be displayed to the user.

Further information can be found in the chapter Visibility and access: Access rights in the expert mode.

Copy and move course element

To copy or move a course element, proceed as follows:

1	Open the element you wish to edit.
2	Select Copy or Move from the top right corner of the page.
3	In the dialogue window, you can define the position to which the course element is supposed to be copied or moved. The option *Copy* allows for the definition of more than only one position so that the element can be copied multiple times.
4	Click on Insert course element to complete the process.
5	To implement the changes and make the course element accessible for the participants, publish the course.

Note on copying course elements

If you copy an already fully configured course element with specific referenced content within a course, the reference to the resource used will also be copied. This applies to the course element types Test, Wiki, CP, SCORM as well as to the course element Single Page. It means that the same resource will be accessed in both the original course element and the copy.

In most cases, this is exactly the intended behaviour. For example, for the course element Single Page , this means if you edit the referenced file at one point – e. g. in the course view – the (same) modified content will also be displayed at the other course element location.

To add a different file to the copied course element, you can use the Replace page function in the tab Page content in the course editor and reference another or a new file. If you already know in advance that another file is to be referenced, it will be easier to create a new course element straight away.

Delete course element

To delete a course element, proceed as follows:

1	Open the element you wish to delete.
2	Select Delete from the top right corner of the page.
3	Confirm the deletion process with Yes.
4	For your changes to take effect, and to remove the course element from the course view, you have to publish the course.

Course element status

Next to each course element, symbols may point to the status of the element.

Course element status examples:

Course element Enrolment: The red x-symbol indicates that a configuration error has occurred, i. e. certain pieces of information or content are missing and need to be added. In most cases, these errors can be traced to the configuration of the related learning group.

Course element Bibliography: The lock-symbol points to restrictions concerning the access and/or visibility of this course element. The green check mark symbolises that a course element is ready to be published. After the element is published, the symbol disappears. Thus, you will always have an additional overview of course elements that contain changes which have not yet been published.

Course element Single Page: In the case of this course element, some information is still missing. Additionally, the element is subject to restrictions for visibility and access. The course element cannot be published and is thus not visible to any user in the course view.

Course element Folder: This element has already been published and contains both visibility and access restrictions.

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A legend to the symbols can be found in the course editor at the bottom of the page.

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