Course Editor

Screenshot: Course Editor

Courses in docendo are learning units that consist of one ore more sections and/or questions. A course does not directly contain any content like text or media, it just references sections or questions (that in turn do contain content). Thus, a course simply is a structure or hierarchy that orders the content pages you want to use.

A new course will initially be empty. To actually start creating content, you can add sections and questions to it:

• : adds a new section after the current selection or at the end of the course if nothing is selected. The new section will be a resource of its own and may be used in other courses.
• : adds a new question, after you have chosen the type of question. The new question will as will be a resource of its own and may be used in other courses.
• : imports an already existing section
• : imports an already existing question
• : imports the complete structure of an existing course

Imported sections or questions are - unlike newly created ones - not directly editable from the course editor with the icon. This is to prevent side effects with other courses where these resources might be used. Instead you will see the icon next to them. This means that these resources are merely referenced and imported as is. By clicking the lock icon, you effectively copy the section or question so that they can be edited without affecting other courses.

Once you have sections and/or questions within your course, you can use the , , and icons to move the position of the selected section or question in the hierarchy of the course.

You can always use the icon from the toolbar to preview the course at its current state and see how it would look like when being exported.

Finally, don't forget to save the course with the icon to make your changes persistent.

Screenshot: Export configuration dialog

Exporting a course is the central method to transfer your learning content to other systems or platforms, typically to an LMS or Web server. To export a course, click the icon in the toolbar.

docendo supports two different data formats for export:

1. SCORM Version 1.2: The Sharable Content Object Reference Model has specifically been designed for learning content interchange. Choose this format if your target platform is a Learning Management System (LMS). You may further refine the export configuration with these options:
   • Show chapter numbers in section headlines: When exporting a section, its headline will be automatically generated as defined by the title you specified in the course editor. This option lets you configure to include or exclude the chapter number from the course hierarchy in the section title. This of course also affects the headlines of questions included in the course.
   • Show chapter numbers in table of contents: An LMS typically will generate a table of contents for your course. Some LMSs will show chapter numbers by themselves or have very little space to display headlines. To resolve these issues, you can configure to not show chapter numbers in the table of contents with this option.
2. HTML: Prefer this export format if you want to use a Web server to deliver your learning content (as opposed to an LMS). Since a Web server can not interpret and understand the structure of the course, you have more options to configure the export process:
   • Add table of contents: When adding the table of contents for export, the learner will get a control button to toggle its display.
   • Add navigation controls (back/forward buttons): This, when activated, will create buttons that allow to step through the pages of the course.
   • Show chapter numbers in section headlines: Same as option for SCORM format above.
   • Show chapter numbers in table of contents: Same as option for SCORM format above, except that docendo generates the table of contents when exporting, not the LMS. If you de-selected the Add table of contents option, this option has no effect.

When exporting, the course structure with all contained sections, questions and media resources will be transformed into the chosen data format and packed into a ZIP archive. As soon as the transformation process finishes, you will get a download dialog for this file to store it on your hard disk. From there, you can e.g. deploy it on an LMS or Web server so that the course becomes accessible to your learners.

By clicking the icon in the toolbar, docendo generates an information page about the course and sets it as the first page in the course hierarchy. The page contains the following information:

• The description of the course taken from its metadata
• The number of pages contained in the course
• The author(s) of the course taken from its metadata
• The license you chose to publish this course under

The course information page is a regular section, thus you may edit it to suit your expectations. As any other section, you will also find it with the Resource Browser.

• ADL SCORM home page
• Wikipedia on SCORM
• Wikipedia on Learning Management Systems