How to Add a Course v2

How to Add a Course v2

Idea
Overview
There are several ways you, as an admin, can create a course in the Learning Management System (LMS). One of these options is to create a new, empty course.

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of adding a course, step by step, to help you get started with course creation and customisation.

Warning
IMPORTANT:
  1. You need LMS Admin access to perform this action.
  2. A Trainer role can only edit and add content to courses that have already been created and where they are enrolled as a trainer. If you need a brand-new course, you must ask your admin to set it up for you.

Notes
Step Tutorial
Step 1: After logging in, go to Site administration, click the Courses sub-tab, then select Add a new course.



Step 2: Fill out these sections and adjust the settings as needed. Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory.
General
Course full name* - This is the name of the course. It is displayed as a link on course lists on the Front page and on the Dashboard and in reports. It is also used in the browser title bar when the course is viewed.

Course short name* - Many institutions have a shorthand way of referring to a course, such as BP102 or COMMS. Even if you do not already have such a name for your course, make one up here. It will be used in several places where the long name is not appropriate, such as the Navigation block.

Course category - This setting determines the category in which the course will appear in the list of courses.

Course visibility - This setting determines whether the course appears in the list of courses and whether students can access it. If set to Hide, then access is restricted to users with the capability to view hidden courses (such as administrators and teachers), Even if students try to access the course URL directly, they will not be allowed to enter.

Course start date - This setting affects the display of logs and the weekly format topic dates, this setting also determines 
If you use the "Weekly" course format, the start date will appear in the first section of the course. For example selecting 27 July, will display "27 July - 2 August" in the first section (when default display is selected for that section).
This setting will have an effect on the display of logs. This will be the earliest possible date the log activity will display.
This setting will not affect courses using the 'social' or 'topics' formats.

Course end date - The course end date is used for determining whether a course should be included in a user's list of courses. When the end date is past, the course is no longer listed in the navigation block / drawer and is listed as past in the Course overview on students' dashboards.
The course end date is also used for calculating the retention period before data is deleted. It may also be used by a custom report e.g. reporting activity for the duration of a course.
Users can still enter the course after the end date; in other words the date does not restrict access.

Info
NOTE: For SMS-LMS subscribers, no end date should be set in the LMS. This is because the end date is managed through the enrolment information in SMS. Manually setting an end date in the LMS may interfere with the student end dates synced from SMS.
As a best practice, we recommend that SMS-LMS subscribers uncheck the "End Date" box when setting up a new course.

Course ID number - The ID number is an alphanumeric field. It has several potential uses. Generally, it is not displayed to students. However, it can be used to match this course against an external system's ID, as your course catalogue ID or can be used in the certificate module as a printed field.
Description
Course summary - The summary appears on the course listings page. This field is searched when searching for a course and also appears in the Course/Site description block

Course image - An image may be attached to the course summary. They will be accessible by anyone from outside of the course just like the course name and/or summary. We suggest using a 600x400 pixel (3:2 aspect ratio) course image in JPEG or PNG format for optimal display across devices. Keep the file size under 1MB, avoid text-heavy designs to prevent cropping, and ensure high contrast for clarity on all screen sizes.
Course format
Format - This refers to the layout of the course. There are options to choose from:
  1. Custom sections - The course is divided into customisable sections that a teacher can give titles to. You can add content and activities in each section. In new installations of Moodle, this is the default format.
  2. Weekly sections - The course is organised into sections corresponding to each week of the course, beginning from the course start date. You can add content, forums, quizzes, and so on in the section for each week. The current week is highlighted.
  3. Single activity - The single activity format only has 1 section, and allows the teacher to add one activity only to the course. When the single activity format is selected, a dropdown menu appears for the teacher to choose the activity they wish to use. 
  4. Social - This format is oriented around one main forum, the social forum, which appears listed on the main page. It is useful for situations that are more free form. They may not even be courses.
  5. Grid - A modular and visual course format. Hides all topics and creates a grid of icons (one for each topic) with short titles. 
  6. Multitopic format - Topics are displayed in tabbed pages, with multiple collapsible topics available on each page.
  7. Edwiser course formats - Courses are presented as collapsible lists or as cards of sections with a responsive design for better navigation.
  8. Tiles format - The tiles format displays course topics as "Tiles", rather than as a list. When clicked, tile content is displayed under the tile with an animated transition. The layout adapts to different screen sizes and orientations. Within each tile, activities can also be set to display as "sub-tiles". Icons for each tile can be selected from a predefined set (i.e. the teacher does not need to upload them).
Hidden sections - This option allows you to decide how the hidden sections in your course are displayed to students. By default, a small area is shown (in collapsed form, usually grey) to indicate where the hidden section is, though they still cannot actually see the hidden activities and texts. This is particularly useful in the Weekly format, so that non-class weeks are clear, or if you have quizzes you don't want your students to see.

Course layout - The Course layout setting determines whether the whole course is displayed on one page or split over several pages. The setting currently applies to the custom sections and weekly core course formats and contributed collapsed topics course format only.
Appearance
Force language - If you force a language in a course, the interface of Moodle in this course will be in this particular language, even if a student has selected a different preferred language in his/her personal profile.

Number of announcements - This setting determines how many recent announcements appear in the latest announcements block.
If an announcements forum is not required in the course, this setting should be set to zero. Show Gradebook to Students
Here you can decide whether to allow students to see the link to grades in the Administration block. If your course doesn't use graded activities, it makes sense to disable this. If grades are used and this link is disabled, students can still see their grade from the actual activity itself, such as an assignment

Show gradebook to students - Allow students to view a list of all their grades in the course.

Show activity reports - Here you can decide whether to show students their activity reports. Doing so places a load on the server however, which is why the setting is disabled by default.

Show activity dates - Activity dates are always shown on the activity page. This setting determines whether activity dates are also shown below each activity in the course page.
Files and uploads
Maximum upload size - Here you can decide the largest size of file that students can upload to a course. The site administrator determines the sizes available for the teacher to select.
Completion tracking
Enable completion tracking - If enabled, activity completion conditions may be set in the activity settings and/or course completion conditions may be set. It is recommended to have this enabled so that meaningful data is displayed in the course overview on the Dashboard.

Show activity completion conditions - Activity completion conditions are always shown on the activity page. This setting determines whether activity completion conditions are also shown below each activity on the course page.
Groups
Group mode - Here you can define the group mode at the course level by a pull down menu. "No groups", "Separate groups" and "Visible groups" are the choices. The selected setting will be the default group mode for all activities defined within that course. The group setting can affect what users see in the participants list and who they can interact within activities.

Force group mode - If the group mode is "forced" at a course-level, then this particular group mode will be applied to every activity in that course. This will override any activities that may have a special group setting.

Default grouping - If groupings are enabled, a default grouping for course activities and resources may be set.
Tags
Tags - Tags are used for the searchability of the course.
Once done filling out the course information, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save and Display.



You have now successfully created a course!


Congratulations on completing this tutorial. We hope this has been helpful to you and your organisation. For any questions or concerns regarding this function, please reach out to the contact support via email.

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