.. _Guide to Course About Page: ######################################################### Guide to Course About Page (Schedule & Details) ######################################################### .. tags:: educator, reference The course About page, sometimes called the course summary page, provides information about your course to learners. Learners can see the About page before they enroll in the course. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/about_page.png :alt: A course About page, showing the course image, video, description, and additional information. :width: 600 You edit the contents of your course About page in Studio. .. contents:: :local: :depth: 2 .. _Course Pacing: ************************* Course Pacing ************************* When you create an Open edX course, you can set the schedule of the course, including due dates for assignments or exams, or you can allow learners to work at their own pace. Courses that follow a schedule that you set are known as instructor- paced courses. Courses that offer suggested due dates for assignment or exams based on the learner’s enrollment date and the expected course duration are known as self-paced courses. These courses offer learners flexibility to modify the assignment dates as needed. An indicator for the pacing for your course appears on the **Course Outline** page. By default, courses are instructor-paced. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/Pacing_COIndicator.png :width: 600 :alt: The Course Outline page with a call-out for the indicator that the course is instructor-paced. .. note:: You cannot change the course pacing after the course start date has passed. ======================================== Instructor-Paced and Self-Paced Courses ======================================== Instructor-paced courses progress at the pace that the course author sets. You set release dates for content and due dates for assignments, and assignment due dates are visible in the LMS. Learners cannot access course content before its release date, and learners must complete assignments by their due dates. In self-paced courses, learners can access all course materials when the course begins, and assignment due dates follow a Personalized Learning Schedule (PLS) by default. You do not have the option to set release dates for course content. Learners can complete course material at any time before the course end date. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/Pacing_SubSettingsWithCustomPacing.png :width: 500 :alt: Side-by-side comparison of subsection settings for instructor-led and self-paced courses, showing release and due date options for the instructor-led course. .. note:: If you set due dates for assignments or exams in an instructor-led course and later change the course to be self-paced, Studio stores the due dates that you previously set. If you change the course back to instructor- paced later, Studio restores the due dates. .. _Personalized Learning Schedule: ======================================== Personalized Learning Schedule (PLS) ======================================== **Personalized Learning Schedule (PLS)** is a feature in self-paced courses that creates a personalized schedule for learners by assigning suggested due dates to graded assignments. A learner’s PLS is based on their enrollment date and can have two types of pacing: * PLS’ **default pacing** automatically assigns due dates to graded subsections evenly throughout the course duration based on the total number of sections in the course. * PLS’ **custom pacing** allows course authors to assign due dates to graded subsections manually throughout the course duration. For example, if there are 4 sections, each of which has a graded assignment, in an 8-week course, **default pacing** would assign due dates for every 2 weeks. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/Pacing_DefaultPacing.png :width: 450 :alt: Default Pacing Schedule for an 8-week course with 4 graded assignments. **Custom pacing** allows for other relative due dates, such as setting an assignment to be due in 5 weeks instead of the 2 week interval. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/Pacing_CustomPacing.png :width: 450 :alt: Custom Pacing Schedule for an 8-week course with 4 graded assignments where 1 of which has a custom due date of 5 weeks. Now, Personalized Learning Schedule can be adapted to have: #. Default pacing #. Custom pacing #. A mix of default and custom pacing, where the user sets custom pacing to some, but not all, graded assignments in a course. The rest of the assignments that are not set have default pacing applied to them. .. _Course Schedule: **************************** Course Schedule **************************** After you determine scheduling for your course run, you enter this information in Studio before the course run begins. For more information, see :ref:`Edit the Course About Page`. .. _Guidelines for Start and End Dates: ======================================== Guidelines for Start and End Dates ======================================== The start and end dates you set for your course are important for prospective and current learners. Current learners see your course start or end date on their dashboards. You should consider your course dates carefully. -------------------------------- Course Start Date and Time -------------------------------- .. sidebar:: Course Schedule and Details Click the image to see where to set the course schedule. .. thumbnail:: /_images/Educators_course_schedule.png The course start date and time specify when learners can access published course content. By default, the course start date and time are set to **01/01/2030** at **00:00 UTC** to ensure that your course does not start before you intend it to. The following guidelines can help you determine a course start date. * Start on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. * Avoid major public holidays. * Specify a month, day, and year. If you are unsure of the exact date, specify a day that is close to the estimated start date. For example, if your course will start near the end of March, specify March 31. * Set the start time of your course early in the day, generally 00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or earlier. Learners often expect the course to be available on the start date in their own time zones and try to access course content during the day. If you do not specify a start time for your course, the course starts at 00:00 UTC. Although learners cannot access any part of your course before the course start date, course team members who are enrolled in the course and who have the staff, admin, or beta tester role can see published content in the course before the course start date. For information about testing your course content before the course start date, see :ref:`About Course Beta Testing`. .. note:: You can set a different advertised start date for your course. You might do this if the exact start date is uncertain. For example, you could advertise the start date as "Coming Soon". For more information, see :ref:`Advertise a Different Start Date `. -------------------------------- Course End Date and Time -------------------------------- The course end date and time specify when learners can no longer earn credit toward certificates. Learners can continue to complete available coursework, but cannot earn credit after the course ends. Learners who have earned certificates can view the certificates soon after the course end date. In self-paced courses, course teams can make certain course components unavailable based on the course end date. For example, course teams can make a final exam unavailable after the end date for a self-paced course. For more details, see :ref:`Hide a Subsection After its Due Date `. .. important:: If you do not set a course end date, learners cannot access earned certificates. -------------------------------- Enrollment Start Date and Time -------------------------------- As soon as enrollment starts, prospective learners can see your course in the course catalog, view the course **About** page, and enroll in the course. The enrollment start date and time specify when learners can start to enroll in the course. Ensure that the enrollment start date is early enough to allow learners to both enroll in and prepare for the course. The enrollment start date and time must be before the course start date and time. .. _Enrollment End Date and Time: -------------------------------- Enrollment End Date and Time -------------------------------- The enrollment end date and time specify when learners can no longer enroll in the course. Ensure that the enrollment end date is late enough to allow learners adequate time to enroll. The enrollment end date cannot be later than the course end date. .. _View Start and End Dates: ================================================ The Learner's View of Course Start and End Dates ================================================ When learners browse courses, the start date for each course is visible in the course catalog and in the course's About page. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/course_dates.png :alt: Course cards in the course catalog, showing each course's start date. :width: 800 .. image:: /_images/educator_references/about-page-course-start.png :alt: The course About page, showing the start date. :width: 800 To find the URL of your course's **About** page in Studio, select **Settings**, and then select **Schedule & Details**. After learners enroll in courses, the courses appear on their course dashboards. To access the dashboard, learners select their usernames and then select **Dashboard**. For a course that is in progress or has not yet started, the start date is visible. For a course that has ended, the course end date is visible. .. image:: /_images/educator_references/dashboard-course-start-and-end.png :alt: The learner dashboard with a course in progress, one that has ended, one that is self-paced and can be started any time, and one that has not started. :width: 800 .. _Language Guidelines: ******************* Language Guidelines ******************* You are required to specify a language or languages for the following content. * Course content, including text * Video transcripts Optionally, you can also specify additional languages for course videos. .. _Course Description: ******************************** Course Description ******************************** Descriptive course information includes information such as the course short and long descriptions, as well as information about what learners will learn, the subject, and the difficulty level. .. _Course Short Description Guidelines: ======================================== Course Short Description Guidelines ======================================== An effective short description follows these guidelines. * Contains 25–50 words. * Functions as a tagline. * Conveys compelling reasons to take the course. * Follows search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines. * Targets a global audience. -------------------------------- Example Short Description -------------------------------- **Course Name:** The Science of Happiness **Course Description:** The first MOOC to teach positive psychology. Learn science-based principles and practices for a happy, meaningful life. .. _Course Long Description Guidelines: ======================================== Course Long Description Guidelines ======================================== Given the diversity of online learners, be sure to review your course description to ensure that it clearly communicates the target audience, level, and prerequisites for your course. Use concrete, unambiguous phrasing, such as a prerequisite of "understand eigenvalue decomposition" rather than "intermediate linear algebra". An effective long description follows these guidelines. * Contains 150–300 words. * Is easy to skim. * Uses bullet points instead of dense text paragraphs. * Follows SEO guidelines. * Targets a global audience. -------------------------------- Example Long Descriptions -------------------------------- The following long description is a content-based example. Want to learn computer programming, but unsure where to begin? This is the course for you! Scratch is the computer programming language that makes it easy and fun to create interactive stories, games and animations and share them online. This course is an introduction to computer science using the programming language Scratch, developed by MIT. Starting with the basics of using Scratch, the course will stretch your mind and challenge you. You will learn how to create amazing games, animated images and songs in just minutes with a simple “drag and drop” interface. No previous programming knowledge needed. Join us as you start your computer science journey. The following long description is a skills-based example. Taught by instructors with decades of experience on Wall Street, this M&A course will equip analysts and associates with the skills they need to rise to employment in the M&A field. Additionally, directors and managers who have transitioned, or hope to transition, to M&A from other areas such as equities or fixed income can use this course to eliminate skill gaps. .. _Learning Outcome Guidelines: ======================================== Learning Outcome Guidelines ======================================== It is good practice to include a list of learning outcomes describing the skills and knowledge learners will acquire in the course in an itemized list. It is recommended that you format each item as a short bullet item. -------------------------------- Example Learning Outcomes -------------------------------- * Write basic R scripts to manipulate and visualize data. * Apply linear and logistic regression techniques to analyze real-world datasets and interpret the results. * Apply text analytics techniques to extract insights from a given dataset and present their findings. * Formulate and solve linear and integer optimization problems .. _Course and Program Images and Videos: ************************************************ Images and Videos for a Course or Program ************************************************ The About page for a course or program includes both a representative image and a short About video. The course or program image also appears in places such as learner dashboards and search engine results. For information about how to add your course title and number, see :ref:`Creating a New Course `. .. _Course and Program Image Guidelines: ======================================== Representative Image Guidelines ======================================== A representative image is an eye-catching, colorful image that captures the essence of a course or program. These images are visible in the following locations. * The About page. * The learner dashboard. * Search engine results. When you create a course or program image, keep the following guidelines in mind. * The image must not include text or headlines. * You must have permission to use the image. Possible image sources include Flickr Creative Commons, Stock Vault, Stock XCHNG, and iStock Photo. * Each course in a sequence or program must have a unique image. .. _Image Size Guidelines: -------------------------------- Image Size Guidelines -------------------------------- Images must follow specific size guidelines. -------------------------------- Course Image Size -------------------------------- The course image that you add in Studio appears on the About page for the course and on the learner dashboard. It must be a minimum of 378 pixels in width by 225 pixels in height, and in .jpg or .png format. Make sure the image that you upload maintains the aspect ratio of those dimensions so that the image appears correctly on the dashboard. .. _Course About Video Guidelines: ======================================== Course About Video Guidelines ======================================== The course About video should excite and entice potential learners to enroll, and reveal some of the personality that the course team brings to the course. This video should answer these key questions. * Who is teaching the course? * What university or institution is the course affiliated with? * What topics and concepts are covered in your course? * Why should a learner enroll in your course? This video should deliver your message as concisely as possible and have a run time of less than two minutes. Before you upload a course About video, make sure that it follows the same :ref:`video guidelines