.. _Testing Your Course Content:

#########################################
Guide to Testing Your Course Content
#########################################

.. tags:: educator, reference

The way your course looks in Studio is different from the way that learners
will see and experience it when it is live in the LMS. As a best practice, you
should test content continually as you build your course, by interacting with
the course content from a learner's point of view.

The method that you choose for experiencing the course content as a learner
depends on the publishing status of the content.

* For published and released content, use :ref:`View Live<View Published
  Content>`.

* For draft and unreleased content, use :ref:`Preview<Preview Unpublished
  Content>`.

For more information, see the following topics.

.. contents::
  :local:
  :depth: 1

Beta testing your course is another way to evaluate course content. For
information about setting up a beta test for your course, see
:ref:`About Course Beta Testing` and :ref:`Manage Course Beta Testing`.

To test content before a course has started, you can add yourself as a beta
tester on the instructor dashboard. Make sure to set the course start date and
the appropriate **Days Early for Beta** value. For more information, see
:ref:`Manage Course Beta Testing`.


.. _View Published Content:

**************************************
Viewing Published and Released Content
**************************************

If your course has started, you can view published and released course content
from the point of view of a learner. When you select **View Live** or **View
Live Version** from the course outline in Studio, you can choose specific views
in the LMS to experience the course content exactly as a particular learner
would.

.. note:: For courses that have not started, **View Live** mode provides only
   **Staff** view, and you can only view content that has a publishing
   status of Published.

In courses that have started, when you use **Staff** view in **View Live**
mode, keep the following points in mind.

* In addition to units that have a publishing status of :ref:`published and
  live<Published and Live>` you also see units that are published but not yet
  released.

* You see published units that are in :ref:`Visible to Staff Only` or
  :ref:`Draft Unpublished Changes` status, regardless of the release dates of
  the containing section or subsection, but you see only the latest published
  version of such units.

* You do not see units that are in :ref:`Draft Never Published` status. To
  see these units, you must use Preview mode, as described in :ref:`Preview
  Unpublished Content`.

* If you view the course in a role other than **Staff**, you do not have
  access to the **Instructor** tab or to staff functions such as **View Unit in
  Studio**, **Staff Debug Info**, or **Submission History**.

For information about unit publishing statuses, see :ref:`Unit Publishing
Status`.

.. _Preview Unpublished Content:

************************
Previewing Draft Content
************************

Before your course has started, or before you release content to learners, you
can test how the content will appear when it is released.

Similar to :ref:`viewing published content<View Published Content>`, you can
choose specific views in the LMS to experience draft or unreleased course
content as learners belonging to different groups would, but you select
**Preview** from the course outline in Studio instead of **View Live**.

In **Preview** mode, if you use one of the student-based **View course as**
options, you can see draft course content unrestricted by release date. You
see any content that has a publishing status of :ref:`Published and Live` as
well as content with publishing statuses of :ref:`Draft Never Published` or
:ref:`Draft Unpublished Changes`.

When you use **Staff** view in preview mode, you also see any content that is
:ref:`Visible to Staff Only`.


.. seealso::
 
 :ref:`Roles for Viewing Course Content` (reference)

 :ref:`View Published and Released Content` (how-to)

 :ref:`Preview Draft Content` (how-to)



**Maintenance chart**

+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
| Review Date  | Working Group Reviewer        |   Release      |Test situation                  |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
|              |                               |                |                                |
+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+