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Courses

Course Creation & Setup Tab

Create a course and manage critical data in the Setup tab.

Article Content

This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.

Course Creation

Course Setup Tab After Creation
Deleting a course

Course Creation

Creating a course is the first step to populating it with objectives, creating groups, setting up a gradebook, and more. If your organization has units enabled, your setup process will be slightly different.

Reminder: Only users who have Medtech: Admin or Staff: Admin permission levels are able to create courses.

Create a New Course

Step 1: Navigate to Admin > Manage Courses and click on the Add New Course button. This will bring you to the Adding Course page. The Adding Course page will become the Setup tab once the course is created. The Setup tab will have additional sections which are given later in this article under the Course Setup Tab section.

Step 2: Complete the required fields.

Step 3: Click Save.

Note: You only need to complete the required fields in order to save the course.

The required fields are:

Curriculum Layout: Defined in Manage Curriculum > Curriculum Layouts. This will give the course access to the curriculum periods in that curriculum layout and will categorize that course under that layout.
Course Name: The course name will be displayed to users.
Course Code: A code that you define and will be displayed to users.

All radio button fields on this page have a default value that will be selected. All fields on this page can be changed after the course has been created.

There are four sections on the Adding Course page

Course Setup Section
Event Attendance Section
Lecture Capture Section
Course Enrolment Section

Each of these sections is detailed below:

1. Course Setup Section

Curriculum Layout: This defines the curriculum layout for this course and will dictate what curriculum periods are available to be used in the enrolment section for the course.

Note: It is NOT recommended to change the curriculum layout of a course after it has been created and used. Doing so will result in problems with the course and event audiences. If an existing course is being moved from one layout to another, you should create a new course in the new layout and deactivate the old course.

Course Name: This will display to users on the Courses tab and in all associated learning event pages.

Course Code: This will display as part of the course identification visible to users on individual learning event pages and will also be used in the list of events from the Learning Events tab. The course code is also used in the breadcrumbs when you are managing courses and their different pages so codes should be logical.

Course Color: If you select a color, it will be used to color the learning events associated to the course on the Dashboard Calendar and Learning Event Calendar. You can further customize the color of specific events when you create them. The color set on the individual event will take precedence over the color set for all events on the course Setup tab.

Course Credit: If you track credits per course you can enter that information here. This information is displayed on the Student Report Card (one of the System Reports available to administrators).

Clinical Experience: Use this section to indicate if a course needs to be available to the Clinical Experience module in Elentra (i.e, a rotation schedule) and/or this course needs to use the logbook feature in Elentra. Rotation schedules in the clinical experience module must be connected to courses in the Courses module. This connection allows for the audience in a particular curriculum period of a course to flow through to the rotation schedule.

Course Type: Indicate if the course is optional or core curriculum.

Note: This option doesn’t impact the course template, however if you plan to use user-initiated, on-demand forms, you should set the course to the core curriculum option. As of ME 1.17, users will not be able to initiate on-demand forms associated with optional courses.

Curriculum Tracks: Curriculum Track options will only display if you have curriculum tracks built within an organization. These can be configured through Manage Curriculum. Assigning a course to a curriculum track allows you to identify those courses that share characteristics (e.g. help prepare the student for a specific program, provide a minor, specify a campus, etc.)

Reminder Notifications: These optional e-mail notifications are specific to faculty teaching events in the course. The default settings for email notifications are 30, 7 and 3 days in advance of an event. Through the database a developer can customize when and how often email reminders about teaching responsibilities are sent out, the timing of emails will apply to all courses in your organization (i.e., you can't have one course where faculty get emails 10 and 5 days from the event, and another course where faculty get emails 15 and 7 days from the event).

The email template includes the following text:

Dear %TO_FIRSTNAME% %TO_LASTNAME%,
%CC_FACULTY_TEXT%This is an automated notice to remind you that you are scheduled to teach in the following learning event.
Event Title: %EVENT_TITLE%
Phase: %EVENT_PHASE%
Event Date / Time: %EVENT_DATE%
Event Duration: %EVENT_DURATION%
Event Location: %EVENT_LOCATION%
Associated Faculty: %ASSOCIATED_FACULTY_TEXT%

To update your event click this link: %EVENT_LINK%

Course Permissions:

An open course will allow all logged in users (faculty, staff, students) to view it. If you attach the course to a community or course website you'll be able to set permissions for the course website as well.
A private course will only be accessible to users that are associated with the course in some way (i.e., a student enrolled in the course, faculty and staff listed in the Course Contacts section). If selected, you will have the option to set viewable start and finish dates in the Course Enrolment section that will be applied to all associated events in the Manage Events.

Note: that Medtech: Admin and Staff: Admin users can always access all courses regardless of course permissions.

Audience Sync: Choose whether or not to automatically sync your audience with the LDAP server.

Note: After a course has initially been created, you'll see a space to optionally add a course image on the Setup tab. Please note that this image does not currently display anywhere in Elentra. If you want to include an image on the course page or website it is recommended to add it via the Course Description (on the Content tab) or on a community page.

2. Event Attendance Section

Attendance can be taken on each learning event made in the Manage Events module. Faculty/staff can take attendance or students can take their own attendance depending on what your institution allows. Enabling the following three options will expand further configuration settings, as follows. For more information on Absence Management see the Knowledge Base article here.

Geolocation Attendance Reminders: If enabled, your learners will receive attendance reminder emails if their attendance has not been taken on the event at the specified time before or after learning events associated with this course.
Enhanced Late Tracking: When enabled, learners will be marked late if their attendance is taken later than a specified number of minutes after the start of an event. You may also alert faculty assigned to this course when learners are late.

Optionally, enable Send Follow-up notification to notify specified faculty if there are students still marked as Absent after a specified number of days after an associated event.
Enhanced Absence Tracking: If enabled, learners will be marked as Absent if their attendance is taken after a specified number of minutes after the event start time. Select faculty to notify of absences. Having this option turned on will also enable additional options for taking attendance on the Attendance tab of an associated learning event. Instead of just marking whether the student was present or not you will be able to choose one of the following absent, unexcused absence, excused absence, present.

The event Attendance tab with the Enhanced Attendance Tracking Feature enabled:

Enhanced Event Attendance - Event Attendance Page Student Icon

The event Attendance without the Enhanced Attendance enabled:

No Enhanced Event Attendance - Event Attendance Page Student Icon

3. Lecture Capture Section

You will only see lecture capture options on a course setup page if lecture capture is enabled for your organization. This feature comes enabled by default. There are multiple steps to take to have the lecture capture feature work. Enabling it in the course is only one part. Please see the Lecture Capture Knowledge Base article to learn how to fully set up the lecture capture feature.

Lecture Capture Support: Turn on or off as needed. Having it turned on will allow consenting faculty to be recorded in eligible rooms.

Default Recording State: This dictates whether or not all events will automatically be recorded (on) or not (off).

Allow Faculty Override: This dictates whether or not faculty can change the default setting on their events (on) or not (off) via the event Content page.

Event Types Capture Permitted: This allows you to specify which event types you want to automatically record (e.g. lectures). You can select more than one event type per course. To delete a selected event, click on the small x to the right of the event type.

4. Course Enrolment Section

Complete this section when you have the students for the course(s) added in the Manage Users module in your organization and sectioned into cohorts or course lists as appropriate.

Enrolment Periods: The available options will depend on the curriculum periods defined in the Curriculum Layout section the Manage Curriculum layout. You can add multiple curriculum periods, cohorts or individuals to a course enrolment.

Step 1: Select an enrolment period from the dropdown options then click Add Audience.

Step 2: Choose to add a cohort, course list, or individual. Note that a cohort does not need to be assigned to a specific course in order to be added as an audience. However, a course list must be linked to a course via Manage Cohorts before it will be available to be added as an audience. An enrolment period can have more than one cohort, course list or individuals added to it. You can add any combination of cohorts, course list, and individuals to the enrolment period.

Step 3 (Optional): For courses set as private, you can optionally set a Viewable Start and Finish date to an enrolment to control student access to course websites and associated learning events. To enable this, check the box that reads "Apply a viewable start and/or finish date to course website and associated learning events”

- Start Time: If applied;
  - The audience of the course cannot see the course in their Courses tab until the start date and time
  - All events associated with the course are automatically hidden from the audience of the course's view until the start date/time
- End Time: If applied;
  - The audience of the course cannot see the course in their Courses tab after the finish date and time.
  - All events associated with the course are automatically hidden from the audience of the course after the finish date and time.
- Additional Information:

Warning: After the viewable start and finish dates have been set at the course level, the admin can adjust visibility rules on individual events, but if they subsequently change the dates at the course level, their changes at the individual event level will be overwritten by their new overall viewable start and finish dates.

Step 4: Click on Proceed to save the course. Once saved, the preceding options and more will appear on the Setup tab.

Course Setup Tab

In addition to the preceding sections, there are three more sections that will display once the course has been saved on the Adding Course page. The sections are

Course Contacts Section
Course Reports Section
Course Syllabus Section

These sections are detailed below.

Course Contacts Section

Course Director: User must be a Faculty:Director to be added here. This can be changed via a database setting to allow any faculty to be added; log a ticket with Elentra Support if so required. Assigning someone as a course/program director will allow them to:

Edit the course content, view course enrolment, view and edit the course gradebook
Edit the Content tab of all learning events in the course
User contact information will be displayed on the course page

Curriculum Coordinator: By default, a user must be have Staff: Admin permissions to be added here. This can be changed via a database setting to allow any faculty or staff user to be added as a Curriculum Coordinator. Log a ticket with Elentra Support if required. (setting: personnel_api_curriculum_coor_show_all_faculty and personnel_api_curriculum_coor_show_all_staff)

Note: Staff: Admin users already have access to all courses, events, etc. so adding someone here is more for the purpose of displaying contact information on the course page.

Associated Faculty: Any faculty user can be added here.

Users will be added to a list visible on a course page or course community (course website).
Users must be added to this list if you want to add them as a grader on a gradebook assessment or exam in the Exam module.
Users added here will be easily accessible in the Assessment and Evaluation module so you can quickly include them in a distribution.

Program Coordinator: By default, a user must be a Staff: Pcoordinator to be added here. This can be changed via a database setting to allow Staff: Admin users to be added as Program Coordinators. Log a ticket with Elentra Support if required (setting: personnel_api_program_coordinator_show_admins). Associating a Pcoordinator with a course gives that user admin access to that specific course and will allow them to:

Add, edit, and delete learning events for that course
View and edit the course gradebook (and other course tabs)
Access and edit information for this course in the Clinical Experience module (e.g., rotations, logbook reporting, leaves of absence, etc.)
Access a list of My Learners in the Assessment and Evaluation and the Clinical Experience module
View the admin view of the Assessment and Evaluation content for this course (e.g. items, forms, distributions, prompted responses.
View the CBME program dashboard (if CBME enabled)
Program Coordinator information can optionally display on a course page or the course website's Background page. This is controlled through a database setting (community_course_outline_hide_pcoordinators). Please submit a support ticket if you would like this changed.

Teaching Assistant: The user contact information will be displayed on the relevant course page, but will not have any additional course permissions.

Evaluation Rep: Adding a user here is for admin display purposes only, evaluation reps will not display on the course page or website.

Student Rep: Adding a user here is for admin display purposes only, student reps will not display on the course page or website.

Note: The list of course contact options can be modified by Elentra in the language file of the Elentra installation. For example, if you want Course Director to be labeled as Program Director instead this can be modified and will be applied to all courses.

Custom Course Roles

If you have a course website made under the Communities module then you can optionally define a custom role for each course contact. For example, if you want to show someone as a Learning Specialist instead of a Program Coordinator, you can set that using custom course roles. To begin, click the cog wheel icon next to the user's name in Course Contacts. A popup window will appear:

Custom Course Contact Fran Dixon Example

The provided title will display on the course community overview page instead of the user's system defined course contact role. In addition to defining a custom course contact role, this feature also lets you decide whether or not to include that user on the course website on the templated Background page. If a user's course contact role has been customized, the cog beside their name will display green.

With a Custom Course Role enabled the course website Background page will make a new section and shows the name as Program Director: Custom Course Contact Course Website Change

Custom Course Contact Course Website Change

Without a Custom Course Role enabled the course website shows the name as Director:

No Custom Course Contact - Course Website Example

Note: The Custom Course Roles feature only applies to course websites in the Communities module and not to the default course page on the Content tab of the course.

Course Reports Section

Indicate which reports should be available to be generated from this course by selecting them from the available options. In stock Elentra you will see Attendance Report, My Teachers, and Report Card as available report types. There is no user interface to control which reports are available to which organizations within an installation of Elentra, but the database can be configured to allow specific reports to be accessible to specific organizations.

Attendance Report: Clicking on the Attendance will allow you to select the filters you want to apply before generating the report. Filters include event type, cohort/course list OR specific students. The report is generated as a csv file.

My Teachers: will provide a report displaying the names and email addresses of all teachers active in the course. You can select the teachers you want and generate an email list to quickly communicate with people.

Warning: Report Card does not fully function right now, but it is intended to allow users to select a learner, and view a table showing curriculum tags as rows, and learning events, simulations, and logbook across the top. In each grid matrix you see a completion rate (e.g. 1/3, 2/5) in terms of attendance and completion. For the learning events the denominator is the number of events where attendance was required and that curriculum tag was applied. The numerator is how many times the learner was present at those events (this tool assumes you are using attendance tracking in Elentra).

Course Syllabus Section

If enabled, users will be able to generate a PDF summarizing the course information provided in the course Content tab. There is a default undergrad template that comes with stock Elentra. Syllabi will be accessible from the Courses tab (Learner View). Syllabi will only display while a course is running (i.e., as in during the course's defined curriculum period). Please note that there may be up to a 24-hour delay between enabling a syllabus for a course and it being visible to users because of a required behind-the-scenes action that runs every 24 hours.

When viewing courses as a student, the book icon next to the course title allows the user to download the syllabus.

Deleting a Course

Step 1: Navigate to Admin > Manage Courses.

Step 2: Search for the course you want to delete.

Step 3: Select the checkbox beside the course name for the course you want to delete.

Step 4: Click the Delete Course button that will appear upon selecting the checkboxes next to a courses name next to the Add New Course button.

Step 5: Confirm your choice. You will get a green success message on the screen.

Warning: Once a course is deleted there is not a way to recover it from the user interface. It is a soft delete, so the course data does still exist in the database. If a course has been deleted in error please contact Elentra Support to ask about recovery.