Authoring

Versioning

Versioning and snapshotting of versions is a way for courses and other learning units on the platform to be organized in a coherent way. As a single course may be used in different contexts and with adjustments to the presentation of the content, the ability to version a course (rather than create an entirely new course for every use case) is a useful administrative and organizational tool.

Section Containers

The section container is how content is grouped on a page. Rather than simply having all content flat on a page, we have decided to structure content within section containers. To the right, you can see a lot of the potential functionality that section containers enable. For instance, content can be locked from one container to the next, where the result is that a learner must complete an activity from the prior section container before advancing to the next (i.e., containers are "locked"). This enables inductive learning through granular control of how content is revealed, without having to separate content on different pages. Containers can also be set to required, which would trigger signals to the learner if they have not completed the exercises in that container.

Section containers also lend themselves to sequences. For instance, certain sequences of container can be saved as templates, such that an author can easily build a predefined sequence of, for example, some text, a video, and a poll, followed by a shared reflection.

Additionally, section containers allow us to create custom containers for specific functionality, such as containers that incorporate question sets or cold calls (see below).

Question Set

Question set containers enable authors to embed a customizable quiz anywhere within a learning experience. Rather than having to switch contexts and UIs to a separate quiz function, a question set container can be positioned anywhere within a learning experience (of course, it can also be used at the end of a module in a more traditional quiz or knowledge check context).

Authors will have granular controls over things like number of attempts, setting hints, and displaying answers after each or all the questions. Summary views will also be available at the end of a question set so learners can easily see how they did and get back to any questions with one click. 

To the right is an example of how we are exploring various mobile-first designs, which can get particularly tricky as the number of questions increases. Final designs may allow for different navigational features depending on the total number of questions being used.

Cold Call Containers

A cold call is a time-boxed learning experience. In the LXP, a cold call container will enable authors to put various types of teaching elements into a cold call container, which will time limit the learner's opportunity to respond. The key feature of the cold call is that authors can assign them to only certain segments of the learners, such that learners don't know when they will be called upon to answer a time limited teaching element. After answering, authors can choose to allow learners to explore others' answers who were also given the same cold call.

To the right is an example of how a cold call looks on the HBSO platform, where a learner would then hit start and then be shown that they have a limited time to answer the question.

Sequences

Sequences make the authoring approach more efficient and support the adoption of effective pedagogical approaches.

As shown in the image to the right, via the button in the upper-right of the container, we allow authors to save a sequence of teaching elements within a section container. Thereby a sequence of TEs, such as video, text, poll, or shared reflection, can be saved along with the configurations for those teaching elements. This way, course authors and builders can efficiently put repeating content sequences together. Moreover, authors can borrow and learn from other sequences that other authors have developed and saved.

Preview

Previewing content as an author builds it is a critical feature. We are working to make preview a robust experience. As shown in the wire to the right, we are planning on functionality such as mobile/tablet views, the ability to unfold or collapse locked learning sequences, and the ability to move forwards and backwards to other pages within the context of a preview.