.. _Organizing Your Course Content:

###############################
Organizing Your Course Content
###############################

.. _How a Course is Organized:

*************************
How a Course is Organized
*************************

You organize your course in the following hierarchy:

- :ref:`Sections`, which contain
    - :ref:`subsections`, which contain
        - :ref:`units`, which contain
            - :ref:`components`, which contain your actual course content.


Studio provides you with flexibility when organizing your course. A common course model is for sections to correspond to weeks or chapters, and for subsections to correspond to lessons.

.. note::  We recommend that you review :ref:`Guidelines for Creating Accessible Content` before developing content for your course.


==================
The Course Outline
==================

In Studio, you view your course organization through the course outline.

To open the course outline, on the **Content** menu, click **Outline**.

The following image shows the different elements of a course outline:

.. image:: Images/Course_Outline.gif
 :alt: Image of the course outline, with callouts for sections, subsection, and units

The following image shows the way this course content appears in the LMS:

.. image:: Images/Course_Outline_LMS.gif
  :alt: Image of sections from the student's point of view

.. _Sections:

********
Sections
********

A section is the topmost category in your course. A section can represent a time period in your course, a chapter, or another organizing principle. A section contains one or more subsections.

To create a section:

#. In the course outline, click **New Section**.
#. In the field that opens at the top of the outline, enter the new section name.
#. Click **Save**.

The new, empty section appears at the bottom of the course outline.
You can now add subsections to the section.

Whether or not students see the new section depends on the release date.

See :ref:`Publishing Your Course` for more information.

.. _Subsections:

****************
Subsections
****************

Sections are divided into subsections, which in turn contain one or more units. A subsection may represent a topic in your course, or another organizing principle. Subsections are sometimes called "lessons" or "learning sequences."

To create a subsection:

#. On the **Course Outline** page, under the name of the section that you want, click **New Subsection**.
#. In the field that opens at the bottom of the section, enter the new subsection name.
#. Click **Save**.

The new, empty subsection appears at the bottom of the section. You can then add units to the subsection.

==================
Edit a Subsection
==================


You add and delete subsections from the **Course Outline** page. You edit a subsection's settings on the page for that subsection. To open the page for a subsection, click the name of the subsection on the **Course Outline** page.

On the page for the subsection, you can see all the units in the subsection.

.. image:: Images/Subsection.gif
 :alt: Image of the subsection page

You can also do the following.

- Change the subsection name
- Add or delete a unit
- Set the subsection release date and time
- Set the subsection to be an assignment type
- Set a due date for the exercises in the subsection (if you set the assignment type of the subsection)
- Preview a draft of the subsection
- View the live version of your course 

Whether students can see a subsection depends on its release date. For more information, see :ref:`Publishing Your Course`.

For more information about setting assignment types, see :ref:`Establish a Grading Policy`.

For more information about viewing drafts or the current version of your course, see :ref:`Preview Your Course` and :ref:`View Your Live Course`.

.. _Units:

******
Units
******

Subsections are divided into units. A unit, in turn, contains one or more components.

In the LMS, each unit in the subsection appears as a link on the course ribbon at the top of the page. The following image shows a subsection that has eight units:

.. image:: Images/Units_LMS.gif
 :alt: Image of units from a student's point of view

You can create a unit from the course outline or the subsection page. To create a unit, click **New Unit** within the subsection that you want.

When you create a new unit, a page opens for that unit. On the unit page, you can do the following.

- Specify the name that you want students to see. To do this, enter the name that you want in the **Display Name** field.
- Create components in the unit.
- Change the visibility of the unit. By default, the unit visibility is set to **Private**, so students will not be able to see the unit.Unless you want students to see the unit immediately, leave this setting as-is. For more information, see :ref:`Publishing Your Course`.
- Preview a draft of the unit.
- If a unit has been published, view the live version of the unit.

After you create a new unit, you can create components in the unit.

.. warning::

  Studio does not have versioning and does not automatically update your browser between refreshes. Versioning is planned for future
  releases, but, in the meantime, only one author should edit a unit, in one
  browser, on only one tab.  If a unit is open for editing in multiple browser
  sessions, the session that saves last will overwrite any previously saved
  content without displaying a warning. Also, older browser sessions can overwrite
  more recent content, so you should refresh your browser before you start working every time
  you work with a private unit or edit a draft of a public unit.

.. _Components:

**********
Components
**********

A component is the part of a unit that contains your actual course content. A unit can contain one or more components.

A student can view the name of all components in a unit by hovering over the unit in the ribbon at the top of the page.

.. image:: Images/ComponentNames_CourseRibbon.gif
 :alt: Image of the component list for a unit

By default, Studio includes four types of components.

- **Discussion components** provide discussion spaces in the body of your course. Students can explore ideas about a lesson with their peers in a discussion space. 
- **HTML components** allow you to add text, images, and some types of learning tools to your course. Content in HTML components is formatted as HTML. 
- **Problem components** enable you to add many different types of exercises and problems to you course, from simple multiple choice problems to complex circuit schematic exercises. 
- **Video components** contain the videos that you want to include in your course. 

To add a component to the unit, click the component type that you want under **Add New Component**. 

.. image:: Images/AddNewComponent.gif
  :alt: Image of adding a new component

For more information, see the documentation for the specific component type that you want:

- :ref:`Working with Discussion Components`
- :ref:`Working with HTML Components`
- :ref:`Working with Problem Components`
- :ref:`Working with Video Components`

.. _Reorganize Your Course:

**********************
Reorganize Your Course
**********************

You can reorganize your course by dragging and dropping sections, subsections, units, and components. You can move elements on the **Course Outline** page or on an individual unit page.

To move an element, hover over the element handle on the right side of the screen until the mouse pointer changes to a four-headed arrow. Then, click and drag the element to the location that you want.

.. image:: Images/DragAndDropExample.gif
 :alt: Image of the course outline, with the handle for a unit selected for drag and drop

When you move an element, a blue line indicates where the element will land when you release the mouse. 

.. image:: Images/DragAndDrop_BlueLine.gif
 :alt: Image of the course outline, with a unit being dragged to a different location