.. _Testing Your Course:

###########################
Testing Your Course
###########################

The way your course looks in Studio is not the way students see and experience it. To test your course, while you develop course content and afterward, you must view and interact with your course from a student's point of view.

From within Studio, you can:

* :ref:`Preview Your Course`
* :ref:`View Your Live Course`

For information about setting up a beta test for your course, see :ref:`Beta_Testing`.

.. _Preview Your Course:

***********************
Preview Your Course
***********************
 
When you view your course through Preview mode, you see all the
units of your course, regardless of whether they are set to Public or
Private and regardless of whether the release dates have passed.
 
 
Using Preview mode is the only way to see content that is set to Private
**as a student would see it.**
 
 
You can enter Preview mode in two ways.
 
* On any subsection page, click **Preview Drafts**.

  .. image:: ../Images/preview_draft.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Image of a subsection with the Preview Drafts button circled
 
* On any Unit page, click **Preview**.
 
  The following example shows the **Preview** button for a unit that
  is set to Public.
 
  .. image:: ../Images/preview_public.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Image of a public unit with the Preview button circled
 
 
  The following example shows the **Preview** button for a unit that
  is set to Private.
 
  .. image:: ../Images/preview_private.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Image of a private unit with the Preview button circled
 
.. _View Your Live Course:

******************************************
Switch Between Studio and Your Live Course
******************************************

While you work in Studio, you can switch to your live course to see how your course appears to students. Because you are logged in as a course team member, when you switch to your live course you see the **Staff View**. 

  .. image:: ../Images/Live_Course_Staff_View.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Image of the Courseware page in a live course with Staff View indicated at top right and a View Unit in Studio button
 
In **Staff View**:

* You see all of the units that are set to **Public**, regardless of the release dates of the containing section or subsection.  

* You do not see units that are set to **Private**. To see Private units, you must use Preview mode as described in :ref:`Preview Your Course`.

* You can access the Instructor Dashboard, which has features and reports that help you run your course.

.. DOC-311 filed to add info about student vs. staff view 

.. You can also change to **Student View**. In **Student View**, the release date settings for sections and subsections apply. You can still access the Instructor Dashboard, however. 

.. To switch from **Staff View** to **Student View** and back again, click **Staff View** or **Student View**.

When you view your live course in **Staff View**, you can execute tests to make sure your course works the way you intend. For example, the course team can work through all of the problems to verify that the correct answer gets a green check for correct, and that any answer other than the correct one gets a red X for incorrect. 

======================================
Go to Your Live Course from Studio
======================================

To switch from Studio to your live course, click **View Live** on any of these pages:
 
* The **Course Outline** page.

  .. image:: ../Images/course_outline_view_live.png
   :width: 800
   :alt: Image of the course outline with the View Live button circled
 
* Any Subsection page.
 
  .. image:: ../Images/subsection_view_live.png
    :width: 800
    :alt: Image of a subsection with the View Live button circled
 
* The Unit page, if the Unit is Public.
 
  .. image:: ../Images/unit_view_live.png
     :width: 800
     :alt: Image of a unit with the View Live button circled

When you click **View Live**, the **Courseware** page or the corresponding subsection or unit page opens.

====================================
Go to Studio from Your Live Course
====================================

To switch from your live course to Studio, click **View {page} in Studio** on any of these pages:
 
* Any unit (shown in the :ref:`View Your Live Course` section above).
 
* The Instructor Dashboard. 
 
  .. image:: ../Images/Live_Course_Instructor_Dashboard.png
    :width: 800
    :alt: Image of the Instructor Dashboard in a live course with a View Course in Studio button

  For information about the tasks you can complete on the Instructor Dashboard, see :ref:`Running Your Course Index`.  
 
* The **Course Progress** page for a specified student. 
 
  .. image:: ../Images/Student_Progress.png
     :width: 800
     :alt: Image of the Course Progress page for a student with a View  Grading in Studio button

  For information about checking a student's progress, see :ref:`Review_grades`.