Editing Course details

Use the Course Details window to view and change the settings of an existing course. An administrator, instructor or reporter who has been given the permission can view and edit course details. You can also inactivate a course here by clearing its Active check box.

View and edit course details

Click the Curriculums/Courses side-tab and click Manage Courses. Manage Courses opens.
Use the fields in the search window above the results table to filter the list of courses. Use the fields as follows:
- Org ID – Org ID under which the course is registered.
- Course ID – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the Course ID.
- Title – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the title.
- Description – Enter any combination of letters and numbers to search for any courses that contain that combination in the description.
- Course Type – Use the list to select the type upon which to search.
- Include Inactive – Enable this check box to include inactive courses in the results.
Double-click the course ID of the course that you want to view. Alternatively, you can select the course ID and either click View/Edit Details or right-click on the table and select View/Edit Details.
On the Course Details window, modify the fields on the Course tab as described under Course tab fields below. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
Click the Details tab and update the fields as described under Details tab fields below.
Click the Due Dates tab and complete the fields as described under Due Dates tab fields below.
Click the Community tab and complete the fields as described under Community tab fields below.
Click the Prerequisites tab to define a prerequisite sequence. The Prerequisite Courses box lists the courses in the order that students must complete them. The Available Courses box lists the available courses. Select a course and use the arrow buttons to manage the courses and their prerequisite order. For example, to add a course to the prerequisite list, select the course from the Available Courses box and click the left-arrow button. To move the course in the order, select the course and click the up-arrow or down-arrow button.
Note: Prerequisites block students from accessing the course content prior to completing that prerequisite. Assigned or self-enrolled courses that require a prerequisite appear on My Courses, but cannot be accessed until the prerequisite is fulfilled.
Click the Instructors tab to assign instructors to the course. The Instructors Assigned box lists the instructors currently assigned to instruct the course. The Instructors Available box lists the available instructors. Select an instructor and use the arrow buttons to manage the list of instructors assigned to the course. For example, to add an instructor to the instructor list, select the instructor from the Instructors Available box and click the left-arrow button.
Note: If no instructors are assigned, course notifications come from the system administrator. If multiple instructors are assigned and an email notification is being sent, it comes from the first instructor in the list.
Click the Tags tab to define the tags associated with the course. Assigning tags to a course makes it easy for students to find a specific course during a search. Enter each word or phrase on a separate line. For more information about tags, see Managing tags.
Tip: Tags can be utilized to identify career paths for the organization. For example, a career path for Restaurant Management might be noted as Restaurant. The use of capital letters can provide a visual distinction between content tags and career path tags.
Click the Course Info tab to provide administrative information about the course. This tab only displays if the administrator has set up categories for courses, like Author. The categories set up for courses display here so data can be filled in for this particular course. Up to eight categories can be defined at the organization level. The data is only available in custom reporting that you create.
- Each content line retains up to 200 characters.
- Students do not see this tab when researching course information in the Course Catalog.
Tip: Course Info can be used for administrative tracking for each course.
Click Save.

The changes are saved.

To update many courses at once, see Updating courses in bulk with Batch Course Import.

Course tab fields

Fields marked "(required)" are marked with an asterisk (*) in CourseMill.

Course ID (required) – The label used to identify the course. The course ID can be sorted on in numerous catalogs and reports. A management naming convention should be considered to allow the courses to sort as desired on the My Courses and Course Catalog pages. For example, ACCT_1001 would sort all Accounting courses by the prefix ACCT.
Active – Whether the course is active. This check box defaults to enabled; however, you may want to disable it (marking the course inactive) until you are ready for the course to show in the catalog. Also, courses can be inactivated once they are no longer offered for enrollment.
Last Updated – When the course was last updated. This field cannot be changed.
Title (required) – The title of the course.
Description (required) – A short description of the course.
Notes – Provide an area for the instructors to maintain information on the course. This information is viewable to students.
Thumbnail (w:380 x h:250) – The full address of a file containing the course thumbnail in jpg or gif format. The thumbnail is displayed to students in the course catalog. If the thumbnail resides on the Web, a full URL can be specified. To select a local file, click Upload to open the Upload window and click Browse. The recommended size is 380 x 250.

Details tab fields

Course Type – How the course is delivered to students.
Credit Hours – Credit hours received for successful completion of the course.
Student Invitation URL – The URL to point students directly to courses in the course catalog so they may easily find and enroll in them. This URL is automatically generated and can be copied into an email if you want to send out invites to students to take the course. The URL will take them directly to the CourseMill Login screen to enter log in credentials, and then will direct them to the catalog to enroll in the course. For details about sending emails within CourseMill, see Sending email to users.
Course Registration – The type of registration for the course. Select By Enrollment Only if students must receive approval for enrollment into the course. Otherwise, select By Enrollment or Self-Registration, which allows students to see the course in their catalog and to self-enroll in the course. If self-registration requires an access code, select Self-Registration with Access Code and specify the access code in the box to the right. If self-registration requires approval, select Self-Registration requires approval. If Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg is selected, the course can be automatically enrolled in for students within the same SubOrg.
- For Self-Registration requires approval, when the user clicks the Enroll button, the request for approval is sent to the reporter/manager to act upon. The course specifies Waiting for Approval in the user's catalog until it is approved or denied.
- For Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg, if you assign courses to sub-orgs, only those students in those sub-orgs will see the courses in their catalog. For details, see Assigning a course to a sub-org and auto-enrollment. Additionally, you must have the managed property AutoEnrollAssignedCourses turned on for this to work. For more information about setting properties, see System properties reference. If Allow Auto Enrollment for Matching SubOrg is checked, any users matching the sub-orgs defined by the rules set in the Assign Course window are automatically enrolled in the course. If the managed property IgnoreSubOrgRestrictionsForCourseinCatalog is also turned on, then all other users will also see the course in their catalog for self-enrollment if they desire. For more information about setting sub-org values, see Setting sub-org values. If this is unchecked and you still have rules set up in the Assign Course window, those users will be the only ones to see this course in their catalog so they can self-register.
Course Local Dir – The location of the course on the server. This automatically generated location is used to copy files to when the course is published to CourseMill. The default is set by the DefaultLocalBaseDir property. For more information about setting properties, see System properties reference.
Course HTTP Dir – The URL address of the course. It is automatically generated. The default is set by the DefaultWebBaseDir property. For more information about setting properties, see System properties reference.
Width – The width of the course in pixels. Adjust accordingly for mobile courses.
Height – The height of the course in pixels. Adjust accordingly for mobile courses.
Allow Resizing – Allow students to resize the window when the course is displayed.
Full Screen – Allow students to run the course in full-screen mode.
Change non-complete status to 'Elapsed' on Content Update – Automatically changes the Course completion Status for any Students that have not completed the Course to 'Elapsed' if a change is made to the SCORM content of the Course.

Due Dates tab fields

Course should be completed after this number of days (Still allow access) – The number of days the course should be completed. This encourages a time period to complete the course. Because this is a due date only, it does still allow the student to access the course even though it is overdue. Courses that are approaching or have passed the due date are marked with orange (approaching) and red (overdue) indicators next to the course name, and these courses are at the top of the students' to-do list.
Course expires this number of days after enrollment (Does not allow access) – The number of days access to the course expires after enrollment. This establishes the timeframe that the student is required to complete the course. Once the course expires, it displays in red on the student interface, and the student needs to contact the instructor to regain access to the course by extending their expiration date. The actual course Due Date is derived by adding the number of days to the student's enrollment date. The Due Date displays under My Courses for the associated course.
Re-enroll in course after this number of days – The number of days after completion at which students must re-enroll in the course to maintain certification. Use this for a certification program that is good for only a period of time, when you want to automatically re-enroll users so they continue their certification on an ongoing basis. Enter the number of days after which you want CourseMill to re-enroll the student after the student has completed the course. If no days are entered in this field, re-enrollment does not occur.

Note: Example. A student is taking a Project Management certification course. They should be re-enrolled 275 days (Re-enroll in course after this number of days) after the day they complete the course (because we want to give them three months to prepare for next year's certification). They should complete the course in 90 days (Course should be completed after this number of days (Still allow access)). If they do not, you can send them a warning notification that they should be completing it soon. But if they do not complete it in time, they still have access to the course until they complete.

The following examples show when each student enrolled and completed, and when re-enrollment occurs (certification is good for one year; each student has three months to work on the course to re-certify for the next year):

Debbie (Jan – Dec) – Date Enrolled: 1/1/14. Date Completed (even though it usually takes 90 days): 2/20/14. Re-Enrollment Date (275 days later): 11/20/14. Days to work on the course to re-certify for the next year: 3 months.
Mike (Mar – Feb) – Date Enrolled: 3/1/14. Date Completed: 3/30/14. Re-Enrollment Date (275 days later): 12/30/14. Days to work on the course to re-certify for the next year: 3 months.
John (June – May) – Date Enrolled: 6/1/14. Date Completed: 8/15/14. Re-Enrollment Date (275 days later): 5/15/15. Days to work on the course to re-certify for the next year: 3 months.

Note: When a student is re-enrolled into a course by the system, their transcript notes this activity. The transcript defaults to showing a summary, which does not show that specific re-enrollment activity. To see re-enrollment activity, click the Options button, clear the Summary Transcript check box, and then click the Run Report button to reproduce the transcript.

Note: The Automatic re-enrollment for certification message can also be seen in the student's Gradebook by selecting the Comment icon next to the course name. Clicking the comment icon brings up the course Comment window.

Community tab fields

Chat Support – Whether to allow access to a course-wide chat room.
IM Support – Whether to allow students within the course to send instant messages to each other.
Discussion Board Support – Whether to allow students within the course to access a discussion board. If you enable a discussion board at the course level, a discussion board at the session level is also automatically created.
External Discussion Board URL – The URL for the course-wide external discussion board.
Email Support – Whether to allow students within the course to send email to each other.
Allow Student to Student Email in the Discussion Board – Select this check box to allow students to send email to other students within the course in the discussion board.

The Community feature restricts communication to only those users registered in the course. Only users registered in the course can participate in the features that you enable on the Community tab.

Note: The default for each of the Community items is set in the organization table. CourseMill can disable these entirely or allow for these to be enabled within the course, curriculum or session.