Authoring a new course is easy, once you get familiar with the basic steps and key terms.



4 Steps 


There are four basic steps to create a course in Spaces Learning:

  1. Set Up the Course Structure. In this step you use the Quick Editor to build the structure (learning paths and skills) for your new course and set certain parameters. For more information, refer to this article.
  2. Add Content. Once your course structure is built, you are ready to add learning content and activities. For more information, refer to this article.
  3. Add Assessments. In this step you will add quizzes and other assessments, or convert assessments you already have for the online environment. For more information, refer to this article.
  4. Test and Refine. The final step is to test your new course to make sure everything looks and works like you want it to. If needed, the Quick Editor makes it easy to make adjustments. For more information, refer to this article. 



Key Terms


It's helpful to get familiar with a few key terms before building your first course. 

  • Product. A product is a container for one or more courses. Think of a Product as a “catalog” of all the course content in a particular subject matter, skill track or curriculum.
  • Course. A course is the content for the learning program you want your learners to complete. It consists of one or more paths, each containing skills (or lessons), and may be short (e.g. 1-2 hours), or much longer (e.g., 40 hours, one semester, etc.). A course may also be referred to in the Spaces Learning platform as a "Journey."
  • Path. A path is a container for one or more skills/lessons in your course. Skills can be shared in multiple courses, but are always organized by path.
  • Skill/Lesson. A skill/lesson is a unit of instruction within your course. It may be equivalent to one "session" or one "week" of your course, it depends on your course structure. Each skill/lesson may contain learning resources, activities, and/or assessments. 
  • Resource. A resource is a learning artifact or piece of content, such as a video, PDF, slide deck, online article, or tutorial.
  • Activity. An activity is a type of resource - a learning event where the learner is required to apply one or more concepts, such as a Discussion, Video Activity, or Virtual Lab.
  • Assessment. An assessment is an informal or formal evaluation of the learner's knowledge or skill in a certain area. This may be done with a Quiz, Video Assessment, or Virtual Lab Assessment.

     

Courses (Content) vs. Cohorts (Experiences)

A key concept to understand when authoring in Spaces Learning is the difference between Courses and Cohorts. Courses are designated packages of content (aka "Journeys"), and Cohorts are experiences that map to those content journeys. When you build out a Course, you are designating the content in a series of Paths and Skills, all packaged within a “Product.” Think of a Product as a “catalog” of all the course content in a particular subject matter, skill track or curriculum. Products and Courses are not limited to a single cohort or time-based learning experience. 

 

Cohorts, on the other hand, are learning experiences that are specific to a particular time and/or group of learners. Multiple cohorts may map to the same skill or mix of skills. Or they may map to the same content paths, but different skills (see example above). There’s no limit to the number of Cohorts that can map to the same Paths and Skills.