Quick Start
This guide will walk you through the process of creating your first course in Author Workbench.
What is a Course?
Courses are large online learning experiences. They combine a mix of readings, labs, quizzes, videos, and more -- typically structured in 5 or more modules. Learners are meant to work through them at their own pace, this is also known as a self-paced course.
Author Workbench provides the tools to create and submit your course for review. Once approved, your course will be part of the Skills Network Catalog where our partners will be able to find and offer your course to their learners.
Create a Course
You'll create your course in Author Workbench. Start by navigating to the Courses page and clicking "Create Course". You'll be asked for some information about your course here.
Course Metadata
The course metadata is the information about your course that will be displayed to learners. This includes the title, description, and what skills learners will gain from completing your course.
Your metadata is critical to the success of your course. It is the first thing learners will see and will be used to determine if your course is a good fit for them.
Make sure to include keywords that learners would use to find your course. This will help your course be more visible to learners and improve your search rankings. In addition, try to write engaging and enticing descriptions that will convince learners that your course is worth taking. We recommend you spare any boring details here and focus instead on the value learners will gain from completing your course.
If you have access to publish on other platforms, you can check multiple platforms here. This will create a course for each platform you select and link them together for easy management.
Offered By
Every course can be offered by an individual or an organization. If you joined Author Workbench as an independent author, simply select your name and the course will be offered by you. If you joined Author Workbench as part of an organization and want to publish your course under that organization's name you can select them here. If you don't see that organization as an option, please make sure you're a member of that organization in Author Workbench.
Platforms
Author Workbench supports publishing to Skills Network Portals automatically. This includes our community initiative, cognitiveclass.ai. Publishing to other destinations such as Coursera or edX.org will require you to be a partner with that destination. We recommend you only select Skills Network Portals as your platform unless otherwise instructed.
Setting Dates
The start date and launch dates are the date you plan to start developing your course and expect to launch your course, respectively. This is important as it helps our team plan for the release of your course. It is also useful to help you stay on track with your course development.
Like any estimate, these dates do not have to be exact. Pick dates you think are reasonable and update them as needed.
If you are creating a course for more than 1 platform, you'll have to add start and end dates for the development of each of platforms since they are treated as separate courses.
Test Project
The Test Project option is exactly what it sounds like. It is a great way for you to create a temporary course and get familiar with the tools available to you. Check this option and your course will automatically be deleted after 30 days.
Team Management
While it's possible to create a course as an individual author, it's often useful to have a team of authors working on a course. This is especially true for larger courses that have many modules.
To manage who has access to your course, navigate to the "Team" tab of your course. Here you can add team members, remove team members, and assign them roles.
Roles
There are five roles that can be assigned to a team member. These roles determine what actions a team member can perform in your course and if they are displayed publicly as a member of your course team.
Note, your course can have at most one Lead Instructor. When you create your course, you will be automatically assigned as the Lead Instructor.
| Role | Visibility | Permissions |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Instructor | Public | Can edit all course content |
| Instructor | Public | Can edit all course content |
| Contributor | Public | Limited editing permissions |
| Staff | Private | Limited editing permissions |
| Admin | Private | Can edit all course content |
The Course Outline
The course outline is the arrangement of the modules, lessons, and resources that make up your course. It is the order in which learners will work through your course.
Any resources you create in your course (such as labs or videos) must be added to the course outline to be visible to learners.
Editing the Course Outline
To access your course outline, click the "Content" tab of your course and under "Course Outline", click "Edit in SN Studio". This will open your course outline editor in Skills Network Studio, which is our environment based on Open edX Studio.
For a detailed guide on how to use Skills Network Studio to build your course outline, refer to the Open edX guides.
Previewing your course
You can preview your course at any time by clicking the "Preview Course" button in the top right corner of your course. This will open a new tab with your course outline from the perspective of a learner.
You can also preview your course from within SN Studio by clicking the "View Live Version" button in the top right corner of any module, lesson, or resource in your course.
If you're not seeing the changes you've made to your course, make sure you remembered to click "Publish" in SN Studio.
Course Resources
Courses in Author Workbench have access to a variety of really useful and exciting resources that can take your course to the next level. We recommend you incorporate as many of these as possible to enhance your course.
Labs
Use labs to allow learners to apply what they've learned in a hands-on way.
Labs provide a sandboxed environment right in the browser and allow learners to apply what they've learned without the need to install any software.
You can create and manage labs for your course in the "Labs" tab of your course in Author Workbench. You can also reuse labs you've created elsewhere by selecting one of the "Add a Lab" options under the dropdown beside "Create Lab".
Skills Network Labs provides many different types of lab environments and tools. Each have different use cases and are suited for different types of content. When creating a lab, you only need to write out the instructions learners should follow. Our environment will automatically provide them with the tools and environment they need to follow along. Author Workbench will also automatically generate translations for your lab to make it accessible to a wider audience.
Once you create your lab, it is up to you to embed it in your course outline.
Videos
Use videos to teach advanced concepts in a more engaging way.
Videos can be uploaded to Author Workbench in the "Videos" tab of your course. You can also reuse videos you've created elsewhere by selecting one of the "Add a Video" options under the dropdown beside "Create Video".
When you upload a video, Author Workbench will automatically generate a timed transcript which you can modify if you'd like. Additionally, translations will automatically be generated for your video transcript to make it accessible to a wider audience.
Once you upload your video, it is up to you to embed it in your course outline.
Assignments
Use assignments to test learners' understanding of the material.
Assignments are a great way to get learners to apply what they've learned.
Once you create your assignment, it is up to you to embed it in your course outline.
Publishing
Publishing your course is easy! But it can be a bit confusing to understand how learners will access your course at first.
Submitting your course for review
Submitting your course for review is a three step process. Once you you think your course is ready for learners to enroll, you'll want to click the "Submit for Review" button. This will start the three step submission process. Here you will:
- Review your course team
- Review your course metadata
- Confirm submission
Once you've submitted your course, you'll see that your course status has changed from "Draft" to "Awaiting Review". This means that the Skills Network team will review your course before it is made available to learners. If changes are needed, you'll receive an email with feedback and can make the necessary changes before submitting again. If your course is approved, it will be added to the Skills Network Catalog and made available to learners.
You can easily submit new versions of your course for review as you make changes. Note that you only need to submit new versions if you've made changes to the course outline. Metadata changes do not require a new submission.
How do learners access my course?
Learners do not access your course directly through Author Workbench. Instead, they will access your course through a Skills Network Portal.
To use a simplified analogy, think of yourself as a mobile app developer and your course as a mobile app. Author Workbench is your development environment and the Skills Network Catalog is the app store. Skills Network Portals are like the phones that install a copy of the app and allow users to launch the apps.
As a Skills Network Author, you can easily create courses for Skills Network Portals. This includes our community initiative, cognitiveclass.ai. However, publishing to other destinations such as Coursera or edX.org will require you to be a partner with that destination.