Creating Courses and Sections - Genius CE & Enterprise

Creating Courses and Sections

In the context of course management, Courses and Sections exhibit a “parent-child” relationship. This means that when you establish specific properties at the Course level, those properties will automatically be inherited by all the Sections created under that Course. This hierarchical structure allows for a more streamlined and organized approach to course management.

For example, several essential properties can be defined at the Course level. These properties will determine the parameters for the sections derived from that Course. The following are key properties that can be set:

• You can specify whether learners have the option for self-registration in a course, which can facilitate easier access for students who wish to enroll without needing additional approval.
• You can determine if the course requires managerial approval, which adds a layer of oversight and control over who can enroll in specific courses.
• You can also set pre-requisites for the course, meaning there may be other courses that learners must complete before they can register for this particular course.

PLEASE NOTE: A Section represents a specific instance or version of a Course that is being offered at a particular time or taught by a specific instructor. Learners enroll in and complete Sections, not Courses.

For example, you could have a course titled “Bloodborne Pathogens,” which could have three distinct Sections: one offered in January, another in March, and a final one in May:

When it comes to reporting, you can gather data across all Sections of a Course to obtain insights into progress, performance, and engagement at the course level. Conversely, suppose you are interested in evaluating how a specific group of learners is performing in their coursework. In that case, you can generate reports at the section level, providing you with detailed insights tailored to that cohort.

Adding Courses

Here is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to creating Courses in Genius CE & Enterprise.

Before you begin…

Before adding a course, we strongly recommend creating a Master Course Template first. This template should encompass the learning content you wish to deliver through the Learning Management System (LMS) you are using for content delivery. By doing this, when you create a Section of that course, Genius CE & Enterprise will automatically copy the material from the Course Template, ensuring that your learners have access to a replicated version of the original course content.

Ultimately, this approach will help you establish a ‘vertical’ structure that includes Master Course Templates, Courses, and Sections, all of which will exist both at the LMS level and within Genius CE & Enterprise.

The Add Course Tool

Once you have your Master Course Template ready (or when you are prepared to create your course), navigate to the Courses tab. You can initiate the creation of a Course by clicking on the Add Course menu item located in the Sidebar on the left-hand side of your screen:

Fill in the required fields and provide a name for the course.

PLEASE NOTE: Any properties defined at the Course level will automatically be inherited by the Sections created from that Course:

You can link the Course to the Master Course Template you created at the LMS level by entering the LMS Course ID of the Master Course Template in the “LMS ID” field within the Course.

• Each time a Section of this Course is created, Genius CE & Enterprise will search for the course material associated with that course ID in the LMS’s course database and create a new copy of that course, which learners will interact with and complete.

Associating a Preview Image with the Course

The Catalog showcases all Sections available for self-registration through an appealing tile-based interface. Genius+ utilizes Azure Blob Storage to store images. Each course in the Catalog is represented by a small image, which you can define or modify by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Administration> System Setup > File Upload and upload the image file you wish to use. The file will be stored as a URL.
2. (Example): https://stenterprisefilesprod.blob.core.windows.net/yourorganization/upload/yourimage.png.
3. Proceed to the courses tab and use the URL generated from the image upload as the link to the file.

Adding Sections

After you have created a Course in Genius CE & Enterprise, you can then develop Sections of that Course to serve as course offerings. Each time you make a new Section, Genius CE & Enterprise will generate a copy of the Master Course Template you established for that Course within your LMS.

To create a new Section, click on the Sections tab, then select the “Add Section” menu item located on the sidebar to the left side of your screen.

At the section level, you can define several essential properties:

• Enrollment cap – This indicates the maximum number of learners allowed to enroll in this section. If more learners attempt to register than the defined cap, those additional learners will be placed on a Waitlist.
• Credits (CEUs) – This refers to the credit hours awarded to learners upon completion of the section. This information will be included on the Certificates and Transcripts issued by Enterprise+ to learners upon finishing their coursework.
• Instructor(s) – Here, you can specify the name of the instructor responsible for this section. You can easily select an Instructor from a drop-down menu, allowing for a quick association of a section with an existing instructor in your learning initiative. Assigning a Section to an Instructor will grant them access to the progress, performance, and engagement data of the learners enrolled in that section.
• Term – This field allows you to associate the section with a specific Term.
• Affiliation – This field can be used to regulate access to the learning opportunity. By specifying an Affiliation, only learners from that specific Affiliation will be able to view and enroll in this section in their Course Catalog. If you do not wish to impose restrictions on access to this particular learning opportunity, set this field to “Any”.
• Start date – This indicates the date on which the section will commence.
• End date – This indicates the date on which the section will conclude.
• Duration – This refers to the total number of calendar days that the section will be active.
• Price – If you wish to establish a price for this section, you can do so in this field. The Course Catalog entry for this Section will reflect the Price you enter.
• Location – You can specify where the section will take place by completing this field. The Location will be visible in the Course Catalog.
• Meeting times – This defines the schedule for when the section will meet. If you set Meeting times for a section, you will be able to take attendance for that section.
• Certificate  – A certificate designated at the section level will be issued upon completion of this section.
• External Link – This link will direct the enrolled learner to the location where the section is hosted if it is NOT within an LMS. For instance, if the course is a webinar, you might include a Zoom link here for participants to join. When they click "Go to Course" after enrolling, they will be redirected to this external link.
• Competencies – These are the learning targets and skills that learners are expected to achieve or master upon completing this section.
• Completion Formula – This overrides the globally set formula in parameters that determines whether an enrollment is considered complete.
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Additionally, you can determine the delivery method at the Section Level, which can be classified as either online, face-to-face, or hybrid.

To verify that your section has been successfully created, you can go ahead and return to the Sections tab, which will show a list of all Active Sections that you have established within your instance of Genius CE & Enterprise.

Status: Active or Archived

Within Enterprise+, a course or section can have one of two status options: ACTIVE or ARCHIVED.

• Active - When a course or section is designated as Active, users are permitted to enroll in it and will be able to see it in the Learner’s Course Catalog.
• Archived - When a course or section is Archived, it is no longer available for enrollment, and learners will not see it in their Course Catalog. Archiving a course or section indicates that the class is unavailable in a typical LMS.

PLEASE NOTE: Archiving a course or section in Genius CE & Enterprise does not equate to archiving a course in an LMS. In an LMS, an archived course represents a complete backup of that course at a specific point in time, which can be utilized to restore the full contents of that course. Genius CE & Enterprise only retains the final grade and completion status and cannot restore the entire contents of an LMS course if it has been archived.*