Developing Course Components

A component is the part of a unit that contains your actual course content. A unit can contain one or more components.

By default, Studio includes four basic types of components for you to add to your course.

Discussion components provide discussion spaces in the body of your course. Learners can explore ideas about a lesson with their peers in a discussion space.
HTML components allow you to add text, images, and some types of learning tools to your course. Content in HTML components is formatted as HTML.
Problem components enable you to add many different types of exercises and problems to your course, from simple multiple-choice problems to complex circuit schematic exercises.
Video components contain the videos that you want to include in your course.

Add a Component

To add a component to the unit, follow these steps.

Open the page for the unit in the Studio.
Under Add New Component, select a component type. The default component types are discussion, HTML, problem, and video.

Edit a Component

To edit a component, you select Edit in the component’s title bar in Studio.

Then, follow instructions for the type of component you are editing.

After you edit a component, the changes are not visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Set the Display Name for a Component

The display name identifies the component. This name appears as a heading above the component in the LMS, and it identifies the component for you in Insights.

The following illustration shows the display name of a problem in Studio, in the LMS, and in Insights.

Unique, descriptive display names help you and your learners identify components quickly and accurately.

To set the display name for a component, follow these steps.

Edit the component. A dialog box opens.
- For a discussion or video component, the dialog box opens to the list of settings, including the Display Name field.
- For an HTML or problem component, the dialog box opens to an editing view. Select Settings to show the list of settings, including the Display Name field.
Edit the Display Name field.

Click Save.

Different types of components have different fields in the Settings dialog box, but all of them have a Display Name field.

Duplicate a Component

When you duplicate a component, a new copy of that component is added directly beneath the first component. You can then modify the duplicate. In many cases, duplicating a component and editing the copy is a faster way to create new content.

To duplicate a component, click the Duplicate icon in the component header.

Then, follow instructions for the type of component you are editing.

After you duplicate a component, the new component is not visible to learners until you publish the unit.

Duplicating content experiments after you have configured them is not supported.

Delete a Component

Be sure you want to delete the component. You cannot undo the deletion.

To delete a component, follow these steps.

Click the Delete icon in the component header.

When you receive the confirmation prompt, click Yes, delete this component.

After you delete a component in Studio, the component remains visible to learners until you publish the unit.