There are five different course formats to choose from in the CLE, each having their own strengths and applications. While the default Topics course format may be the best fit for your students, it is worth exploring other options to help enhance your CLE course.
The following roles can change course formats in a CLE course: Manager, Instructor, Course Assistant, and Grading Assistant.
The course is organized into topic sections and the instructor can edit individual topic names. Each topic section contains activities and resources.
This format is suitable if your course is objective based and each objective may take different amounts of time to complete, such as an asynchronous course. An example of this would be when using scaffolding, where students are building upon the knowledge from earlier topics.
To use the Topics course format:
- While in the CLE course, navigate to the gear icon at the top-right and click Edit Settings
- Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
- From the Format drop down menu, select Topics Format
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save and return button
Show Only One Section Per Page
With the Weekly and Topics formats it is possible to show only one topic per page. The course home page shows just the section names and any text in the section description along with the number of activities and resources inside of the section, with the names being click-able. This is what students see the first time they access the course. Once the students have selected a topic by clicking on its name, they then see only one section at a time.
Students can navigate through topics by 1) Clicking on topics in the left-hand menu or 2) using the Jump to... menu at the bottom of each section page.
This is great to use for courses with a large amount of content, where students are expected to work in only one topic at any given time.
To enable one topic per page in a course:
- While in the course, navigate to the gear icon and click on Edit settings
- Expand the Course format settings and select Topics format
- Next to Course layout, select Show one section per page
- Scroll down and click on Save and display
If editing is turned ON in the course, then only those with an editing role will see all the content in all the sections while on the main course page. To view the course from the student perspective, click on your profile icon on the top-right corner and click Switch role to... then click Student
- Remember to click Return to my normal role when you are done
The course is organized week by week, with a clear start date and finish date. The CLE will create a section for each week of your course depending on the number of sections selected on the Edit Settings page.
If you want all students to work on the same materials at the same time, this is a good format to choose. Many academic courses use the Weekly course format.
To use the Weekly course format:
- While in the CLE course, navigate to the gear icon at the top-right and click Edit Settings
- Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
- From the Format drop down menu, select Weekly Format
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button. The Weekly course format will now be used in the course.
Make sure your course start date is entered in Edit Settings -> Course Start Date. If a start date is not entered, the weeks will use the incorrect dates. This is especially important if you have imported content in to a course to use for a new quarter.
Streamline the look of your CLE course! The Collapsed Topics format helps to organize your course to eliminate the "scroll of death". The course format allows students to keep course content tucked away within sections. Topics can be expanded and collapsed with a single click and the state of the toggles is remembered on a per course per user basis.
The Collapsed Topics course format is one of the newest course formats in the CLE. It is great for both academic or collaboration courses with a large number of resources and activities.
To use the Collapsed Topics course format:
- While in the CLE course, click on the gear icon at the top-right, and choose Edit Settings
- Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
- From the Format drop down menu, select Collapsed Topics
- Configure Collapsed Topics settings to meet your course needs.
By default, this is set to "No". Course editors have to toggle it to "Yes" to enable it in the CLE courses.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save and display button
The Collapsed Topics course format will now be used in the course.
Social Course Format
This course format is focused around one main forum, the social forum, which appears listed on the main page.
Great course format for student groups, organizations and department collaboration. It is useful for situations that are more free form and may not even be courses.
To use the Social course format:
- While in the CLE course, navigate to the gear icon at the top-right and click Edit Settings
- Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
- From the Format drop down menu, select Social Format
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save and display button
The Social course format will now be used in the course.
The course forum can be edited by clicking the Update this forum button on the social forum page. The forum introduction is displayed at the top of the course page. Activities and resources can be added to the side of the course utilizing the Social activities block.
Single Activity Course Format
The Single Activity course format only has one section and allows the instructor to add only one activity to the course. When the single activity format is selected, a drop down menu appears for the instructor to choose the activity to use in the course. Students are taken directly to this activity upon entering the course.
Where the focus of a course is on a single activity, such as a Forum or Quiz.
To use the Single Activity course format:
- While in the CLE course, navigate to the gear icon at the top-right and click Edit Settings
- Scroll down and expand the Course Format section
- From the Format drop down menu, select Single Activity Format
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save and display button
The Single Activity course format will now be used in the course.
The Single Activity course format displays additional resources and activities as “orphaned” and for instructors only; while the Social format displays additional activities and resources in an activities block and are available to students.