4.1. How do I create a course?

Creating a course is similar to cooking a meal. Imagine being chef in a restaurant. Different tools are at your disposal: pans, a big stove, a big table, all the necessary ingredients: onions, tomatoes, olives, capers, basil, spaghetti, Parmesan, and a new idea, the preparation of the special sauce "Siciliana".

This idea to prepare the sauce "Siciliana" corresponds with the didactic concept of a new course you want to put into practice by means of all the available OLAT tools and of all those ingredients you have already prepared.

Your pans can be seen as course elements, the big table is your storage folder while the stove is the course editor. Your ingredients will not be ripe tomatoes, black olives, capers, and pleasant-smelling basil but tests, questionnaires, tasks, syllabus, general information, and various learning contents (scripts).

Just like the chef has to prepare the ingredients and all the necessary tools in order to be successful, you have to prepare yourself as well. You have to have in mind your complete course, your tasks saved in HTML format before storing them in the corresponding folder, as well as you have to have thought about your syllabus and about some general information for your students. Your learning content (scripts)--or part of it-- must be web-compatible and stored in IMS-CP or SCORM format in OLAT. Your tests--or part of them--have to be created with the test editor and stored in OLAT as well. The same is true for your questionnaires.

Next to the selection of the right ingredients and tools, there are other important questions to be asked; the chef of the restaurant has to think about the following: Should his business be open for everybody or do potential guests have to make a reservation in advance? Is the restaurant a small one, only suitable for a few number of guests? Are there several rooms with different tables? Are there restrictions regarding how many persons are allowed per room or per table? Is there only one meal per room or even per table? Will his guests be able to talk to each other and to the staff as well?

The access to the course and the number of participants can be controlled by means of the course element "Enrolment". The question of how many persons per table and which meal to be served in what room can be solved by means of OLAT features as well: in addition to groups and/or learning areas, there is the forum and the chat in order to control communication. The tables mentioned above correspond with OLAT groups as well as the rooms containing tables correspond with OLAT learning areas containing groups.

All preparations done, you are ready to start cooking. Regarding your course this means that you put together and configure the relevant course elements according to your needs with the help of the course editor. Each type of course element exerts exactly one function (implementation of learning content, test, self-test, tasks, questionnaire, external learning content, forum, folder, etc.); course elements can be combined as often as you want to. Configuring means adapting each course element to your personal needs.