Academic Technology Center
Teaching with Technology Collaboratory

Structuring Content with Learning Units

Why?

Unlike Folders, Learning Units provide a more organized content structure and additional navigational controls. They are useful for presenting a more complex topic or guiding students through a specific learning path.

For example, a learning unit could contain background reading materials on a particular theory, followed by a short quiz to check for understanding and concluding with an assignment to apply the theory to a real-world problem. Additionally, Learning Units can be used to present an online photo gallery.

Add a Learning Unit to a Content Area

Note

Note that Learning Units only appear with the Navigation Controls from the student view (menu on the left.) When you work with a Learning Unit in the Control Panel, it appears like the contents of a Folder. For an example, refer to: From A Student's Perspective: Learning Units.

  1. Go to the Control Panel, then to the Content Area where you want to place the Learning Unit (such as Course Documents.)
  2. From the toolbar, select Learning Unit in the dropdown menu on the right and click the Go button.
  3. Enter a title for the Learning Unit in the Name field, then add a description in the Text box, if desired.
  4. Select the learning unit options. These are similar to options for a content item. The available options are:
    • Make the content available allows you to control whether or not students can see the link.
    • Enforce sequential viewing of the Learning Unit can be used if you want to force students through the content in order.
    • Track number of views allows you to track the number of student views.
    • Open in new window allows you to indicate if you want the learning unit to open in a new window or in the main content frame.
    • Choose date and time restrictions allows you to restrict visibility of the link to specific dates.
  5. Click the Submit button. The Learning Unit appears in the content area.

Note

If you need to modify the Learning Unit options at a later time, use the Modify button next to the Learning Unit title.

Adding content to a Learning Unit

Once the Learning Unit is created, you can add materials to it.

  1. Go back to the Content Area where you created the learning unit and select the name of the learning unit to open it.
  2. You are now inside the Learning Unit and can begin to add materials. This process works the same way as adding content to a folder. The only differences are that sub-folders cannot be added to learning units and the File button is available in the toolbar, which allows for posting file attachments directly, rather than inside an item.

Related Resources

Maintained by itweb@wpi.edu
Last modified: Jun 04, 2007, 13:25 EDT
[WPI] [ATC] [Home] [Back]

Academic Technology Center - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Phone: +1-508-831-5220 - Fax: +1-508-831-5881 - atc-ttc@wpi.edu