Adding the course home page elements

1. Course and banner images and theme colour

Course and banner images and theme colour

In the new design for OpenLearn Create courses, you need to provide a course image and a banner image.  These can be the same image but different sizes and proportions.  The course image is 1.34 : 1 (width : height), i.e. 7 x 5 photo, and the banner image needs to be exactly 785 pixels (width) by 350 pixels (height).  The course image is used in the free courses listing and in the course listing in your collection (if you create a collection).  The banner image is used in the course just above the Course description and Course review tabs.

You can also choose to change the colour scheme of the OpenLearn Create header and footer, to match the colour scheme of the images you use in your course.

Adding the course and banner images and changing the theme colour is all done in the Edit settings form in your course.

Theme colours available:

• Default (red) #ae2241
• Red #a20b1e
• Purple #6e1b6e
• Pink #c90959
• Grey #776a5e
• Orange #be550d
• Green #317a41
• Teal #006064
• Blue #0f72c6
• Dark blue #2a4d7f
• Bright green #00991e
• Bright orange #fb5c47
• Bright blue #005792

Uploading the course banner image 

1. Go to the edit settings form and upload the banner image.  Ensure you put in the correct author and copyright information for the image.
2. Do the same steps for the course image (which is used in the free courses listing and on the course listing on your collection page if your course is going in a collection of courses).
   
3. You will need to fill in some information about the image when uploading it, as explained in the following steps.
4. Click on 'browse repositories' and the file picker will appear. 
5. Click on 'choose file' to browse your folders for the image file
6. Update the author details (it will default to your name, which might not be correct)
7. Choose the licence (using the dropdown box - the default is 'Creative Commons - No Commercial ShareAlike, the other alternative is 'All rights reserved'). 
   Please note: this attribution information is displayed in the corner of the course image in the Free courses listing as a copyright icon which expands to display the attribution when clicked on, so if you haven't updated this information when you upload the image, the incorrect information will appear on the image
8. Click on 'Upload this file' 
9. Click on 'Save and display'

1.1. Collection banner image

If you have a collection for several courses you will need a collection banner image, the size needs to be 850x398 pixels.  A banner can contain a logo or branding to distinguish your collection space from others. Currently you cannot create a collection yourself - you need to request a collection to be set up for you, then you will be given editing permissions for the collection. Please provide the following information for us to set up a collection:

• Title of the collection (this needs to be concise)
• The collection banner image
• Some description text which explains to people what the collection is about. The collection description area can also include logos if you haven't put these into your collection banner image. 

2. Add a course description

You will need a course description - an overview of the course to welcome people and explain what your course is all about. Your course description needs to provide information about who has written the course and its purpose. 

1. Switch editing on.
   
2. Click on the top 'edit' button on the top right of the screen - this is the default general topic area of the course. Click on 'edit section' in the dropdown which appears.
3. Insert your course overview text to the text box. In the heading box for this default general section area, uncheck the tick box about using the default section name heading. Add a welcome heading to the course or if you don't want a heading, put a space in the heading text area so that there is no heading (if you don't put a character in this box, the default heading text 'General' will be used).
   
4. Click on 'save and return to course'.

2.1. Adding Video or images to the course description

In the course description on the course home page you can also add video or other images, such as logos. You add this in the course description or in a label.

To add video:

1. In the course description, click on 'Edit' then 'Edit section'.
2. Click on the embed media button. The embed media box will appear.
   
3. Enter the URL address of the content you wish to embed within the text e.g. youtube video. Content from the website will be shown in a preview and can then be inserted into the text.
4. You can also add a short description (this is optional, though helpful for accessibility reasons) and alignment.
5. Save the content.  The video should now appear.  It is good practice to provide a transcript of the video for accessibility purposes.  Upload this as a PDF to the course, then provide a link to the PDF just below the video in the course description.  Don't forget to add attribution information about the video (in the acknowledgements of the course or just below the video).

To add an image, such as a logo to the course description:

1. In the existing course description, click on 'Edit' then 'Edit section'.
2. Click on the image button. The image upload box will appear.
   
3. Click on browse repositories to find the image in your files (using the browse button in the popup screen which appears)
4. Complete the information about the image such as the author and the licence
5. Click on 'upload this file' button
6. Complete the image properties box, including providing a short description of the image for accessibility purposes (for someone who cannot see it - their screen reader software will read this), such as '[organisation] logo', choose the size and alignment of the image.
7. Click on 'Save image' and the image will appear in the label. Don't forget to add attribution information about the image (in the acknowledgements of the course or just below the image)

3. Add Learning Outcomes

You will need a list of learning outcomes for your course, to explain to learners what they could expect to learn from your course.  You won't be able to save the Edit settings form for the course without something in the Learning outcomes box.  This is because Learning outcomes are displayed on the course home page and are required on a Statement of Participation.

It is helpful to start learning outcomes with a sentence which says something along the lines of 'As a result of studying this course, learners will be able to' followed by the list of learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are not a course description. A good way of writing learning outcomes is to articulate them as active and think about them as what the learner will be able to do as a result of studying your course, so use verbs at the start of each learning outcome – see the useful guide on learning outcomes by Bridget Winwood and Alison Purvis How to write learning outcomes which are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound).

1. Click on the Edit settings form
   
2. Scroll down to Learning outcomes and fill in the box.
3. In the content box you need to type your learning outcomes.  It usually looks better if it is a bulleted or numbered list as this makes it easier to read on screen. There is a character limit.
4. To create a bulleted or numbered list you need to click on the toolbar toggle icon beside the paragraph formatting box. 
5. This will display the additional formatting menu:
6. Choose the bullet or numbered list buttons to format your list of learning outcomes.
7. Click ‘Save and return to course’.