Overview

A course or class is a structured set of learning content, activities, and assessments used to instruct learners and students.

CYPHER for business utilizes the term course, and CYPHER for academia utilizes the term class. The terms course and class are interchangeable in this article.

To see all the courses in your organization:

1. Click Catalog on the primary navigation menu. 
   

1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
   
1. Teaching tab: You are listed as instructor or co-instructor for courses in the teaching tab. You can configure and edit these courses, depending on your role in the course.
   
2. Enrolled tab: You are listed as a learner for courses in your enrolled tab. 
   
3. Completed tab: The Completed tab lists courses you have completed as a learner.
   
2. Click List to see more details.
   

1. Templates: Any courses templates you own are listed here.
   
2. Compliance: Compliance courses you own or co-instruct are listed here.
   
3. Archives: Courses you have archived are listed here.
   
4. Deleted: Courses you have deleted are listed here.
   

Courses widget

You can also access courses through the Courses widget. The Courses widget has multiple tabs, depending on your role:

1. Teaching tab: A preview of courses you are instructing or co-instructing.
   
2. Enrolled tab: A preview of courses you are enrolled in.
   
3. Compliance tab: A preview of compliance courses you are enrolled in.
4. Completed tab: A preview courses you have completed as a learner.
   

By default, the widget displays a carousel of courses in each tab.

1. You can navigate the carousel by clicking the arrows in the upper-right corner.
   

To see all of the courses in a tab:

1. Click the three dot menu in the upper-right corner of the widget.
   
2. Click Maximize.
   

1. Add: Add a new course.
   
2. Enroll: Directly enroll in a course with an access code.
   
3. Catalog: Access the entire course catalog.
   
4. Templates: Access course templates you own.
   
5. Archived: Access courses you have archived. 
   
6. List view: View more details about your courses, such as the number of learners, grades, and more. 
7. Minimize: Return to the carousel view.

Activity indicators

By default, activity indicators appear in the teaching and enrolled areas of the courses widget. The indicators appear in the upper-right of course tiles, and their size and pulse frequency indicate the amount of activity in the course.

1. The indicator grows in size and flashes faster when there is increased user activity in the course.
   
2. The indicator does not display if there is no course activity.  
   

The Activity widget is a feature that can be turned on and off for your course. Visit the Configure article to learn more.

Adding a course

To add a new course:

1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
   
2. Click Add.
   
3. Click Course to create a new course.
   
4. Click Existing to add to an existing course.
   

1. Enter a course Name.
   
2. Select a course Style (covered in greater detail later in this article).
   
3. Enter an optional course Duration.
   
4. Click Save.
   

If you select Existing, the Add a copy of an existing course or course template pop-up displays.

1. Select the course you want to copy.
   
2. Click Submit.
   

Once you've added a new course, the default landing page displays, which allows you to begin configuring the course.

1. Click the Modules tab. 
   

1. Click the Add button.
1. To learn more about adding modules and sections, visit the Modules and lessons for instructors article. 
   

Note that new courses are not published to the catalog by default. To publish a course to the catalog:

1. Click publish in the Admin panel on the course landing page.
   

If a course is not published in the catalog, its description page can still be accessed by a direct URL.

Note that if an item is not published in the catalog, its description will include metadata in the HTML that tells search engines not to index it. 

Tagging courses

Administrators and instructors can add tags to courses to help users locate the course.

1. Access the course landing page.
   
2. Click + in the Tags section of the Admin panel.
   

1. You can add as many tags as you like by typing a comma to separate them.
   
2. To remove tags, click the X on the tag.

If advanced tagging was enabled by the administrator and a tag group was associated with the course, the associated tag group is visible in the Admin panel. To learn more about advanced tagging, please visit the Tags topic.

Please note that when copying courses, tags are also copied.

Access codes

An access code is an automatically-generated unique code.

1. Click reset below the access code in the Admin panel.
   

1. Learners click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
   
2. Learners click Enroll. 
   

1. Learners enter the access code.
   
2. Learners click Enroll.
   

External users can also enroll in courses if they have the access code. 

Configuring a course

To configure course settings:

1. Access the course.
   
2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
   
3. Click Configure from the fly-out menu.
   

Course Style

When creating a course, you can select from four styles.

Course styles:

1. Instructor: Instructor-led training is a traditional approach to learning where a live instructor guides participants through course content, either in-person or virtually.
2. Blended: Blended learning is a combination of instructor led and self paced learning. These courses may have scored assessments that only allow learners to proceed once they have achieved a certain score.
   
3. Self-paced: Self-paced learning allows learners to take the course anytime, anywhere. There is no course schedule, no dates for particular modules, no due date for assessments, and no grading periods. 
   
4. Micro course: A micro course is a lightweight course that provides the learner with access to modules and sections and no other tabs. Micro courses display content in a slide format, with an image above text on each page.

The system automatically adjusts according to which style you select. For example, if you create an instructor course and then change the style to self-paced, the system automatically ignores the course schedule, begin/end times from assessments, and grading periods. If you change the course back to instructor style, these settings become visible again.

Course completion

By default, courses are considered complete when all completion criteria are met:

1. Access the course.
   
2. Click Admin in the course navigation menu.
   
3. Click Completion from the fly-out menu.
   
4. Select Require modules to be completed in order and Require sections to be completed in order in the Sequencing section.
   

As learners move through a course, icons display next to modules and sections to indicate their current status. This helps learners track which modules and sections they have completed.

Archiving courses

If you no longer want a course to be active, but still need access to the the modules, assessments, and scores, you can archive it. To archive a course:

1. Access the course you want to archive.
   
2. Click Admin from the course navigation menu.
   
3. Click Archive.
   

Note that you can only archive courses if you are the owner.

To access archived courses:

1. Click or hover over Courses in the main navigation menu.
   
2. Click List from the fly-out menu.
3. Click the Archive tab.
   

1. Select the course on the Archived page.
   
2. Click Unarchive.
   

Learners can see a list of their deactivated/archived courses.

1. Learners click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
   
2. Learners click the Completed tab.
   

Note - You can configure a course to prevent learners from accessing it after deactivation. Visit the Configure courses article for more information. 

As an instructor, you can view how many deactivated courses other users have completed:

1. Click the Users tab from the main navigation menu.
   
2. Make a selection from the fly-out menu (such as Learners).
   
3. The Deactivated column displays how many courses the user has completed that have been deactivated.
   

Deleting a course

The platform allows you to delete a course if you are the course owner.

If you delete a course, all of its assessments and scores are also deleted.

1. Access the course.
   
2. Click Admin from the course navigation menu.
   
3. Click Delete.
   
4. Click Confirm if you are sure you want to delete the course.
   

Deleted courses will be kept in your trash can for 30 days. You can restore the course from the trash can during the 30 day period.