Create a new course on CYPHER Learning.

Create a new course

Overview

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

The platform provides multiple ways to create courses, including:
  1. Creating courses with CYPHER Agent, your personal AI course creation assistant.
  2. Building courses manually using the HTML editor and Content builder.
  3. Importing existing course content from SCORM, Moodle, Common Cartridge, and Blackboard files.
No matter how you build your course, the platform provides a comprehensive set of features for managing and delivering learning. These include a News feed, resources, learner roster, forums, calendar, assessments, scores, games, skills, attendance tracking, notes, chat, wikis, blogs, groups, and more.

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Note that the business platform defaults to the term course, and the academia platform defaults to the term class. The terms course and class are interchangeable in this article.

How to create a new course

The course creation wizard makes it easy to create a new course. To add a new course:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
The Add course pop-up displays.
  1. Click Course.
Add course pop-up, Type step, with Course highlighted
Next select the Method you will use to create a course.
  1. Click Create manually to build a course from scratch, using the built-in Content builder.
  2. Click Create with CYPHER Agent, to create a course using CYPHER Agent.
    1. Note that this option only displays if CYPHER Agent is enabled on your platform.
  3. Click Import package to import a Blackboard, Common Cartridge, Moodle, or SCORM course. 
    1. To learn more about importing Blackboard, Common Cartridge, or Moodle courses, visit the How to import courses article.
    2. To learn more about importing SCORM courses, visit the SCORM article.
Add course pop-up, Method step with the three primary course creation methods
Then, add the course Details.
  1. Enter a course Name.
  2. Select the course Style:
    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. 
    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 similar to a self paced course, but generally has less content on each page section.
  3. Add the course Duration:
    1. Enter the number of minutes for self paced courses (optional).
    2. Select a start and end date for instructor and blended courses.
  4. Select an Organization for the course (if applicable to your platform).
  5. Click Create.
Add course pop-up, Details step
The next step is based on the type of course you are creating.
  1. The Admin Configure tab displays if you are manually creating a course (shown in the screenshot below).
  2. The CYPHER Agent Add a course menu opens if you are creating a course with AI.
    1. To learn more, visit the Creating with CYPHER Agent knowledge base article.
  3. The Upload file pop-up displays if you are importing a course package.
    1. To learn more about importing Blackboard, Common Cartridge, or Moodle courses, visit the Import courses article.
    2. To learn more about importing SCORM courses, visit the SCORM article.
Course, Admin, Configure tab
The Configure tab contains the most common course settings and allows you to quickly configure many elements of your course. Each section expands to display common settings related to the section.

This tab is available for all course types, and can be accessed at any time by:
  1. Accessing the course or class.
  2. Hovering over Admin from the course secondary menu.
  3. Clicking Configure from the fly-out menu.
To learn more about configuring a course, visit the Configure courses and classes article. 


Creating a new course manually

Creating a new course manually allows you to create a new, blank course and build it using the HTML editor and Content builder. To create a new course manually:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Click Course.
  4. Click Create manually.
The Course Details step displays.
  1. Name the course.
  2. Select a course Style:
    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. Instructor courses require dates in the course Duration.
    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. Blended courses require dates in the course Duration.
    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 generally includes less content in each section.
  3. Enter a Duration.
    1. Instructor and Blended courses require a duration. The duration field is optional for Self-Paced and Micro courses.
  4. Select an Organization for the course (if applicable on your platform).
  5. Click Create.
Add course pop-up, Details step with the Style menu active and Self-paced selected
The Configure tab displays. The Configure tab contains the most common course settings and allows you to quickly configure many elements of your course. Each section expands to display common settings related to the section.

To learn more about configuring a course, visit the Configure courses and classes article. 

To begin adding content to the course:
  1. Click Modules from the course secondary navigation menu.
Course, Admin, Configure tab with the Modules button highlighted on the secondary menu

The Modules page offers a list of tips on how to start building content in your course. To add a module to the course:
  1. Click the Add button.
    1. To learn more about adding modules and sections, visit the Modules and lessons for instructors article. 

Course, Modules page with the Add button highlighted


Note that new courses are not published to the catalog by default. To quickly 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.

Users with the direct URL can still purchase or enroll in the course.

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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. 
Visitor portal, Catalog, with an example of a published course

Creating a new course based on an existing course

The platform allows you to create a new course based on an existing course. To create a new course based on an existing course:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Click 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.
Add a copy of an existing course or course template pop-up

The Copy pop-up displays, where you can update many of the settings of the existing course for your new course.
  1. Name the new course.
  2. Select the course Style: Instructor, Blended, Self paced, or Micro course.
  3. Enter the course Duration (optional for Self paced and Micro courses).
  4. Select the course Language and Time zone.
  5. Enter a course Location (optional).
  6. Enter a Course code (optional).
  7. Enter a Section code (optional).
  8. Enter the number of course Credits (optional).
  9. Select the Organization for the new course (depending on the set up of your platform).
  10. Select a Grading scale (depending on the set up of your platform):
    1. Letters grading scale
    2. Standard pass/fail grading scale
    3. Standard regular grading scale
  11. Open enrollment: Check the Open enrollment checkbox if you would like to enable open enrollment for the new course.
    1. The open enrollment setting defaults to the setting for the current course.
  12. Max active learners: Set the maximum number of active learners allowed for the course, or check Unlimited.
    1. Max active learners defaults to the value for the current course.
  13. Max seats: Set the maximum number of seats allowed for the course, or check Unlimited.
    1. Max seats defaults to the value for the current course.
  14. Synchronization: Select Make the copy a child course to allow synchronization if you would like changes to the original course to synchronize with the new course.
  15. Click Submit.
The Copy pop-up for a new course based on an existing course

The course copy will be created, and you will receive an automatic notification when the copy is completed.
  1. Click the link in the notification to access the new course.
Automatic notification for a successfully copied course with the link to the course highlighted

The Configure tab displays, and allows you to configure the course.

To learn more about configuring your course, visit the Configure courses and classes article.