Courses

1. Course Creation

   • Course Structure: Design and identify a standard course structure for all courses within your account. Determine key details you will include in all course descriptions such as duration, instructors contact info, value of the course (gamification), etc. This will give your LMS consistency for your learners so that courses do not vary based on the course author.
     

   • Survey: Consider adding a survey at the end of the course for learner feedback (you can make this module optional for your learners as well.)
     

   • Additional References: Upload content to the 'Additional References' tab so learners can download and print the content (.ppts, .pdfs, etc.). If you do this, make a point to mention in your course description or course content that this is where they can navigate to download content.

2. Course Settings 

   • Active/Inactive: We always recommend making a course inactive instead of deleting it. Deleting a course deletes the content and history for that course. Making the course inactive removes the course from learner view but maintains all the completion data.
     

   • Course Library: If you enable the Course Library setting for a course it makes this course available to every user in your account.  If it is a course that should only be seen by specific users then you will want to leave it out of the Course Library and assign it directly to the users who need to take it (either individually or through teams).

   • Due Date: The due date setting can either be set as a time span from the date the user is assigned to the course or a static date on the calendar.  If a learner does not complete the course before the due date then Litmos will put a red ‘Overdue’ flag on the course and move it to the top of the To Do List.  The due date feature does not take away the learner’s access to the course (see course expiration).

   • Course Expiration: Course expiration works similar to the course due date, however this setting takes away the learner’s access to the course.

   • Compliance: Both settings under Compliance are very important.  The first setting ‘Compliant for’ sets how frequently the learner needs to take the course (every 90 days, 365 days, etc.). The second setting (Automatic retake) dictates when Litmos resets the course for the learner.  For example, if you set this to ‘30 days’ then 30 days before the learner is out of compliance Litmos will mark the course as incomplete, move it to the learner’s To Do List, and send them a reminder email letting them know they need to take the course again.

   • Notifications: Determine who is going to be on the notifications for this course (e.g. an Alias Admin, Course author, SME, etc) - NOTE: if nobody is selected for notifications, then the feedback button in the module player will disappear.  If feedback is still required, then consider a Survey module at the end of the course.

   • Topics/Subtopics and Categories: Outline your Categories and Topics/Subtopics (Accounts > Litmos Features) before building courses.  Adding topics/subtopics along the way as you build courses will make for inconsistency. Also building 50 courses (for example) and then deciding you would like to categorize these courses and add topics/subtopics after the fact, will mean you need to go back into each course and update manually. Outlining this ahead of time will get you ahead of the game.

   • Course Images: Start designing course images as soon as possible and try to come up with consistent designs, themes, or colors for your course images. This will give your LMS a more professional and organized look and encourage learner engagement. Example themes: color schemes per topic, similar style icons for course tiles, images for ILT courses, etc. Recommended dimensions for course images are 450x253px and accepted file types are .png, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg.

   • Course Title/Description: Place course duration in the course title or description because this will encourage learner engagement.