Checklist ‐ create and publish a new course

The purpose of this page is to help you successfully create and publish your course.

Administration

Make sure your course is recognized as a part of a University of Helsinki degree programme

Your MOOC course needs to have a course code (for example TKT10002) in Sisu for you to be able award credits for the course. University of Helsinki MOOC Center only supports MOOCs that can be studied for credit. The scope for MOOC courses is usually 2 credits, but can be slightly more or less as well.

1. Discuss your MOOC plans with the heads of your degree programme.
2. Make sure that both the heads of the degree programme and the faculty council approve the course as a part of the degree programme.
3. Add course descriptions (prerequisites, learning objectives, course structure) to Sisu for the course code.

Contact (University of Helsinki) Open University

Once you have the course code in Sisu approved and know the start date for the course, get in touch with your degree programme's contact person in the Open University. If you do not know who the right person is, send a message to [email protected]. In your email include the name of the MOOC course and the degree programme the course is a part of.

The Open University contact person will create

• a Sisu course instance for your MOOC course
• an Open University course page (with a link to the course material)
• Open University enrollment link.

Contact MOOC Center to set up the pipeline for automatic credit registration

Send an email to MOOC Center ([email protected]). In your email, include

• a link to the course material,
• the Sisu course code MOOC Center will be in touch with admins of the Suotar system (Toska group) that handles writing the course completion information to Sisu.

Create course material

1. Create a MOOC.fi user account

Go to this page to create an account.

2. Get familiar with the MOOC platform

Send an email to MOOC Center ([email protected]) and schedule a Zoom meeting where you will learn how to use the platform.

3. Create course content

Structure

• Course front page (title, brief course description, links to FAQ and other information pages, list of chapters)
  • Chapter 1 front page (brief description of the chapter contents and goals (optional), chapter page list, chapter exercise list)
    • Page 1 (learning content: text, videos, exercises)
    • Page 2
    • Page 3 ...
  • Chapter 2 front page
    • Page 1 ...

Course materials on the platform are organized into chapters and pages.

• Front page contents include: title, brief course description, links to FAQ and other information pages, list of chapters
• Each Chapter has a chapter front page that lists all pages and exercises in the chapter. This page can also include a short description of the chapter contents and learning objectives. For example, take a look at the Uncover Finnish Education MOOC Chapter 1 front page.
• Pages contain the actual learning content of the course: text, video, audio, embedded content, exercises

Polish and launch

1. Add FAQ and Contributors pages

Create information pages (or top level pages) for all course related information that is not actually learning content: FAQs, instructions for studying the course, contributors page, etc. Pages tab > Top level pages section > New page button

FAQ page example Contributors page example

2. Polish the course front page

Course front page is the page that potential students first see when they begin (or consider beginning) the course.

• 2.1. Add an attractive hero image (SVG format).
• 2.2. Write a brief and inviting description of the course.
• 2.3 Create links to information pages such as the FAQ. You can use the top level pages block as well.
• 2.4. Add images to course chapter cards (instructions on this wiki page.

3. Make sure images have alt text

Go through your images and make sure they have alt texts if they are not decorative. You can find more detailed instructions related to alt texts next to the alt text field of an image.

4. Configure completion requirements

Once you have all course exercises in place you can set the threshold for

• the number of exercises that students must attempt (out of the total number of exercises on the course)
• the number of points that students need to receive (out of total points available for all exercises) See instructions for setting up completion requirements on this wiki page

5. Make course public

Remember to remove draft checkbox in the course material settings once you want the course to be visible to the public: Overview tab -> Edit button -> uncheck draft -> update