Course Sections
Contents
Course Sections#
What Is a Section?#
A section is the topmost category in your course. A section can represent a time period in your course, a chapter, or another organizing principle. A section contains one or more subsections.
Sections and Visibility to Learners#
Learners can only see content in a section when the section’s release date has passed and each of the following conditions is met:
The release date for the subsection that contains that content has passed.
The unit has been published.
The unit is not hidden from learners.
Release Statuses of Sections#
For the content of a section to be visible to learners, the section must be released. See the following topics for more information about the possible release statuses of sections.
Unscheduled status
If you do not change the course start date default value, 1/1/2030 00:00:00 UTC, when you create a new section, its release date will appear as Unscheduled. When the section release date is unscheduled, learners cannot see any content in that section, regardless of the publishing status of that content.
If you have modified the course start date, when you create a new section, the default release date is the course start date.
To make the content available to learners, you must schedule the release date.
Scheduled status
A section that is scheduled for release on a future date is visible to learners until after the release date. Regardless of the publishing status of content within the section, the entire section is be visible to learners.
The scheduled date must pass for the section to be visible to learners.
Released status
A section that is released is visible to learners; however, learners see only subsections within the section that are also released, and units that are published.
Released with Unpublished Changes status
If you change a unit in a released section but do not publish the changes, learners see the last published version of the modified unit.
You must publish the unit for learners to see the updates.
Staff Only Content status
A section can contain a unit that is hidden from learners and available to members of the course team only. That unit is not visible to learners, regardless of the release date of the section or subsection.