Add Content Experiments to Your Course

Add Content Experiments to Your Course#

Tags: educator how-to

This section provides instructions for adding content experiments to your course.

Before Adding Content Experiments#

Before you add content experiments to your course, ensure that you have completed the following tasks.

Add a Content Experiment in Studio#

You can add a content experiment in a unit or container page. In Studio, you create and view content for all groups in the content experiment in a container page for the experiment, as shown in Create Content for Groups in the Content Experiment.

When a learner views a unit with the content experiment, she has no indication there is a content experiment in the unit, and the content experiment display name is not shown. She sees only the content that you configure for the group she is assigned to. To the learner, the unit with the content experiment is no different than any other unit.

To configure a content experiment in Studio, you perform the following tasks.

After you configure a content experiment, you can change its group configuration. For more information, see Change the Group Configuration for a Content Experiment.

You can move a content experiment from its current location to a different location in the course outline. For information, see Reorganizing Components.

Create a Content Experiment#

Note

Do not create new content experiments by duplicating configured content experiments. Duplicating content experiments after you have configured them is not supported.

  1. On the unit page, under Add New Component, select Advanced.

  2. Select Content Experiment.

    A new content experiment is added to the unit.

    An image showing the content experiment component in a unit page in Studio.

    The content experiment includes a container for each group that is defined in the group configuration you selected. You create content for each experiment group as you do any other component. For more information, see Developing Course Components.

  3. Select either Select a Group Configuration or Edit to open the content experiment component.

    An image of the content experiment editor in Studio.

  4. For Group Configuration, select a group configuration.

  5. In the Display Name field, enter the name of the component. The display name is only used in Studio; learners do not see this value.

  6. Select Save.

The content experiment is displayed as a component that contains other components. For more information, see Components that Contain Other Components.

You can now create content for the groups in the experiment.

Create Content for Groups in the Content Experiment#

After you select a group configuration, in the content experiment component, select View.

The content experiment page that opens automatically includes a container for each group that is defined in the group configuration you selected. For example, if you select a group configuration that defines two groups, Group A and Group B, you see the following page.

An image of the content experiment page in Studio, with two groups.

You add content for both groups as needed, just as you would add content to any container page. For more information, see Components that Contain Other Components.

For example, you can add a Text component and a video to Group A.

An image of an expanded content experiment component with an HTML and video component.

Note

It is valid, and can be useful, to have no content for a group in a content experiment. For example, if one group has a video and another group has no content, you can analyze the effect of the video on learner performance.

Change the Group Configuration for a Content Experiment#

You can change the group configuration for a content experiment. When you change the group configuration, you edit the content for any additional groups in the group configuration. You can use the components from the previous groups, as well as create new components.

Warning

Changing the group configuration of a learner-visible content experiment will affect the experiment data.

  1. Open the unit that contains the content experiment.

  2. In the content experiment component, select Edit.

    An image of the content experiment editor in Studio, with a group configuration selected.

  3. Select a different group configuration.

  4. Select Save.

  5. You must now add components to the new groups in the experiment. Select View to open the content experiment.

    You see that groups for the new configuration are empty, and any components that you had added to groups in the previous configuration are now moved to a section called Inactive Groups.

    An image of a content experiment in Studio, with components in an inactive group.

  6. Drag and drop components from the Inactive Groups section into the new groups. You can also create new components in the new groups.

See also

Offering Different Content to Different Learner Groups (concept)

Overview of Content Experiments (concept)

Configure Your Course for Content Experiments (how-to)

Add a Content Experiment in OLX (how-to)