Publishing learning objects from course content manager

You can publish the following types of learning objects to an LOR from the Content tool:

• All course content modules and topics
• Single or multiple modules
• Single or multiple topics

When you choose to publish a module or course, the LOR publishes all the children of that module or course as a single package.

Publishing learning objects with thumbnails

If your learning object is an image file, you can set it to display next to learning objects in your search or browse results as a thumbnail. Select your thumbnails when publishing learning objects from the desktop or from the Content tool, on the Publish to LOR page.

Note  The system only supports image files (JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP) as thumbnails.

You can select the image you want to correspond with the learning object using the Thumbnail Picker Control which displays all of the available images from the learning object. You can also choose to display the system default icon.

Publish a learning object (topic, module, or course)

1. On the course homepage, click Content on the navbar.
2. On the Table of Contents page, click Publish to LOR from the More Actions button or context menu of the topic or module that you want to publish.
3. Choose whether to create a new object or overwrite an existing object.
   • Select Pick a Repository from the drop-down menu.
   • Select Overwrite an existing object, then click Search to select the object to overwrite.
     • Select Overwrite the existing object's metadata if you want to enter completely new metadata for the object - otherwise, the new learning object will inherit the previous object's metadata.

       Note   You may want to overwrite an existing object's metadata completely if the new object's structure differs from the old object's structure. For example, if you reorder topics ABC within a module to resemble ACB, topic C inherits topic B's metadata.

4. Click Sharing and Publishing Options.
5. Select Include all course files if the learning object contains more than one file.
6. Select Publish in the background if you want to leave the page while the system publishes. You can check the publishing job's status later.
7. Choose options for the learning object/file's visibility.
   • Only you and users with sufficient permission can view hidden learning objects and files.
   • You can change this option once the object/file is published to the LOR.
   • Publicly available objects are available to users without an ID and password to the Learning Environment.
8. Select the Creative Commons rights you want to associate with the learning object/file. Creative Commons licensing enables you to retain copyright on your work while allowing different degrees of reuse to other users. For more information go to creativecommons.org.
9. To add, edit, or delete metadata, click the Edit Metadata icon for the file. For information on adding metadata, see Adding/editing a resource's metadata.
   • You can also apply a template with information pre-filled by your administrator. Select a template from the Apply a Template drop-down list and click Apply. Applying a template will not overwrite existing values in the metadata fields.

   Note  Associating a creative commons license automatically populates the metadata rights fields with this information.

10. If you want to remove items from the package, clear the check boxes next to topics or modules you do not want to publish. Clearing a module clears all its associated topics and sub-modules.
11. Click Next.
12. Enter metadata.
13. If the learning object you're publishing is an image file, Select a Thumbnail.

    Note  If you don't see the option to change the default thumbnail image of an image file, contact your administrator to configure this option for you.

14. On the Publishing Complete page, you can View the learning object details, publish a new learning object, or share the object through its URL or through social sharing sites.
15. Click Done.

Checking background publishing status

You can check the status of any LOR publishing jobs that you've run in the background. The Background Publishing page lists jobs as Publish Successful and the date and time, or Publish Failed and an error message.

To check background publishing status

1. Click LOR on the navbar or click the Learning Repository (LOR) widget if it is available.
2. On the LOR Search page, click Background Publishing.

See also

• About Metadata