How to Create a Course or Membership – InfluencerSoft

/ Courses / Course Creation and Settings

Content

The main page of Courses subsection
How to create (add) a new course
“Tariffs” tab
“Notices for students” tab
- “From” field
- Letters to the learner
“Reports” tab
- Where you can find the users’ reports

The main page of Courses subsection

To start your work with the Courses, first look through the main settings of the page to create a course.

By opening the Courses tab, we get right to the main page where you can add new courses, edit created courses, search the courses by the filter, copy the link to the required course in one click, and move to the catalog of already created courses.

The screenshot displays the numbered tools. The figures in the list match the number on the screenshot.

A new course is added using the “Add a Course” button. Click it, enter the name and description of the course, and save it. You will be redirected to the page with the course settings.
The slider in the “Status” column could enable and disable the course. When the slider is green, the course is enabled, but when it is grey, it is disabled.
Click the name of the chosen course to move there. The green eye icon on the left of the course’s name will forward you to the course page.
Click this icon to copy the link to the required course (for example, to send it to the clients).
Click this icon to copy the existed course
In this case, all course settings and parameters (including the structure of the course, except for the students’ reports) will be copied to a new course. Click the button and give a new name for a copied course.
This feature helps you create new threads of course with a couple of clicks.

Note:
- The status of the copied new course will be disabled by default.
- The lessons in the copied course ARE NOT duplicated. These are the same lessons, that is when editing a lesson in the copied course, the original lessons will be changed as well (the reverse situation is also true).
Click the cross will delete the course.
Click the star icon will mark the course as a favorite. This setting will affect the course display in your personal and students’ accounts. They will be displayed at the top of the list, while for students, this course will occupy two cells instead of one on the page with the accessible courses.

See the example: “View” and “Filter” buttons will be displayed at the upper right corner on the subsection’s main page.

“View” button

By clicking the “View” button, you can select the Report statistics and the Quick Filter bars in the settings.

If this option is checked, then you can see the report statistics. It will be displayed in the table. You would be able to see if there are new reports and could check them very quickly by clicking the number of the course you are interested in.
Also, the quick filter bar will be displayed above Add a course button. You can filter the reports by the date it was created (today, yesterday, this month, last month, 30 days).

“Filter” button

Clicking the “Filter” button would open the modal window with a convenient search by courses.

The search could be done by:

Name.
Tags.
Course status (enabled or disabled).
Date when the report to the course was added.
The courses without reports could be hidden by ticking the box. The courses with no generated reports will not be displayed.

You can also combine the filter settings and use them together and separately.

Links to a course catalog

Here is one more parameter on the main page of the Course subsection — a link to the course catalog which you have already created. Just click the link beside the "Add a course" button and you will be redirected to the course catalog.

How to create (add) a new course

Click the “Add a Course” button.
Enter its name and description on the opened page
Click the “Create and configure” button. This will forward you to the settings page of the created course.

The course settings page has several tabs. Let’s look at them in detail:

“Course” tab

This tab displays the name and the description which you have entered when creating a course. You can change them later if required.

You can also select the picture for the cover of the course. Just click the “Select a file” link.

Please note that the name, description, and picture of the course will be displayed in the course catalog by this link http://YOUR-LOGIN.influencersoft.com/lms (or http://YOUR-VALID-DOMAIN/lms).

How to add a tag

Tags could be entered both in Latin and Cyrillic letters. Enter a tag in the field and then press Enter.

Note that a tag is added by pressing the Enter key. The Apply and Save buttons do not work here.

What are the tags for?

The tags are used to unite the courses similar by topic and to make the search by courses easier and simpler for your students.

Tags are displayed in the student’s account above the course list.

Clicking a tag will display all courses matching this tag (which the tag is attached to).

If you double click the tag, it will be called off, as if this tag had never been selected.

Moreover, one course could have several tags, although a student could select only one tag at a time.

“Course Structure” tab

General features

In the Course Structure tab, you can select the required settings.

First, let us look at the general features in this tab, and then consider the options in adding and setting a new module, as well as adding lessons for it.

The numbers on the list match the number on the screenshot.

The course consists of one module by default – The main module of a course.

To change the name of the module, click its name. You can make changes in the pop-up window.
You can select an icon for the course module which will be displayed in the student’s account
The icon will be displayed in the Student’s Profile in the left side panel. The student could open it by clicking the green button.
The course module will be accessible by default, but you can select the accessibility of the module, for example:
а) in a particular time after the course completion and for a particular period
b.) in a particular time after the completion of the previous module and for a particular period
c) the module could also be accessible only on particular dates
The next section of this article will deal more with the settings of this function.
These settings are worth using only when you know the operating principle of this function.
Clicking the cogwheel will open the module settings (access). These settings could help you select the contacts, which will be provided with access to the course module. “How to add a module "settings contain more information about the module settings.
There are main access settings for the Course, which are managed in the Access tab. Do not rush into applying these settings of accessibility for the lessons, modules, and courses. We will write more about the typical combinations below and illustrate the ideas with examples.
The course module could be enabled or disabled with a slider.
The cross will delete the module.
The “Add a Lesson” button will add a lesson for the chosen module.
The “Add a Module” button will add a new module.
The “Bulk add lessons” button will add several lessons to the selected module at once.

Let us dwell on this point in more detail.

By clicking the "Add lessons" button, a pop-up window opens, in which you can:

1. Add specific lessons from the list to the end of the selected module (when you hover over a lesson, a “plus” appears near it to add).
2. By clicking on the “Add” button, exit to the “Course Structure” tab to add a new lesson.

How to add a module?

To add a new module, follow the steps below:

Click the “Add module” button.
Enter the name of the module in the pop-up window and click the “Add” button.
The added module will be displayed in the “Course Structure” tab.
You can also add a module if you hover over the borders of the module and click on the plus. By clicking the “New module”, a window will open. By clicking on the “Add” button, the pop-up window closes. A new module is added between those modules that shared the plus sign.

Module settings

To open the module settings, click the cogwheel opposite the module you need.

The window with the following settings will pop up:

“Allowed to leads in lists” – you can select the contact lists which will have an access to the module.
“Not allowed to leads in lists” – you can select the contact lists which will not have an access to the module. This is similar to the limitations in auto or instant mailouts: if a contact is in a list that does not have access to the module, then it does not matter whether the contact is in a list with access to this module.
“When the module is not available to the lead, in the modal window, display the message” – you can enter the message in this field, which will be displayed to the user (with no access to this module) if he or she clicks the module name in his or her student’s account.

If the course is looked at by a contact from a list with no “Allowed to leads in lists” feature, this student will see this module as locked and will not see the lessons inside the module.

Clicking the module name will display the pop-up window with the text entered in the module settings.

The text of the pop-up window is taken from the module settings.

How to add the lessons to the module?

To add the lessons to a module, follow the steps below:

Click the “Add a Lesson” button.
The pop-up window with two columns will be displayed.
You can create a new lesson (in the right column). However, the lesson is set and edited in the section Courses – Lessons.
It is more convenient to add a lesson from the list of existing lessons. They will be displayed in the left column. To add the existing lesson into the module, just click its name (in the left column), and it will be transferred to the right column.
If you see that one lesson is missing, you can click “New lessons” in the right column and enter the name of the lesson in the field that appears. The lesson will appear in the course structure. Later, you can edit this lesson in the Courses – Lessons section.

How to delete a lesson from the module?

If you add an extra lesson or added a lesson by mistake, you can delete it by clicking the cross at the end of the lesson’s row. It will be deleted from the list of module lessons, but it will still be available for editing in Courses – Lessons section and for adding into other modules or courses.

When the lessons are added into the module, to enable the module, at least one lesson should be enabled by a slider (move it to the right to make it green). The screenshot displays the sequence of actions: 1) first, we enable at least one lesson in the module, 2) then the module itself could be enabled.

When you add the lesson for the module, the main page of Course Structure tab will be changed and look like this.

Let’s look at the key functions of this section with the added lessons.

The three vertical dots at the very beginning of the line change the order of lessons in the module. You can change the order of the lessons by dragging them.
The exclamation marks indicate an obligatory lesson for the module completion. The module will not be considered as completed unless the marked lessons are completed.
Obligatory lessons have blue exclamation marks, while usual lessons have the green. Therefore, you can create modules with different levels of complexity to assess the knowledge and the involvement of the students.
A green eye icon by the lesson name redirects to the lesson page. Clicking this icon will show the lesson from the student’s view.
Clicking the lesson name redirects to the Courses – Lessons subsection and opens the settings page of this lesson. Read more about this here.
All lessons are accessible by default once a student is granted access to the course. But by clicking “Instantly” opposite the lesson you need; you can set different interesting accessibility settings:
- in a particular time after the start of the course
- in a particular time after the completion of the previous
- for a particular time after the start of the course
- for a particular time after the completion of the previous lesson
- the lesson could also be set to be displayed on particular dates
Applying the lesson accessibility settings

As an example, let’s take item 2 in the lesson accessibility settings (in a particular time after the completion of the previous lesson). We have 0 days and an empty field for the number of days when the lesson is accessible. In this case, the lesson will always be accessible right after the completion of the first lesson.
However, unless you complete the first lesson, the second lesson will still be inaccessible.

By the way, the settings are applied automatically, which is quite user-friendly.

Let’s move to the student’s account. Lesson 2 is gray, which indicates that it is inaccessible.

The same approach can be applied to other lesson accessibility settings.

The accessibility period could be measured in days, hours, or minutes. These parameters are selected in the drop-down menu.

Recommendation
Try and check different lesson accessibility settings with different parameters, then see the result in the student’s account. This will make it easier for you to understand how the settings work and what they are for.
Lesson enabled and disabled slider.
Note:
A lesson could be disabled in the “Course Structure” tab if required. This can be done by a slider (in the case of an enabled lesson, the slider is moved to the left, and green is changed into grey), then the lesson will not be displayed in the Course where it is disabled. If the same lesson is included in other courses, then it remains to be enabled (with the activated option).
The disabled lesson will also not be displayed in the module in the student’s account.

Note:
If the lesson is globally disabled in the Courses/Lessons section, it will appear like in the screenshot below.

The lesson cannot be enabled from the Course settings. It remains to be inaccessible unless it is enabled in the Courses/Lessons section.
To delete a lesson, click the cross next to the slider.
The lesson will be deleted from the selected course. If the lesson is included in other courses, then it will not be deleted there.

“Access” tab

The access tab is designed for selecting the contact lists which will be granted with access to the chosen course. You can also define the lists with no access to the course.

“Allowed to leads in lists”— you can select the contact lists and grant them access to the selected course. For example, this could be a client list with those who have paid for a product. To grant access to a particular contact list, just check the box “Allowed to leads in lists”.
“Not allowed to leads in lists” — you can select the contact lists without access to the course. Please note that if a contact is included in a list with access and a list without it at the same time, access to the course will ultimately be denied. To close the course for a particular list of contacts, check the box “Not allowed to leads in lists”.

If you have already worked with the Training section

Training has two access settings: accessible to all subscribers (just enabled) or accessible to the buyers only. In the latter case, the system is searching for the paid order. The practice shows that it is not always a good option. It is more convenient just to check whether a person is a member of a list. That is why the Courses section has such an option.

These are not all settings that deal with accessibility – there are particular settings for the module (“Course Structure” tab, module settings).
The module settings also have an access concept (Accessibility).
Each module could have its own accessibility mode for the contacts from particular lists if required.
These options have already been previously described in a “Course Structure” tab part.

Example:
The course could be accessible both to list A and list B, while the module could be accessible to list A only.

If a client from list B will have access to the Course, but will not be granted access to a particular module of the course.

The inaccessible module for the client from the list B will be closed, but clicking the module name will open a pop-up window with the text which you have entered when selecting the access settings for the module.

These are all options that could affect the course accessibility and could be used in marketing.

You can also decide whether the inaccessible course should be shown to a student in his or her account.

There are two alternatives:
- Do not show in the list of courses – it means that this course will not be displayed on the course list. Show in the list of courses, open page – it means that this course will be displayed in the course list, but access to this course will be denied.
  And here there is one more interesting option:
Here, you can enter a link to the page which will be opened once a student clicks the button with the course description. This could be any page, for example, a subscription (or landing) page for the mailout in the list with the buyers of the Course. You are to decide. You can think of a more profitable marketing idea to achieve this goal.

If you select the “Show in list of courses, open page”, the student’s account will display the “More about the course” button, which redirects to the page selected by you.

Example:
If a student has not got access to “New course”, but the option “Show in list of courses, open page” is checked, then the student will see this course in the course list like this:
We have one more option in the “Access” tab — “Show the schedule of modules and lessons on the side menu of the course”.

This option is disabled by default. If it is enabled (checked and saved), then the student’s account will display the start and finish dates of the module activation or the start dates of the module activation. Everything will depend on the accessibility settings for the lessons and modules in the Course Structure tab, here:

The timetable will look like this in the Student’s account:

“Tariffs” tab

We will tell more about creating tariffs for a course in a separate article.

“Notices for students” tab

Here, you can set the sender contact and the notifications for the students.

“From” field

Here, you can select the sender contact, which will send the letters about the lessons and the report reviews to the students.
A contact is chosen from the course settings by default (in the Courses/Settings section).

However, you can choose any other contact from the sender’s contacts.

The sender’s contacts can be added in Campaigns — Settings = > “Sender contact information” tab.

Letters to the learner

Letters to a student are designed to send the notifications (“A new lesson available for you” and “New lessons available for you”, “The report is accepted”, and “Report Rejected”) about each course.

Notification letters will be taken from course settings (if it is checked) in Courses— Settings by default.
If the option is unchecked, then you can set different notification letters for different courses on your own.

If the option is unchecked, the letter editor panel will open:

“Reports” tab

This tab is designed for quick access to the course lesson settings and to reports on these lessons.

Clicking the lesson name will open the lesson setting page where you can select “the learner completed the assignment”. To have access to the next lesson, a student should send a report with the task completion for the current lesson.

To enable the option of sending the reports on the lessons, just select the option “Lesson completed if” = > “the learner completed the assignment” in the lesson settings.

If “the learner read it to the end” is selected, then it is not obligatory for a student to send a report on the lesson.

Read more about the lesson settings here.

Clicking the green eye icon will open a lesson page, and you will see it as it is displayed to your student.
This tab can also display the report statistics for each lesson.
When you click on the number “Lesson opened” or “Lesson completed”, you will see the contacts of students who opened or completed the lesson.
When you click on the numbers under “Total”, “New”, “Accepted”, or “Rejected” in the statistics columns, a page with these reports will open in the “Courses – Reports” section.