Introduction

Your platform allows you to manage the layout and the content of a course from within the course management area, where you can upload training material and activate widgets in the course player page or in the course overview page, depending on the course settings.

Adding Training Material

In order to add training material to a course, access the Admin Menu from the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. Click on the Course Management item in the E-Learning section to access the main course management page and list all the courses available in the platform.

Find the course in the list of courses on this page, click on its description and, once in the course Properties page, move to the Training Material tab and click on the Add Training Material button. A dropdown menu will appear, displaying all the available training material types. Some of these can be uploaded, and others can be directly created or embedded in the platform. Further information on the available training material.

Adding Course Widgets

In addition to the standard content that you can add to your course, you can also choose to display additional information about the course using one or more widgets that will be displayed in the course player page or in the course overview page, depending on the course settings. To do so, while in the Training Material tab, click on the Add Course Widgets button and select one of the available widgets listed in the dropdown menu. 

Please note that the information displayed in widgets refers to courses for e-learning courses, and to sessions for ILT courses.

Let's go through the purpose of each widget.

Course Information Widget

This module allows you to display each user's information related to their progress in the course. The displayed information will be: the dates of enrollment, last access, the status of the certificate, the time spent navigating the course, and the percentage of completion.

Using the buttons cross and gear icons, you can change the position of the module in the page, edit it, or remove the module.

This widget is available for the 6.9 theme only. The widget may not display or behave properly for platforms using the 7.0 theme.

Course Description Widget

This widget is used to display the course description to learners. As an option, this widget can also show the course additional fields, if configured. In order to show them, once the widget is activated, press the gear icon in the widget area, then press Settings from the dropdown menu. Now, under the option to show the course description, type the additional fields that you want to show in the widget into the corresponding text box. When you’re finished, press Save Changes.

The Course Description widget is displayed by default in the page of every session of ILT courses if no other widget is configured for the course. When there are other widgets configured for the course, if you want the Course Description widget to be displayed, make sure you add it in the widget area. 

Forum Widget

This widget allows you to activate a Forum Area collecting one or multiple threads of discussion where learners can get in touch or contact the course instructors. Use the editing buttons plus, cross, and gear icons to create a new discussion in the widget, move existing discussions, edit and delete them. When creating a new forum, set its title and description, and identify whether the discussion is locked or not. A locked discussion is only accessible to the course instructors and tutors.

Access the widget settings area by clicking on the gear icon in the widget area and selecting Settings. From here, you can set a word limit for questions and replies, enable ratings (and select the display mode of the rating system), enable the helpful option and set whether users are allowed to upload files in the forum.

To access a discussion, click on the forum's title in the list of forums in the widget. Once in the discussion, you will be able to view discussions and replies. Access permissions differ depending on the user level: Administrators and Instructors have full permission to create, modify, or delete existing discussions as wells as entire forums. Learners can only create new discussions or participate in existing ones.

Use the arrow, edit, or delete buttons in the discussion's row to reply, edit or delete the existing discussion. To create a new discussion, select the Start a new discussion button in the action bar at the top of the forum page. To block the answers in a discussion select Lock forum. You can re-open the forum at any time by clicking Re-Open Forum. By selecting each discussion, you can access and display the replies as well as the control panel.

Comments Widget

By activating this widget, learners will be able to post, comment, or ask questions on the course dashboard. This area can be used by the instructor to welcome course members, assign tasks, or give general feedback on the progress of course activities, as well as for showing the questions and answers posted in the forum widget.

Please note the text editor embedded in this widget is Froala, refer to the Froala Knowledge Base for further information on its usage. Also remind that the rendering of the output of WYSIWYG editors may be slightly different from the input, depending on the CSS rules applied.

File Repository Area Widget

This widget allows you to activate a dedicated section in which you and other users can drop materials and make them available for download in order to create an independent section of material.

Supported file types are: zip, doc, xls, ppt, jpg, gif, png, txt ,docx, pptx, xlsx, pdf, flv, ods, odt, odp, csv. Learn more about this widget.

Web Conferencing Widget

Starting on October 7, 2021, the web conferencing widget no longer allows the creation of new webinar sessions from withing the widget. You can still create new sessions for VILT courses from the Course Management area.

Use this widget to create videoconference sessions for e-learning courses. In order to correctly create web conferencing sessions, you need to make sure you have an active contract with one of the videoconferencing tools integrated with the platform. Use the plus, cross, or gear icons, to create new sessions, move or delete the module. When you press the plus icon to create a new session, fill out the pop-up template.

Complete all of the necessary fields, then select Save Changes. The session will now appear in the main widget area. All created sessions will be displayed by your users in the tab with the calendar icon. Move to the clock tab to search for past web conference sessions.

Instructor Widget

This widget allows users to view the course's instructors and to get in touch with them via email by clicking on the letter icon.

Iframe Widget

This widget displays content from an external URL. Insert the widget into the course page, then click on the gear icon and select Settings. Paste the link of the website that you want to show in the widget in the Iframe URL field (do not use an URL of an internal platform page), set the widget height in pixels and select an OAuth Client in the dropdown list. Press Save Changes to confirm the widget configuration.

The OAuth2.0 authorization code for the current user is issued based on the selected OAuth2.0 client and is sent to the embedded page in parameter auth_code. This can then be traded with an OAuth2.0 access token valid to invoke Docebo APIs with the access level granted to the user currently logged in. Please note that the authorization code is only valid for 30 seconds from issuance, so it must be exchanged quickly with an Access Token.

The embedded page can recalculate the same hash by concatenating the comma-separated parameters course_id,  course_code, user_id, username, auth_code, access_token (this parameter is optional, it depends on widget configuration), the known value specified as Salt Secret (in this order) and then hashing it with the SHA-256 algorithm. If the calculated hash matches the one sent in parameter hash, then the embedded page has confirmed the identity of the caller page.

Please note that once you set the salt secret, you will not be able to view its value again. You will only be allowed to update it with a new value.

Session Info Widget

This widget is only available for ILT Classroom courses or Webinar courses and displays the information related to the user's progress in the course: enrollment dates, last access, certificate status, time spent navigating the course, and the percentage of completion.

This widget is available for the 6.9 theme only. The widget may not display or behave properly for platforms using the 7.0 theme.

Questions & Answers Widget

For those with Discover, Coach & Share active in their platforms, the Questions and Answers widget is available to activate in E-Learning courses (not for ILT Classroom or Webinar courses).

When a user wants to ask a question in this widget, he or she needs to select a training material from the dropdown menu. Then, ask the question in the text box and press Ask the Expert. Depending on whether the Enable All Users to Answer Questions option in checked or not in the Discover, Coach&Share Settings menu, Answer Settings section, any user or Experts only will be able to answer the question.

Please note the text editor embedded in this widget is Froala, refer to the Froala Knowledge Base for further information on its usage. Also remind that the rendering of the output of WYSIWYG editors may be slightly different from the input, depending on the CSS rules applied.

Questions in this widget will appear directly in the widget unless the course’s overview page is active. If so, it will appear in the Questions and Answers tab on the overview page. The left side of the widget will have a list of training materials. When you select a training material from the list, the right side of the widget will then display the corresponding questions and answers.

All questions from this widget (in any course in which it is activated) will also appear in the main Questions and Answers page in your platform. Please note that questions and answers coming from courses in which you are not enrolled will not appear on the Questions and Answers page.

There, experts and learners are able to treat it as a normal question by providing evaluations for answers. Questions and answers from this widget can be deleted by the owner of the question as well as Superadmins, just like other questions. On the main Questions and Answers page, press the Filter button to show only questions that are related to an asset or a course.

In order to enhance the social experience for your users we suggest:

• Activating this widget if the course is available in a channel
• Activating  the New question to Expert and New Answer for a question notifications, otherwise the user or expert needs to login to the course to check the updates

Best Practice

Save some time!

If you want to use the same course widgets across courses, from the Course Management page, use the "Duplicate" feature on a course that has the widgets applied. During the process, Docebo will ask if you want to copy over the course widgets.