Setting Up A Course

The ConnectLMS component has been developed with simplicity and ease of use in mind.

ConnectLMS allows you to create unlimited courses with unlimited lessons, enrol students and assign teachers from the administration or allow self-enrolment from the front-end of the site.

Create a Category

All courses must be assigned to a category, so ConnectLMS requires that you have at least 1 category.

• Click on the Categories menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Categories, by selecting the Categories item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or selecting the Categories tab.
• Click the "New" button in the toolbar
• Enter a name and description for the Category. Category descriptions are not seen by teachers or students.
• Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Create a Course

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter the details of the course:
   • Course Owner - By default this is set to the access level Super Administrator.
   • Published - Whether the course is available to site users.
   • Category - The ConnectLMS category to add the course into.
   • Course Reference - An ID or identifying name for the course.
   • Name / Title of Course
   • Description
   • Course Available From / To - Enter a start and finish date for this course
   • Enrolment Required - Set to yes if only course students should be able to access course material.
   • Approval Required - Requires all front end student enrolments to be approved by an administrator / teachers.
   • Show Teachers - Show course teachers in the Teachers module?
   • Show Students - Show course students in the Students module?
4. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

As the person who created the course, you are automatically assigned as the course owner. This means that you have full course administration rights and are able to administer the course from the Joomla! administration area.

Please note: Users with an access level of Super Administrator can always access the administration for all courses.

Create a Lesson and Upload Modules

1. Click on the Lessons menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Lessons, by selecting the Lessons item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Lessons tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter a title and description for the lesson.
4. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

A lesson is nothing without a module for the student to use to learn, so to upload a module to a lesson:

1. Click "Add a new module" and enter the details of the SCORM modules you wish to include in this lesson.
   • Width and height for the lightbox that displays the module are mandatory. ^#
2. Click "Add this module" to save your module to this lesson.
3. Repeat these two steps to add additional SCORM modules.

^# Version 2.0 of ConnectLMS only.

Assign a Lesson to a Course

A lesson can only be selectable by a user once it is assigned to a course. To assign lesson/s to a course:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our lesson to.
3. Click the "Lessons" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
5. Select the lesson we want to add and click "Add" from the toolbar menu. You will now see that the lesson and its modules have been associated with the course.
6. We now need to assign a passing grade and the number of allowed attempts for each module in the lesson. Click the newly added lesson's name.
7. Click on each module's name, and assign a pass grade and allowed attempts for each module. Statistics will not show for completed modules unless a pass grade is set.

Adding Resources

A resource is a document that can be associated with courses to provide supporting information to students, teachers or users thinking of enrolling on a course.

1. Click on the Resources menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Resources, by selecting the Resources item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Resources tab.
2. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
3. Enter a title and description for the Resource
4. Click the "Browse" button to find, on your PC, the file to be used as the Resource
5. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Adding Resources to a Course

A resource will only become visible to users once it is assigned to a course. To assign resource/s to a course:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our resource to.
3. Click the "Resources" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "New" button in the toolbar.
5. Select the resource we want to add and click "Add" from the toolbar menu.
6. To restrict who can access the resource, click the name of the resource.
7. From the drop down menu, select the appropriate access level for this resource.
8. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar.

Assign a Teacher to a Course (optional)

Teachers are able to administer the course from the Joomla! front end. To assign a teacher to the course from the ConnectLMS administration:

1. Click on the Courses menu link. This can be accessed via the menu by going to Components --> ConnectLMS --> Courses, by selecting the Courses item from the ConnectLMS Dashboard or select the Courses tab.
2. Click the name of the course that we want to add our teachers to.
3. Click the "Teachers" button in the toolbar.
4. Click the "Add" button in the toolbar.
5. Tick the boxes of any site users you wish to assign as teachers of this course.
6. Click the "Assign" button in the toolbar.