Starting with OpenOLAT version 15.0, there are two types of OpenOLAT courses: conventional courses and learning path courses.
Der Kurstyp Lernpfad hilft den Lernenden, den Überblick über ihre Kursaktivitäten zu behalten. Aber auch Autoren und Betreuer profitieren vom neuen Kurstyp.
If nothing else is mentioned in the online help, the term "course" refers to conventional courses. If it concerns learning path courses, this is explicitly mentioned.
Both course types can be created in the author area "My entries" or "Favorites" -> Create -> Course. Then you can select the desired course type.
Learning path courses are primarily intended for linear course structuring, but can also be structured entirely or in part by hypertext. Learning path courses are particularly suitable for developing self-study courses and online tutorials. With the help of learning paths, learners can be given a certain structure which they have to go through.
At the same time, the progress status of a user is displayed transparently. The progress status can be based on the course elements called up or on a time-based reference. The user will be shown in percent how far he/she has already worked on a course. Once a user has completed all course elements defined by the coach he/she will see 100%. If new course elements are added or deleted in an ongoing course this will be taken into account in the overall total and the previous percentage of learners will be adjusted accordingly.
Existing conventional courses can be converted into learning path courses. During the conversion a copy of the course is created. However, courses that contain a portfolio task or an old questionnaire cannot be converted at the moment. In this case, you must first remove these modules and then start the conversion.
Typical elements of a learning path course:
- Progress bar (learning path) in the course
- Link to a complete overview of the progress status of all course elements with further feedback information such as progress, status, obligation, estimated learning time as well as possible dates. This overview can be accessed by clicking on the button "Learning path" in your course's toolbar.
- Display of the percentage progress. If all defined course elements have been edited or clicked on according to configuration 100 % will be displayed.
- Arrow buttons for navigation through the entire course. With these arrows the user can navigate to the next course element. If certain requirements have to be met for the following course element that have not yet been met, e.g. a confirmation by the user is missing or a test has not yet been taken, the message "This course element is not accessible." will be displayed.
In general learning path courses and all course elements can be created as sequential elements or as elements without sequence, depending on whether learners should work on the elements one after the other or whether they can determine the sequence themselves.
