Course Overview

Courses in Paideia LMS are organized using a flexible structure that allows you to categorize and organize learning content effectively. Each course can be organized into categories and contains sections that hold your activity modules.

Course Categories

Courses can be organized into categories to help you group related courses together. Categories provide a way to organize your course catalog, making it easier for both instructors and students to find relevant content.

Categories can be nested, allowing you to create a hierarchical organization structure. For example, you might have a category for “Computer Science” with subcategories like “Programming” and “Data Structures”, each containing multiple courses.

Each category can contain:

• Multiple subcategories (nested categories)
• Multiple courses assigned to it

This flexible structure allows you to organize courses in a way that makes sense for your institution or learning program.

Course Sections

Within each course, content is organized into sections. Sections provide a way to structure your course content logically, breaking it down into manageable units.

Sections can be nested, allowing you to create a hierarchical structure within a course. For example, you might have a main section called “Week 1: Introduction” with subsections like “Day 1: Getting Started” and “Day 2: Basic Concepts”.

Sections can contain:

• Child sections (nested subsections for further organization)
• Activity modules (the actual learning content like pages, quizzes, assignments)

Both sections and activity modules are ordered within each section, allowing you to control the sequence in which students encounter the content.

Adding Modules to Courses

Activity modules are added to courses through a simple linking process:

Step 1: Create the Activity Module

First, create an activity module independently. The module can be created by any user with the appropriate permissions and exists in your module library. You can create modules before having a course to add them to.

Step 2: Link Module to Course Section

Once you have a course and sections set up, you can link activity modules to specific sections. This creates a connection between the module and the course, allowing students enrolled in the course to access the module.

When linking a module to a section, you can specify:

• Which course the module belongs to
• Which section contains the module
• The order of the module within that section

Module Reusability

A key feature of Paideia LMS is that a single activity module can be linked to multiple courses. This means you can create a module once and reuse it across different courses, saving time and ensuring consistency.

For example, you might create a “Introduction to Statistics” module that you use in multiple statistics courses, or a “Citation Guide” module that appears in several writing courses.

Course Structure

The complete structure of a course includes:

• Course information (title, description, etc.)
• Category assignment (optional)
• Sections organized in a hierarchical structure
• Activity modules linked to specific sections

This structure provides flexibility while maintaining organization. You can create simple courses with just a few sections and modules, or complex courses with deeply nested sections and many modules.

Best Practices

When organizing courses:

• Use categories to group related courses together
• Create clear section names that help students understand the course flow
• Organize content logically by using nested sections when appropriate
• Reuse modules when content is relevant to multiple courses
• Maintain a consistent structure across similar courses to help students navigate more easily

Learn more about activity modules and how they work with courses.