We’re excited to unveil a range of new features and enhancements. With advanced navigation options, new completion conditions, and powerful elements like polls and video integration, Content Designer empowers course creators to deliver exceptional learning experiences.
What's new in Content Designer?
Element types
New element: Poll
Integrate polls directly into your Content Designer element. Course creators can create a question with a text area and provide a set of answers for learners to choose from, including the option to define how many answers can be selected. The results are displayed in a donut chart, with the option to control whether aggregated results from other students are visible. If displayed, course creators can specify whether the results should be shown only after the learner has submitted their own response. Additionally, course creators can set whether students are allowed to change their answers after submission. A customizable message can also be set to appear after submission, and you can decide whether the poll is mandatory or optional.
New element: Video Time
Video Time activities can now be integrated as a native Content Designer element. By selecting a course with an existing video time activity and then choosing the video time itself, it can be directly added as a Content Designer element. The video descriptions are displayed above the video and the notes below the video.
If Video Time Pro is installed, you benefit from all the tracking and reporting features as well as other settings (e.g. tabs) from the Video Time activity also in Content Designer. Video Time's completion conditions, such as watch time, percentage watched, or completing the entire video are fully supported as well. As the video is only linked to be displayed in the Content Designer but remains in the original course, you can promote or share videos across various channels using a Content Designer activity. The reporting data will always pertain to the original course activity.
Additionally, course creators have the option to make the Video Time activity mandatory or optional.
Please note that if videos displayed in the Content Designer are from another course, that course must have guest access enabled. For completion conditions, the user must also be enrolled in the course where the videos originate.
Navigation
New: Table of contents
If course creators prefer not to start immediately with the content, Content Designer offers an overview element for learners. This element can include a custom introductory text and a table of contents, organized by chapter titles. Completed chapters are highlighted in green, allowing learners to easily pick up where they left off. When paired with a background image, this creates a visually striking header element.
A call-to-action button can also be integrated to encourage students to 'Start Now,' 'Resume,' or 'Review,' providing a clear direction for their next steps.
Additionally, course creators have several options to customize the behavior of the table of contents. They can choose whether it should be visible only at the beginning or remain sticky throughout the course. Further customization options allow the table of contents to remain visible when the user scrolls, or not, and whether chapter and activity titles should be sticky, with specific configurations available for mobile use.
Improved outro element
In addition to adding an image, you can now include content using a rich text editor. Additionally, beyond the existing 'custom' button, we now offer predefined buttons for 'Next' (next activity), 'Back to Course,' and 'Back to Section'.
New navigation options
Based on your needs, you can define how students navigate through the content. With sequential navigation, mandatory elements block access to subsequent content until they are completed. Alternatively, you can enable free navigation, allowing students to access all content freely. However, activity completion will only be possible once all mandatory elements are completed (with the appropriate completion condition).
Chapter completion modes
Course creators can select between manual completion, where chapters are marked as complete with a button click, or automatic completion, where chapters are marked complete as soon as a student scrolls past them. The completion mode can be customized for each chapter individually.
Tracking and completion requirements
New completion conditions
View activity: This completion condition marks the activity as complete as soon as the student opens it.
Complete mandatory elements: This feature introduces a new completion condition that incorporates mandatory elements. When enabled, students must complete all mandatory elements within the activity or course to mark it as complete. This condition is particularly useful for supporting the "free" navigation mode, ensuring that key content is not bypassed while maintaining flexible access to other materials.
Activity report
This activity-specific report provides teachers with detailed insights into student progress and how much time they spent on the activity as it records the first start date, completion date, and last access time for the activity. A progress bar visually indicates the student's overall progress based on completed chapters.
Teachers also have the option to reset a student's data, allowing them to restart the activity if needed. Additionally, the report can be exported for further analysis or record-keeping."
Further improvements
New chapter setting: Display title
Chapter titles are sometimes used for administrative purposes, while in other cases, it may be useful to display them to students. Therefore, an option is available to choose whether the title should be visible to learners.
Help texts
We have added help texts to all settings, explaining how they work and including example values.
Compatibility
Moodle versions 4.1 - 4.5.