UDOL course taster content creation/QA guidance

Owned by Peter Briers (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 05, 2020
4 min read

The purpose of this guide is provide set a of guidance of course taster content. This will ensure that formatting across all course tasters is consistent, accessible and follows best practice.

Content

  • Refer to course or courses as opposed to programme and programmes
  • Use University of Derby, University of Derby Online Learning or We instead of UDOL acronym
  • When referring to the course taster just use course taster as opposed to anything else eg taster session
  • Avoid the use of directional and positional wording eg See below
  • Make sure the course name used is consistent with what is used on the course
  • Make sure headings are used in the correct order - our blog on the importance of headings tell you how and why
  • Name your content to indicate what it is, following format [Content type] - description eg Text block – introduction to nursing
  • Name your sections in sentence case eg Welcome from the academic lead as opposed to Welcome from the Academic Lead
  • Check phone and email links work correctly
  • Use of content types is in line with the digital guidelines

Media

Media library/images

  • Create a folder in the media library under Categorised > derby.ac.uk > Assets > UDOL > Images > Course tasters for your course taster
  • Give the folder the same name as the course shows on the website (you can get this from the breadcrumbs on the course)
  • Ensure image guidance for each component in the digital guidelines is followed, this includes:
    • Images have the correct dimensions
    • The file is an appropriate file type (jpg unless transparency is required) and it is optimised using TinyJPG
    • Complete the description field on the media library – this is used as the alt tag - here's our blog on how to write the perfect alt text to help
  • Avoid the use of wording in images

Media embeds

  • When using a media embed if the thumbnail is pulled through from YouTube ensure you complete the Alt tag field is set on the content type
  • Avoid using thumbnails with a white background

Image embeds

When adding an image embed for the academic lead use the caption field otherwise add the caption in a text block after. This is because a number of images used are diagram style from text books with white backgrounds which the built-in caption style doesn’t work well with. In this case add your caption in the text block, set to italic and right align.

Set up

The structure of your course taster in T4 will have a parent section. This is used to group the child sections, which house your content. The child sections must all be on the same level for the in page navigation to work correctly. Users will be redirected straight to the introduction which will be the first child section, the parent section is just used to hold the content and will only be accessible through the breadcrumbs. The following screenshot shows an example of the structure of a course taster in T4.

  • Untick the Show in navigation field, set the exclude from search option and hide section navigation option on the parent section
  • Set the output uri of the parent section to match the output uri of the course eg for https://www.derby.ac.uk/online/psychology-courses/psychology-bsc-hons-online/ the output uri of the parent section would be psychology-bsc-hons-online
  • Ensure the content in the parent section matches the format of example taster in T4; pattern hero with course name, course name in the copy and button that links to the introduction child section
  • Set all child sections to exclude from search
  • Make sure all child sections are on the same level
  • In all child sections set the content type tag field to Course taster in the section config. NB the section config's don't require an abstract as the sections are all set to exclude from search. Setting the content type tag to Course taster is important as this makes the section pull in a different section navigation and an additional in page navigation to allow users to move through the taster.
  • Set the last 2 sections of your course taster to be What next? followed by the Reference list

Go live

Once the course taster has been successfully QA'd meeting the requirements in this document it can be moved live by a member of the Digital Team.

  1. Move to the course taster section in T4 to it's live location under Home » www.derby.ac.uk » Study » Online learning » Try a course taster, setting all sections and content to approved if they aren't already and publish the branch in T4
  2. Add the course to the list D365 - PROD - UDOL Courses with tasters available in Gecko, for this you will need; Course name exactly how it appears in T4, the GUID for the course in Dynamics, the live url of the course taster.
    1. Add a new option to the list with the course name as the display value and GUID as the export value
    2. Add a child option to your new option setting both the display value and GUID to the url of the first page of the course taster.
    3. Save the list

      Eg

      Blank new option and child option
       
      With data added

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