In an online course, content includes all material that you want to use, such as course requirements, lessons, reading lists, assignments, or quizzes. Content can also include communication channels, such as discussion topics or chat rooms. If you have created content or if content already exists in a course, you can organize the content in the following ways:

• Organize content in individual course tools. This is the basic way of organizing content and requires Students to access content from different course tools.
   
• Organize content in the Course Content tool. This is an advanced way of organizing content in a central location.

Organizing Content in Individual Course Tools

By default, when you use course tools to create content, the content is stored in the tools. This is the basic way of organizing content and requires Student to use different tools to access different content. For example, if you or another designer created several discussion topics in the Discussions tool, Students use the Discussions tool to view and respond to a variety of topics. Or if you created assignments in the Assignments tool, Students use the Assignments tool to complete and submit assignments.

Organizing content in course tools is effective if you are using the online course system as a supplement to a classroom course. For example, you can present content in the classroom but you can also use this system to present specific learning activities or communication channels outside the classroom.

Within each course tool, you can organize content in several ways. On the inventory screen of most tools, you can sort items in ascending and descending alphabetical order. You can also manually change the order of items. If you want to display certain items based on specific conditions, you can set release criteria for those items.

Links to tools are listed under Course Tools on the course menu, which is visible throughout the course. Students access tools and their content by clicking the links. If there is content that you do not want to make visible yet, you can hide the tools temporarily so Students cannot access them.

For more information on creating and organizing content in course tools, see the appropriate topics for each tool.

After you use course tools to create content, you can organize the content in the Course Content tool, which is a more advanced organizational method. The Course Content tool allows you to organize content in logical units that are meaningful to Students. This also allows Students to access content from a central location. To do this, you add any of the following within the Course Content tool:

• Files
• Links to content in course tools, such as lessons, discussion topics, quizzes, or assignments
• Folders for organizing content further

Organizing content in the Course Content tool is effective because it can mirror the progression of a course. For example, you can organize content chronologically or by topic. If you want to organize content chronologically, you can create a different folder for each week. Students open the folder for the current week and access the content for that week. Or if you want to organize content by topic, you can create a different folder for each topic to be covered in the course. Students open the folder for a particular topic and access the content for that topic.

IMPORTANT: Links to tools may be listed under Course Tools on the course menu, which is visible throughout the course. If you want to organize content in the Course Content tool only, you must hide other tools listed under Course Tools on the course menu. If tools appear here, Students can access still those tools and content in them. However, if you want to use the Announcements, Calendar, Mail or Who's Online tools in your course, links to those tools must remain on the course menu. You cannot organize content in these tools in the Course Content tool.

The Course Content tool is available in each online course. It is the first tool listed under Course Tools on the course menu.