This article outlines the main aspects of the Publish page, where admins can publish a course when it is complete.
To begin, navigate to the course setup Publish page.
Draft vs. Published
On the Publish page, there are two options: Draft and Published. By default, courses are in draft until they are published.
It’s very important to make all necessary changes to your course while it is still in draft, as once you publish the course, several design functions that were previously available to you will now be disabled.
Warning: There is no way to “unpublish” a course version so make sure you are fully ready to publish before doing so.
The chart below shows what is available and unavailable after a course is published. Generally, after a course is published an admin can still make cosmetic changes such as renaming titles, revising durations, and revising text and attachments for activities. However, major changes such as adding, moving, or deleting modules, lessons, and activities, changing pacing, and changing activity type are no longer available.
| Course Design Element | Available After Course is Published | Not Available After Course is Published |
| Changing an action label or title of an activity | x | |
| Renaming a module, lesson, or activity | x | |
| Renaming a document title | x | |
| Changing a video file | x | |
| Revising durations | x | |
| Changing a document attachment | x | |
| Revising live event details | x | |
| Revising asset to/from Optional status | x | |
| Revising discussion to include/preclude Breakout Group | x | |
| Revising prerequisite status | x | |
| Locking and unlocking course activities | x | |
| Deleting a module, lesson, or activity | x | |
| Adding a module, lesson, or activity | x | |
| Moving a module, lesson, or activity | x | |
| Modifying an activity type (e.g. Discussion to Video) | x | |
| Course pacing | x |
How to publish a course version
1. Navigate to the Publish page.
2. Click Published.
3. Click Save.
4. Click OK in the dialog box that appears.
5. The course version is now published.
What to do if you publish a course and then need to make edits
In general, the recommended path is to copy the course version, make the necessary updates in the new course version, and label both course versions so you know which is the “gold standard” course.
If there is a cohort currently taking the course, unfortunately the cohort will need to complete the current version of the course.