Creating Activity Types - Leadership Academy

This article explains how to build a course activity after navigating to the Build page and adding the appropriate activity.

Learn more about the following types of activities:

• Activity
• Discussion
• Document
• Dropbox
• Live Event
• Private and Public Breakout Group Results
• Profile
• Reflection
• Video

Fields available in all activity types

• Action Label: This is where you enter the verb you’d like displayed to learners alongside the activity name in the Course Map. All activity types have a default (e.g. for Video activities the action label is “watch”) but can be updated.

• Name: This is the name of the activity, which will be displayed in the Course Map to learners. 

• Description: The Description section is where you’ll add the main content for the activity. Often, this section includes text, one or more images, and links. 

The Description section includes several formatting tools to help improve the richness of the course experience for your learners:

• Different heading styles

• Bolding

• Italicizing

• Underlining

• Strikethrough

• Justification

• Numbering and bulleting

• Indents and outdents

• Hyperlinks (Tip: If you set the Target to New Window, learners that click the link will see the new page in a new window, which reduces confusion when they wish to go back to the course).

•        Adding images

• Adding a horizontal line to accentuate a break in content within the activity

• Adding or editing HTML using the Source Code button 

• Use this option to write or copy/paste advanced HTML, embed iframes, or for advanced formatting.  

After entering your activity content in the Description section, make sure to click Save at the bottom of the page. Tip: View the activity from the learner’s perspective as you build it by clicking View Course at the top of the page, right clicking a cohort, and clicking Open Link in New Tab. Then, navigate to the activity you’re working on and you can see the activity from the learner’s perspective, which helps determine where edits are needed.

• Prerequisite: You can choose an activity as a prerequisite to the current activity. If specified, the current activity will be locked until the chosen prerequisite activity is completed by the learner.

• Duration: Enter the estimated duration of the activity in seconds. 

• Optional: Select if the activity is optional. Note: Optional activities are not included in analytics, such as completion percentage.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating both Private Breakout Group Results and Public Breakout Group Results activities when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.

What is a Breakout Group Results activity?

A Breakout Group Results activity, whether public or private, is an activity that allows breakout groups to submit a deliverable to the Moderator for their review. When there is an exercise, such as a case study, where breakout groups are instructed to meet, complete a deliverable, and submit it to the Moderator as a breakout group, this activity type is best. 

Note: Adding this activity type to a course necessitates the creation of breakout groups for each cohort. Learn how to set up breakout groups. If the intent is to have individual learners submit a deliverable rather than groups, a Dropbox activity or Discussion activity is a better solution.

How do breakout groups submit a deliverable?

Learn how breakout groups submit a deliverable.

Public vs. Private Breakout Group Results

• Public: Submissions from groups are seen by all cohort members.
• Private: Only the Moderator and other admins can view each group’s submission.

If the intent of the activity is for learners to see other groups’ submissions, the public option is best. If the intent is for groups to submit their deliverables for review by the Moderator and/or other admins, the private option is best.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Dropbox activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.

What is a Dropbox activity?

A Dropbox activity is an activity that allows learners to submit a deliverable to the Moderator for their review. When there is an exercise, such as a case study, where learners are instructed to individually complete a deliverable and submit it to the Moderator, a Dropbox activity is best. 

An important note is that the deliverable will only be visible to the Moderator and other admins, not to other cohort members, so a Dropbox activity should only be built if other learners are not meant to see each learner’s submission. If the intent is for other learners to view each others’ submissions, a Discussion activity is often best as long as the prompt instructs learners to attach their deliverables to their discussion post.

For instances where breakout groups are meant to submit a deliverable to the Moderator, the Breakout Group Results activity should be used instead. The Dropbox activity is only meant for individual learner submissions.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Profile activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.

What is a Profile activity?

A profile activity embeds the Profile page into a course as an activity. Instead of learners navigating to the Profile page to set up their Profile, they can do so as part of the course. Often, the Profile activity is one of the first activities in a course.

Why include a Profile activity in a course?

Profile activities are a great way for learners to get to know their fellow cohort members. The information that learners share in this activity can be viewed by other cohort members in the Your Cohort section of the course home page.

Additionally, including a Profile activity in a course offers a simple way for learners to get acclimated to the platform. They’ll complete their Profile, mark the activity complete, and potentially view other learners’ profile information, which helps introduce them to the platform as well as their fellow cohort members.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Live Event activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.
• Learn more about the role of Live Event activities in the course experience.

Why it’s necessary to build live event activities into the course design even though they will be held at varying dates and times

When building a course, it’s important to include the live events that will be part of the course experience in the build, regardless of the dates and times they will be held for each cohort. In essence, when creating a Live Event activity on the course Build page, you are putting a placeholder for the event to take place at a certain point in the course, which helps set expectations for learners and assists in logistics for admins. Learn more about the difference between Live Event setup for courses and cohorts.

How to create a live event activity

1. Navigate to the Event Type section at the bottom of the Live Event activity Build page.

2. Select the event type you will be using for all cohorts. Interactive Webinar is selected by default, which is the most commonly used type of event (e.g. Zoom, Teams, etc).

3. Click Create at the bottom of the page.

4. You will add the details of the Live Event (e.g. the link to join the event) during cohort setup since each event day and time will be specific to a cohort. Learn more about how to set up a Live Event activity for a cohort. Until a live event is set up for a cohort as part of cohort setup, learners viewing the course activity will see a message in the activity that states, “Date and time have not been established for this event.”

Tips and best practices when creating a Live Event activity

• When adding the Description text, keep in mind that you are creating the template for the live event. As each event is configured for each particular cohort, admins will be able to update the text in the activity in case there is anything they’d like to include for each cohort. However, having a template is extremely helpful. 
• Best practice is to include a description that describes what learners should expect at the event (e.g. an agenda), what they should have completed before the event, and what they should have on-hand at the event, if anything (e.g. a case study).
• Make sure to prepare for each live event ahead of time. Best practice is to create a slide deck and/or set of materials that can be used as a template for all cohorts taking the course and then customize for each cohort as needed.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Reflection activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.

What is a Reflection activity?

Reflections are personal writings that can only be seen by the learner. What a learner writes stays visible in the Reflection activity itself and all reflections are stored in the backpack. For this reason, Reflection activities are good when you want to ask learners to think about their progress or the evolution of their thoughts over time.

Tips when creating a Reflection activity

• It is good to place reflections immediately before or after important readings or videos. This helps learners get their thoughts in order so they can more purposefully consume the content and/or think critically about the content they have just consumed.
• Do not create a prompt that is better served as a Discussion activity, where learners read and reply to each other’s posts. Instead, create an opportunity for learners to gain value by reflecting and writing a message for themselves.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Video activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.
• Learn more about how to upload a video to the platform.
• Learn more about creating accessible videos.

Video alignment

When adding a video to a Video activity, you can choose to have the video placed above the Description section text or below the Description section text. By default, videos are placed below the text.

Can you add more than one video to an activity?

Currently, you can only add one video per activity via the Video section. However, you can also embed a video via iframe in the Description section via the Source Code button. Learn more about how to embed objects via iframe.

Best practices when creating a Video activity

• Limit the video to 5 minutes maximum, preferably 3-4 minutes, to keep learners engaged.
• Include a brief introduction of what the video portrays in the Description section so learners know what to expect and are enticed to watch the video.
• Consider attaching a transcript of the video and/or an attachment containing images or charts from the video. Often, images and charts are not displayed on screen long enough during a video for learners to fully understand so having an attachment to keep is helpful.
• Use best practices when filming videos.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Document activity when building a course.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.
• Learn more about how to upload a file to the platform.

What is a Document activity?

A Document activity is used when you would like to attach one or more files to your activity. This is separate from a Video activity, where files can optionally be attached along with the video. 

Common uses of Document activities include the following: 

• Include graphics in the Description section but attach the graphics as an attachment for learners to download. This is especially helpful for charts and images with small font that may be difficult to read.
• Introduce and explain the attached file in the activity’s Description section so learners understand the importance of the file.
• Use an attached file as a reference in the Description section.

Common types of files in a Document activity

• Readings
• Case studies
• Charts
• Templates
• PowerPoints
• Infographics
• Reference documents

Can you upload more than one file?

Yes, you can add several files to one activity. However, you should consider how having many files in one activity will appear to learners. From a learning perspective, it's not a good practice to fill an activity with many files to download. Instead, you may wish to combine files into one or split the activity into multiple activities.

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating a Discussion activity when building a course and offers tips to create a valuable learner experience in Discussions.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.
• Learn more about the role of discussions in the course experience.

Breakout group discussions

When the Breakout Group checkbox is selected, learners will only have a discussion with members of their breakout group, rather than the entire cohort. Learn more about how to set up breakout groups. When left un-selected, the discussion will involve the entire cohort.

Best practices when writing a discussion prompt

• Ask a question meant to incite conversation about the content or application of the content.
• Ask learners to post a piece of work they have developed and have others review and comment on the work in the discussion forum.
• Ask learners to post major findings after doing a group or individual activity.
• Ask learners to share their thoughts and feedback around what they’ve previously read or considered.
• Ask learners to share their thoughts about how to apply what they have learned in their day to day role.

Tips when creating a Discussion activity

1. Try to limit the number of discussions you have in each lesson and module. Discussions can overwhelm learners due to the amount of time it takes to thoughtfully post and reply to others, as well as the number of email notifications they may receive from the discussion.

2. You cannot attach any files to a discussion activity. However, learners and admins that post in the discussion can attach an activity. As a result, if you would like to attach a file related to the discussion, consider posting in the discussion and pinning your post to the top of the discussion.

3. Keep any text above the discussion prompt concise in this activity type so learners can focus on the question or prompt.

4. Only include one question in the prompt, particularly if you plan to do thematic analysis on the discussion (contact your Customer Success representative for more information about thematic analyses).

This article discusses the unique aspects of creating an Activity activity.

• Learn more about the fields included for all activity types.

What is an Activity activity?

In essence, an Activity activity is the most basic form of activity in the platform. Only the fields included for all activity types are included. You cannot upload a video, attach a file, create a discussion, or anything involved in the other activity types when creating an Activity activity.

When would you use this activity type?

This activity type is primarily used when the activity content does not include anything besides text, images embedded in the activity, and/or links. In other words, if you do not plan to attach a file, add a video, create a discussion, ask learners to upload files, or anything else associated with the other activity types - if you simply want them to read through the content of the activity - you should choose an Activity activity.