Content Author- Creating And Editing Modules

Creating a New Content Author Module

Content Author modules are created directly in LITMOS Training via an existing course or a new module. The example flow shown here is from Content>Create a course. (Modules can also be created directly from Content>Create a module and then added to courses later.) As with all SCORM files uploaded directly into LITMOS, the Content Author SCORM files have a file size limit of 1GB.

Navigate to Content
Click ‘Create a course’
Select ‘Add Modules’
Select the ‘Create’ tab

Click the ‘Content Author’ button

From here, you can select ‘Save’ to save the module and continue adding modules to the course or return to edit this module later. Or you can choose ‘Save and Author,’ which saves the Litmos Module details and takes you directly into Content Author to start authoring your module.

Content Author Module- Authoring

You will land on the pages tab when you create a new module in Content Authoring.

From here, you can access all menus for Content Author . It is easiest to first go through your module’s Introduction, Theme, and Settings to configure those details before creating the content.

Introduction

The introduction will display at the start of the module.

The module name will display in Content Author when you create a module. If you prefer that the module in Litmos is different from what it displays in the module, you can change it by clicking on the title.

If you do not wish to have an Introduction screen, turn off the Enable Introductions Screen Option.

Changing a Banner Image

To change a banner image, click the Select Banner image button. From there, you can browse an image from the available images in the module or use the Unsplash image library.

The allowed image formats are jpg, jpeg, gif, webp, svg. Max size is 1000MB.

To add/change the image using the Unsplash library,

Click the Unsplash tab.
Search for a desired image by typing in the search field.
Click the image and then click Select.

Once you have changed your banner image, it will appear as below.

Note: The Alt text is automatically generated when you upload an image from the Unsplash library and toggle the Caption button ON.

Themes

Themes is where you can edit the overall appearance of your module. For easier content authoring, your styling will default to the logo and colors from your Litmos brand.

These can be left as is or updated if you prefer a different look and feel for your module. When you change each color, the sample image on the left of the Themes page will update to indicate what this will look like within the module.

The logo can be updated if required. Logos will display on the introduction screen and at the top left of each module page. Click the ‘Change’/’Remove’ button to update or remove the logo.

You can update the fonts to any in the available dropdown list.

Modules are also available in a light or dark mode. Light mode modules have a white background, and dark mode has a black background. You may need to swap your colors if you change from light to dark mode or vice versa to provide adequate contrast. See the example image below.

You can save a theme and use it in other Content Author modules. Click the Save theme icon and then enter a name for the theme.

You can choose a saved theme from a dropdown list.

Accessibility

If you select color combinations that do not meet 508 or WCAG AA standards for accessibility, you will be prompted to update them, as shown below. Content Author is designed to produce accessible and responsive content by default, so it is important to review any accessibility warnings. Ignoring these warnings will mean your content will not meet 508 or WCAG AA standards.

Settings

The settings page allows Authors to set an option for lock progress, the completion mode, and the module language.

Lock Progress

If enabled, this setting ensures that a learner must complete all mandatory items within each page before progressing to the next page.

Completion Mode

Note: Specific component types can have a completion option defined at the component level. The component-level setting overrides the module-level setting. The default value at the component level is to follow the module-level setting.

There are three available completion modes for modules created in Content Author:

Last Page: The module will complete once the learner has reached the last page
Declaration: The module will complete once the learner has completed the declaration. (A declaration component must exist within the module for this setting to be used.)
Quiz Pass: The module will complete once the learner has passed the quiz. When learners fail the quiz and reach their maximum attempts, the status will be shown as Incomplete.

Let’s look at two different scenarios:

The old behavior: A quiz is set to have limited attempts, and the learner fails all of them. The CAT module is set to ‘Quiz pass’ as the completion mode.

Look at the example:

Add a page > Select the Quiz type page.
Edit the page and leave the default as it is.
You can make changes to the quiz. Ensure the quiz has one attempt only.
On the main page, click Settings > Completion Mode > Select ‘Quiz Pass’ from the drop-down and set a completion percentage.
Save and Publish the module.
Log in as a user and complete the module.
Fail the assessment/quiz willingly.

The CAT module shows as 100% complete. Although it is a correct behavior, this isn’t very clear to users, so we have changed this behavior.

New behavior: After completing the quiz, the learner has the score but it is shown as incomplete. However, they cannot retake the quiz as all attempts have been used. (Users need to reset the results to reattempt.)

The old module’s quizzes still have the old behavior, and unless the CAT module is the same as described above, no changes are required. You will see the following window if they go to Edit the Completion Mode.

If you want to change the completion behavior to match the new behavior:

Click the ‘Update status mode’ button.
Republish. (Republishing has the same impact as uploading a new SCORM file, sop in progress. Users will revert to the Not Started mode) .

Note: All new modules will be using the new method.

Language

Set the language of the module. This setting will not translate the module content itself. The content needs to be authored by someone fluent in the required language. When accessing the module, the setting will set all buttons/ menus for the learner in the selected language. (This also sets the document language by setting the lang=”” attribute on the course’s HTML element.)

Add Pages

To add a page, click on the ‘Add Page’ button.

Select from any of the standard page templates available, or select a custom template.

Standard templates:

Basic
Accordion
Video
Quiz
Conclusion
Blank

The page can now be edited by clicking on the ‘Edit Page.’

To continue adding pages, click the + page icon.

Pages can be reordered at any time by hovering the mouse over the page you want to move until the ‘Drag to reorder’ tooltip appears and the mouse changes to a hand. Then drag the page into its new position.

When you customize a page, an image preview displays so you can quickly locate a page for editing.

Chapters

You can group pages into chapters. Each chapter can have a custom title.

Templates and Components

When creating modules, you can add predefined pages or create your own pages by adding components to an existing page. You can also save your customized page as a template. Choose among the following page templates and components:

Page Templates

Basic: This page template contains a cover image and text with a heading component
Accordion: This page template contains a cover image, accordion, and text with a heading component
Video: This page template contains a cover image, video, and text with a heading
Quiz: This page template contains a cover image, text with heading, quiz, and quiz results component.
Conclusion: This page template contains a cover image, text, and text with heading component with a conclusion-style layout.
Blank: This page contains no default components and is used to create your layout. The ‘Insert’ components button is visible after creating this page type.
Custom: Custom templates are saved by users and displayed above the standard templates.

These features are common across the page types (excluding blank).

Page settings, including title and show in module menu can be updated
Insert icon allows Authors to add all components:
- Cover image
- Text with heading
- Heading
- Text
- Picture
- Video
- Embedding YouTube and Vimeo video
- Embed content with custom embed codes
- Audio
- Accordion
- Tabs
- Button Popups
- Timeline
- Gallery
- Button
- Hotspot Component
- Flip Cards Component
- Attachment Component
- Block Quote Component
- Callout Component
- Stack Component (Columns)
- Grid Reveal Component
- Multiple Choice
- Click to Match
- Sequence question
- Sorting
- True/False
- Fill in the blanks
- Quiz Results
- Declaration
Sections can be added/removed/copied
Section background color/gradient/image can be updated
Section padding in px top and bottom can be updated
Page Template can be edited/copied/deleted

Additional settings are available dependent on the component type (and are covered under the Components section).

Components

Individual components can be added to any page using the ‘Insert’ button.

Text and heading: Heading with accompanying text
Heading: Simple text heading
List: adds a numbered, bulleted, or check list to your module with options to add/delete list items, change shapes, colors, and icons and reorder the list items.
Text: Simple text component with basic formatting such as bold, italic, and lists
Picture: Single Image. Allows you to reuse images from within the module or upload new ones. Images are ideally landscape and a minimum of 800 x 450 px.
Accordion: Headings with expandable/collapsible text content sections
Tabs: Display content in tabbed sections
Button Popups: A list of buttons that open content in popups
Timeline: Display content in a vertical-scrolling chronology
Gallery: displays components in gallery learners can swipe through
Button: A simple button that can have a custom action attached
Cover Image: Display a full-width image with a heading on top. (Use at the top of a page)
Video: Embed a video by uploading a video file (including the option to add captions and a transcript)
YouTube and Vimeo Video: The ability to embed YouTube/Vimeo/ hosted videos rather than uploading them directly to CAT.
Embed: The ability to embed custom content such as hosted videos or H5P interactions.
Audio: Embed an audio file (including option to add transcript)
Hotspot: A select-and-reveal interaction where icons/pins are displayed on an image. Clicking on the pins will display content in a popup overlaying the page.
Flip Cards: A select-and-reveal interaction where icons or headings are displayed on cards in a grid. Clicking on the card will flip it over to reveal content on the back.
Attachment: A component that allows the author to attach and display a download link to a resource within the page. The learner can download the resource directly without having to find it in the Resources menu. An option can be enabled to show the resource in the Resources menu, so that any resources added via the Attachment component can be collated and displayed in the Resources menu automatically.
Block Quote: A simple text treatment that allows the author to insert a block of text styled as a quote.
Callout: A simple text treatment component that allows the Author to insert a block of text as an important highlighted message, for example, “Info,” “Warning,” or “Danger.”
Stack (Columns): A component that allows the author to insert a ‘stack container’ and then add other components inside. The Stack applies layout to its children, which can be either horizontal (Columns) or vertical.
Grid Reveal: A select-and-reveal interaction displaying icons or headings on a two-column grid. Clicking on the icon or header will reveal the content in the adjacent grid area.
Multiple Choice: Single quiz with multiple questions. It can be a review quiz (unscored) or not (scored question). A learner can be shown correct/incorrect feedback (optional). Questions can be shuffled.
Click to Match: The Click to Match question involves a learner being required to correctly match all the displayed items on the left with the options presented on the right to have the question marked as correct.
Sequence: The sequence type question type/component involves a learner being required to sort a shuffled list of items into the correct order. The learner is required to correctly order all the displayed items in order to have the question marked as correct.
Sorting: The sorting type question type/component involves a learner being required to categorize answers. The learner is presented with answers one at a time and is required to move each answer into the correct category.
True/False: True/false question.
Fill in the blanks: The fill-in-the-blanks type question type/component involves a learner being required to fill in the blank spaces by selecting the correct words/options from dropdown boxes. The learner is required to choose the correct response for each dropdown in order to have the question marked as correct.
Quiz results: Show overall quiz results, feedback, and score.
Declaration: Mark the module as complete when the learner checks the box. Customizable declaration text.

These features are common within components

Alter the size of the heading to:
- Fit content column
- Bleed outside content column
- Full page width
Align text (text/heading components):
- Left
- Center
- Justified
Set text color (text/heading components):
- Using color picker
- Color transparency
- Color with hex values
- Color with RGB values
- Colors with HSLA values
A component can be edited/copied/deleted
The component can be moved up or down the page

Besides the default brand theme colors as their accent color, the components can have a custom color set at the control level. You can add an individual color for each control. For example, you can color code tabs so each tab has a different color. You can also apply the accent color to the components inside the item.

Note: The foreground color will be automatically set to black or white, depending on the chosen accent color to meet the accessibility criteria.

To set/change the color,

Click the three-dot icon
Pick the desired color

The individual colors are set:

Note: Accessibility warnings will be displayed, indicating there is contrast conflict when you use an unsuitable combination of the text color on top of the background color.

Components that use accent color

Component	Element
Video	Control
Audio	Control
Attachment
Gallery	Indicator dots
Multiple Choice Questions	Radio/checkbox, buttons
Matching	Buttons
Sorting	Buttons
Sequence	Buttons
True/False	Items, buttons
Fill in the blanks	Buttons
Quiz Results	Score meter, buttons
Declaration	Background
Button popups	Checkmark
Accordion	Checkmark, expanded border
Tabs	Checkmark, expanded border
Grid Reveal	Checkmark
Flip Card	Checkmark
Hotspots	Hotsppot itemss
Timeline	Item markers

These features are specific within components:

Accordion :
- Can reorder individual accordion elements
- Can add other components within the individual accordion elements and edit /delete those
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on the completed state indicator
Heading:
- Can be set as H1 to H6
Tabs:
- Can add the following other components as content to the tabs and edit /delete those
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on the completed state indicator
Button Popups:
- Can add other components as content to the button popups and edit /delete those
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on the completed state indicator
Gallery:
- Can turn on/off swipe gestures
- Can turn on/off auto advance
- Can add other components as content to the gallery and edit /delete those
- Can define the UI position of the progression arrows, either overlaying content in the center or below the content
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Button:
- Can add an icon from a fixed set of images
- Can turn on/off showing the visited state
- Can select a button color from a list
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Audio:
- Can add/edit transcript file
- Can prevent seeking ahead
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Picture:
- Can add/edit Picture Alt text
- Can add/edit captions
- Can add/edit a picture (browse or select from existing files within the module)
- Can accept image file types: jpg, jpeg, gif, png, webp, svg
Video/Vimeo/YouTube:
- Can add/edit/remove Video Transcript
- Can add/edit/remove captions
- Can add/edit/remove poster images (browse or select from existing files within the module)
- Can add/edit/remove a video file (browse or select from existing files within the module)
- Can accept image file types: mp4, webm, ogv
- Can set video to pause when not in view setting off or on
- Can prevent seeking ahead
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can display accessibility warning message prompting learners to add a transcript or closed captions.
- Can set a desired percentage of how much video a learner needs to watch for completion.
- Can control video playback speed.
  - Note: Applies only to videos added with the Video component. Videos uploaded from YouTube and Vimeo will have built-in speed controls.
Embed
- Can add embed code
Call Out:
- Can select icon
- Can select appearance
Stack
- Can set alignment
- Can set Gap between items in the stack
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Attachment
- Can select a file or URL
- Can show in the Resources list
Grid Reveal
- Can add/edit/remove thumbnail images
- Can add/edit/remove content
- Can alternate slides
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on the completed state indicator
Flip Cards
- Can add/edit/remove thumbnail images
- Can add/edit/remove content
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on completed state indicator
Hotspot
- Can add/edit image
- Can add/edit/remove caption
- Can add/edit/remove alt text
- Can add/edit/remove hotspot
- Can add/edit/remove hotspot icon
- Can add/edit/remove hotspot content
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
- Can turn off/on completed state indicator
Timeline can
- Can add an icon from a fixed set of images to each segment of the timeline
- Can add Subtitle and Item title for each segment
- Can add/edit/remove content in each segment
- Can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Multiple Choice:
- Can add/edit/remove question text
- Can add/edit/remove blank option text
- Can set multiple choice as review or assess. When set to review, the multiple-choice has no impact on the module score. When set to assess, the multiple-choice component impacts the score and pass/fail.
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can shuffle answers
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- Can retry incorrect only. The learner would keep their correct responses from the previous attempt and only be required to reattempt incorrect questions on any subsequent attempts. Available only when the quiz has more than one attempt.
- When set to review, the multiple-choice has no impact on module score
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Click to Match:
- Can add/edit/remove question text
- Can add/edit/remove answer option text
- Can set multiple choice as review or assess. When set to review, the multiple choice has no impact on module score. When set to assess, the multiple choice component impacts the score and pass/fail
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can shuffle both columns
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Sequence
- Can add/edit/remove question text
- Can add/edit/remove answer option text
- Can set multiple choice as review or assess. When set to review, the multiple choice has no impact on module score. When set to assess, the multiple choice component impacts the score and pass/fail
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Sorting
- Can set as review or assess. When set to review, result has no impact on module score. When set to assess, the results impact the score and pass/fail
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can shuffle categories
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
True/False
- Can add/edit/remove question text
- Can add/edit/remove answer option text
- Can set multiple choice as review or assess. When set to review, the multiple choice has no impact on module score. When set to assess, the multiple choice component impacts the score and pass/fail
- Set or change max attempts
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Fill in the blanks:
- Can add/edit/remove question text
- Can add/edit/remove answer option text
- Can set multiple choice as review or assess. When set to review, the multiple choice has no impact on module score. When set to assess, the multiple choice component impacts the score and pass/fail
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can add /edit/ remove correct or incorrect feedback
- Can shuffle answers
- When set to review, can set a component-level completion option, overriding the module-level selection
Quiz Results:
- Can add/edit/remove incomplete message text
- Can add/edit/remove passed feedback text
- Can add/edit/remove failed feedback text
- Can set or change max attempts
- Can add/edit/remove pass rate

Note: The default quiz will be used by all questions unless multiple Quiz Results components are added. If more than 1 Quiz result is added, then a new quiz will be created for each new Quiz Result, then questions can be assigned to different quizzes. If I add a multiple choice set to assess but no quiz results, the question will be part of the ‘default’ quiz, which always exists even when there are no Quiz Results components, so the score would still be calculated/reported even though there is no visual display of results. When there are multiple quizzes in the module, the overall score is calculated based on the result of all quizzes. i.e., if there are two quizzes (‘default’ and a quiz at the end of the module), then the overall score is “default_quiz% + final_quiz% / 2”

When each Component is added to a page, a sample image, text, video, etc., will be displayed within the component to make it easier to visualize how your module layout looks and to make it simple to update the component data.

Sections

Sections can be added to any page. Click ‘Add Section’ to add a new one within your page. These act as visual separators within the module.

Resources

Resources can be attached to any Content Author module and will be available to learners under Menu>Resources in the published module.

To add/edit Resources:

Click on the ‘Resources’ menu

Click the ‘Add resource’ button
Add a Resource Name.
Select URL or a file
- For an URL, add an URL.
- For a file, select ‘Choose a file’ and browse to a file or select an existing resource from within the module

Click ‘Add Resource’ to save

Note: Documents will automatically download. Modules will need to be republished for the resources to be updated.

This is what the resource page looks like after you add files. You can edit the resource and/or delete it.

Glossary

The Glossary feature allows you to create a list of glossary terms that will be automatically highlighted throughout the module and linked to a definition.

To create a glossary term:

From your Content Author page, select Glossary
Click “Add term.”
Create a term, add definition > Save.

Note: You can toggle the “Case sensitive” button on/off. The text will then match exact upper- or lower-case characters.

You can do the following with glossary terms:

Edit
Delete
Reorder
Sort alphabetically
Search
Copy terms to the clipboard and ‘paste and merge’ them into another module

Once the module is published, the term from Glossary becomes underlined in the text throughout the module.

When you click a term, the glossary window opens displaying the term and its definition.

Copy/Pasting Glossary Items

You can copy/paste the glossary items from one module to another.

In the Glossary window, click the Settings icon
Click Copy Glossary
Go to the module where you like to place the copy
Click the Paste Terms icon

Edit Existing Modules

These modules can be easily edited directly via the Content menu. To find content created in the Content Author, either navigate directly to the courses or modules, or alternatively, go to Content > Modules and select the Content Author Module Filter (under More).

Select a module to begin editing.
Click the ‘Content Author’ button.

You can continue editing your module until it is ready to publish. All changes made to your module are automatically saved as you edit.

If your module has already been published, the new changes made in Content Author will not be visible to learners until the module is published again.

Note: When republishing a module to which learners are already assigned, the behavior for learners is the same as if a new SCORM module has been manually uploaded over an existing one. Incomplete learners will be made to restart the module.

Preview and Publish

Once you have completed your module, Admins can preview how the content will look on Desktop, Tablet, or mobile before publishing.

Previewing a module assumes you wish to view the page you are currently on and defaults to previewing this page. You may wish to return to page 1 before previewing if you would like to view the entire module.

Click the preview button to see the module from a learner’s perspective. The Preview will default to displaying Desktop view.

Change between Desktop, tablet, and mobile view to preview the module on different devices

Content Author offers seamless publishing to LITMOS Training and the option to download copies of your modules as well.

Note: As with all SCORM files uploaded directly into LITMOS, the Content Author SCORM files have a file size limit of 1GB.

Publish Options

Directly into LITMOS Training (as SCORM 1.2)
Download SCORM 1.2 ZIP file
Web version (will run outside of an LMS on a website). If Publishing to web, the downloaded zip needs to be placed on your website and extracted. The module can be launched from the shell.html file within the extracted module folder. This version will only run successfully on a website.

Note: When republishing a module to which learners are already assigned in Litmos (Using the ‘Publish’ option), the behavior for learners is the same as if a new SCORM module has been manually uploaded over an existing one. Incomplete learners will be made to restart the module.

Administrators can also download copies of Content Author modules at any time via the Content Author or Module Library.

Litmos Documentation

Content Author