What this article is about…
The Learning Hub provides several different options for how you can contribute your content. These are called Resource Types. This article explains how to get started and successfully contribute your content using the resource type called Case.
Who this article is for…
This article is for anyone who wants to contribute rich, interactive learning content that can be structured flexibly to suit their needs.
What you will need…
You will need to be a member of the Learning Hub to contribute to the Community Catalogue. Everyone by default can contribute their content using the Case resource type.
You will need contribution rights to any restricted catalogue that you wish to publish to. If you're unsure about this, check on the Catalogue's page or with the Catalogue Owner.
You will need an idea of what kind of content you want to contribute and how best to organise it to deliver learning or knowledge effectively. This article gives you some tips, but it will help you to have an idea of the basic structure before you start building your content.
Planning your Case
Cases are designed to help educators to deliver information to learners more interactively and progressively.
Here are some rules to keep in mind about what learners will see when they read through a Case:
Learners will encounter each page in the order they've been laid out;
They will not be able to proceed to the next page until all questions have been answered from the one they are on;
Each question must be answered in the right order.
To enable this experience, contributors are encouraged to split their content across pages and to only add questions to a page if they are relevant to the content they contain.
When it comes to planning how to structure your case, here are some things to consider that will make it easier when you start building your Case:
- What kind of content do I need? For example, text, images, videos, slides etc.
Tip: Aim for a mix of different content types to keep things interesting
- How do I arrange the content to have a good narrative?
Tip: Think of Cases like a story. Does your content have good flow? Does it reach a satisfying conclusion?
- How do I split my content across pages to give it good pacing and separation?
Tip: Questions provide a good opportunity to challenge your reader's thinking and form a natural place to start a new page afterwards.
- What are the best questions I can ask about the content on each page to deliver the lesson progressively?
Tip: Because questions need to be answered in sequence, each question can be phrased to follow on logically from the last. For example, to step your reader through a process of reasoning.
Getting started (draft or duplication)
Creating a new, unpublished Case (draft)
There are two ways to start contributing a new, unpublished Case from a blank canvas, which is referred to as a Draft,
- Select the My Contributions link from the navigation menu
- Select the Contribute a resource tile from any of the tabs to add a resource
This image shows the Home page of the Learning Hub with the 'Contribute a resource' button in the centre.
This image shows the My Contributions page of the Learning Hub with the 'Contribute a resource button' visible.
Selecting the Case resource type
Having selected to Contribute a resource, the Learning Hub presents several different resource types to select from as well as an option to title your resource.
Give your Case a title (this can be edited later in the process) and select Case. Be sure to select Next to move to the next screen, where you will begin to build your Case.
Creating a draft Case by duplicating an existing Case
If you have permission to contribute to a Restricted Catalogue, you can also start a Draft by duplicating any of its existing Case's.
You can duplicate a Case from:
- The Draft, Published or Unpublished tabs in My Contributions, or;
- The More Options menu from the ribbon of the Case Editor
This image shows My contributions and highlights the Duplicate button.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the Duplicate option, inside the More options menu.
Following the steps to set up a new draft Case
There are some steps you will need to follow before you can start adding content, which the step-by-step process will also guide you through.
To finish setting up your new draft, the steps to follow are:
- You will need to choose a Title for your Case. This can be anything but must have under 255 characters, including spaces and punctuation
Tip: You will be able to edit the title again at any time from the Case Editor, so don't worry about getting it perfect right now
- Where you are asked to Select a resource type, you will need to click on the Select button next to where it says Case, to indicate your choice
You will need to select Next to finish
Blocks - Adding and organising content
What you need to know about blocks
Blocks are the buildable chunks of content that you can add to construct your case. They have been designed to make adding and modifying a particular kind of content easy.
The content within Cases are built from independent chunks called Blocks. There are two kinds of block: content blocks and question blocks.
Content blocks
Content blocks help you to add informational content to your page. You must add at least one content block to each page to be allowed to publish your Case (see Publishing your case)
Every content block has a content type corresponding to what kind of content they can contain. You will be asked to choose the content type when you add a new one. The interface for the content block will change depending on which type you choose, giving you access to just the tools you will need to create that kind of content.
For example, a content block that you have chosen to have the Text content type will only contain the tools to allow you to add and format text.
This image shows an example of the Case editor with one new content block that has a Text content type. You can add formatted text to the text box and give it its own title.
Examples of content types
Examples of content types you can choose from include Text; Whole-slide Images like Hamamatsu; and other Media like Images, Videos and Audio Files.
Tip - You can mix and match content blocks of different content types on one page to create a richer experience for learners.
Question blocks
Question blocks help you to add interactive questions to your page.
It is your choice if you want to add question blocks to your pages or not. Leaving them out will not prevent you from publishing your case. (see Publishing your Case). Each question block is designed to create a specific type of question, which will have its own unique experience for your reader.
For example, Single Best Answer questions will expect a reader to choose and submit only one answer from an available list, and will be given feedback on whether that answer was the best available, a reasonable answer, or incorrect.
This image shows an example of the Case editor with one new question block that has a Single-Best answer question type. The step-by-step structure will walk contributors through the information they will need to construct their question in the appropriate format.
Adding blocks
To add a new content block to the page:
- You will need to select + Add Content, which you can find at the end of the current list of content blocks you've already added to the page.
- You will need to choose a content type by clicking on Select on the row that corresponds to the kind of content you want to add. For example, Text.
There is a description for each of the types to help you decide which is most appropriate for you.
Tip - Your new block will be added at the end of the blocks that already exist, but you can rearrange these blocks however you like (see Rearranging blocks)
To add a new question block to the page:
- You will need to select + Add Question, which you can find at the end of the current list of question blocks you've already added to the page.
- You will need to choose a question type by clicking on Select on the row that corresponds to the kind of question you want to add. For example, Single Best Answer.
There is a description for each of the types to help you decide which is most appropriate for you.
Tip - Your new block will be added at the end of the blocks that already exist, but you can rearrange these blocks however you like (see Rearranging blocks)
Duplicating a block
You may choose to duplicate any block and its contents by selecting the duplicate tool from the blocks toolbar.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the Duplicate icon on a content block. Contributors can access the tool from the toolbar in the top-right of any block.
Deleting blocks
You may choose to delete a block at any time by selecting the delete tool from the block's toolbar, though be warned this operation cannot be undone once it is confirmed and your content will be lost.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the Delete icon on a content block. Contributors can access the tool from the toolbar in the top-right of any block.
Rearranging blocks
You may choose to rearrange any block on the page by using the move up and move down tools from the blocks toolbar. These tools are only available once there are multiple blocks on the page.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the move up and move down tools on a content block. Contributors can access the tool from the toolbar in the top-right of any block.
Pages - Separating and pacing content
Adding a page
To add a page, select + Add a page from the ribbon at the top of the Case Editor. Your new page will be positioned immediately after the page that is currently in view.
Please note that we have not yet created a way to rearrange pages or move blocks between pages. Please make sure you are adding pages and content in the right positions to avoid losing work.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the +Add a page button on a content block. Contributors can access the button from the ribbon at the top of the page to add an additional page to their Case.
Deleting a page
Once there is more than one page in your Case, you can then choose to delete one if you don't need its content any more, though be warned this operation cannot be undone once it is confirmed and all of your content will be lost.
To delete a page, choose Delete this page, which you can find at the bottom of the page, after the last question block.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the Delete this page button. Contributors can delete any page, at any time, however, all content on the deleted page will be lost as a result.
Audience Access, you can set the audience for your Case resource
Publishing options:
- 'Make this resource available to everyone within the Learning Hub community' – this will make the Case available to everyone to contibute, including General users who are not part of the NHS or social care workforce
- 'Make this resource available only to the NHS and Social Care workforce community' – only Learning Hub users with full user type will be able to continute to the Case.
Select the appropriate level of access.
Adding resource information to help others find your Case
You will need to provide some extra information for your Case before it can be published.
The reason this information is important is because:
- it allows readers to discover relevant Cases more easily based on the keywords they search for
- it allows readers to understand what your Case is about from a list of search results, so they can decide if it is relevant to them before opening it
- it warns readers if there is any sensitive content in your Case that they need to be aware of
- it makes sure your Case fairly attributes Authors and Organisations who have contributed to it or who have ownership over its content
- it restricts other people from using of your content based on the rules set out in the licence you have chosen
To complete this information for your Case, you will need to proceed through the tabs available from the ribbon at the top of the Case Editor.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the tabs that contributors must proceed through to add the required additional information. Contributors can access these tabs from the ribbon at the top of the page.
Resource Info
- You will need to add a description for your Case. This will be the text that describes your Case in a reader's search results. Try to be clear and succinct to help readers decide if your content is helpful to them.
- You will need to decide if your Case is going to be marked as sensitive by ticking the box. If there isn't any content in your Case that could be considered sensitive, then leave the box unchecked.
- You will need to choose Keywords that best describe your Case. To add one, enter the text into the box and select the Add button.
Tip - Your tags can have multiple words. Only type out one tag at a time before selecting the Add button to add it to the list. You can remove unwanted tags by selecting the red cross inside the tag you want to remove.
This image shows the Resource info tab within the Case editor and highlights how to +Add a keyword to a Case.
Authors
You will need to add at least one Author to your Case. You can add up to a maximum of three Authors in this way.
Tip - If you'd like to attribute more Authors for your Case, you can achieve this by adding a Text content block to your Case and add more Attributions there.
To add a new Author:
- Select +Add Author
- Type the Author name, Organisation and Role of the Author to the appropriate text boxes
Tip - You can check the box next to I am the author or co-author to make it quicker to add your own name.
- Select +Add
This image shows the Authors tab within the Case editor and highlights the +Add button. Contributors can type information for an Author and use the +Add button to add the Author to the case. Contributors must add at least one Author and a maximum of three.
Licence
You will need to choose a Licence for your Case to decide how other contributors can use your content. The learning hub uses the Creative Commons framework for licences. For more information about which is the most appropriate licence for you to choose, you can visit the Creative Commons website.
Location
Contributions in the Learning Hub are organised by Catalogue. In the Location tab, you will need to choose a Catalogue where your Case will be published. To choose a Catalogue, use the dropdown and select from the Catalogues you currently have permission to contribute to.
The default space for all contributors is called Community Contributions. Publishing your Case here will allow all readers to discover and access its content.
If you have permission to contribute to a Restricted Catalogue, this will also appear in the list for you to choose from.
Publishing your Case
Once you are happy that your content is ready to be shared and you have completed the Additional Resource Information, you can now publish your content.
To publish your content, choose Publish from the ribbon at the top of the Case Editor.
Tip - Before you publish, you can preview your Case first to see how it will look to readers. For more information, see Previewing your Case.
This image shows an example of the Case editor and highlights the Publish button. Contributors can access this button from the ribbon at the top of the page.