Prerequisites: This block may need to be enabled on your site. If it is not visible in the Add a Block list simply contact the Support Team and ask for it to be enabled.
This block displays an interactive and responsive list of courses in a horizontal scrolling row on a dashboard. The block UI supports navigation through the row with arrow buttons, mouse interactions and touch support.
Adding custom fields
First you need to create some custom fields which will be used to display information on your course list. This will populate the "Eyebrow" text on the tiles:
Navigate to Site administration > Courses > Courses and categories > Custom fields. This opens the Course custom fields page. Create a text input field named “courseeyebrow”. More information on how to create course custom fields can be found here.
Alert: The following settings may not be available to you. If they are not, contact support@learningpool.com and ask them to do the following configuration for you.
Go to Site administration > Plugins > Blocks > Course List block settings
| EyeBrow field | courseeyebrow (courseeyebrow) |
| The Ending text for thumbnail image (thumbnailimage) | _banner |
The Course List block will only use images stored in the Course Summary Files area of the course settings that end in _banner as the thumbnail image for the course.
Configuring the block
Once the block has been added to a dashboard, you can configure the block by clicking on the gear icon and Configure Course lists Block:
Block settings section
| Display block title | If this is set to “Yes”, the block title, as entered in the Block title field in the Common block settings section, is displayed. |
| Display block description | If this is set to “Yes”, then the description entered in the Block description field will be displayed in the block. |
| Block subheader | The text entered here appears above the title in the Course List block. |
Course Filter Section
Typically, the purpose of an individual Course List block will be to highlight a subset of the courses available on the site. The filters available in this section are used to determine the courses that will be displayed. Configuration of the filters is done in two steps.
Step 1: Identify Course Pool
| Display all courses | When set to “Yes” all courses on the site will be available to be filtered for the Course List display. If the specific courses to be displayed in the Course List block are known, it may be easier to select “No” and utilize the next field. |
| Selected courses | If Display all courses is set to “No”, use this multi-select list to activate one or more specific courses to be included in the Course List block. Use ctrl-click / cmd-click or shift-click as required to select multiple courses. |
Step 2: Apply Filters to the Course Pool
Once the course pool has been established, whether that is all courses on the site, or a subset of specifically identified courses, filters can be applied to further restrict the courses that are displayed in the Course List block.
| Use Tags as a filter | If tags have been applied to courses, the Course List block can display a set of courses based on assigned tags. Select “Yes” if this is desired. |
| Selected tags | If Use Tags as a filter is set to “Yes”, select one or more tags that will be used to filter the courses displayed in the Course List block. |
| Use Enrolled status as a filter |
This option allows the Course List block to react to the enrollment status of the specific user viewing the block. By default, this filter is “Ignored”, but can have the following two states:
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| Use Completion status as a filter |
This option allows the Course List block to react to the course completion status of the specific user viewing the block. By default, this filter is “Ignored”, but can have the following two states:
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Custom Fields Section
If text-based custom fields have been made available for courses at Site administration > Courses > Courses and categories > Custom fields, then they will be listed in this section. Any of these custom course fields can then act as a filter. Meaning, if a value is entered in a field, then the course's custom field must match the text value entered for it to be displayed in the Course List block.
Display Options Section
| Display tags | If set to “Yes” the Course Lists block will display the tags associated with each course displayed in the block. |
In addition, remember the following:
- The image displayed for each course in the Course List block will be the file that is uploaded to the Course summary files area of the course settings and whose file name is appended with the value of Ending text for thumbnail image (thumbnail), which by default is “_banner” but this can be adjusted on a per-site basis.
- If the courseeyebrow custom course field is populated for a course displayed in the Course List block, that text will be displayed just above the course name.