Course Categories and Hierarchies

Course Categories are a great way to organize courses. Just like User Groups, Categories offer a way to create organization and group courses in a way that makes sense for your university and your audience. Categories can be restricted to specific groups, allowing you to restrict the audience for courses on the category level and not just the course level.

Category Hierarchies, like Group Hierarchies, offer an additional level of organization by allowing you to have “parent” categories and sub-categories.

There are two ways to manage/create Course Categories. You can use the Draft Category Workflow or you can follow the steps below. 

NOTE: For help creating a strategy and hierarchy plan, contact your BlueVolt Customer Success Manager.

This article contains the following sections:

• How to Create a Course Category
• How to Add Multiple Categories at Once
• Course Category Management
  • How to Assign Courses to Categories
  • How to Add Sub-Categories to a Course Category
  • How to Use Display Order
  • How to Edit and Delete
  • What is the Brochure Feature?

How to Create a Course Category

1. Go to Admin > My University > Catalog > Categories.
2. Click Add Category..
3. Fill out the information to create a single category.
4. Click Save when you’re finished to save your new category.

How to Add Multiple Categories at Once

If you want to add several categories at once, you can do so using the Add Multiple Categories link at the top of the page after clicking Add Category. This allows you just to add the names. Once you’ve added them, you will have to go into each one individually to add additional information/settings.

 

Course Category Management

There are a few things you can do to manage existing categories once they’re created.

How to Assign Courses to Categories

Once you have categories, you can begin assigning courses to them. This can be done on the course level when you Create a Course on the 4. Settings tab. It can also be done here.

1. Click Assign Courses to Categories.
2. Select the Course using the dropdown.
3. Check the box next to whatever categories to which you wish the course assigned.
   NOTE: You can see the current categories listed under the dropdown after you’ve selected the course.

 

How to Add Sub-Categories to a Course Category

Sub-categories are the “child” to the top-level “parent” categories. Adding sub-categories creates your hierarchy.

When you create a category under which you intend to have sub-categories, you need to make sure you leave the default Subcategories box checked at the bottom of the Category creation page.

 

1. Add a Subcategory by selecting Add on the right of the category on the Course Category Management Page.
2. Fill out category settings just like you would for the “parent” category.
3. Click Save..

How to Use Display Order

Selecting Display Order on the right of the category allows you to determine the order in which you want the courses you’ve assigned to the category to display.

NOTE: This step is helpful, but not required. Courses will default to displaying in the order in which they were assigned to the category.

 

How to Edit and Delete

These two links allow you to edit an existing category or delete an existing category, respectively. 

CAUTION: Deleting categories should be done with caution. Make sure you are positive you want to delete a category before proceeding. The action cannot be undone.

What is the Brochure Feature?

This feature creates a downloadable brochure. 

NOTE: Changes made to category configuration can take up to 60 minutes to be reflected in the Brochure generation tool.