Learning Paths in TeSS

What is a learning path?

A learning path is a pathway that guides learners through a set of modules (courses/materials) to be undertaken progressively (from lower- to higher-order thinking skills) to acquire the desired knowledge and skills on a subject by the end of the pathway.

Editorial process for Learning Paths in TeSS

There are several roles associated with learning paths in general:

  • Author: Individuals and organisations involved in the preparation, creation or presentation of the published work.
  • Contributor: Individuals and organisations that contributed to the published work but are not authors.
  • Collaborator: An individual who has been granted editing rights to a material, topic or learning path by the individual (owner) who created it.
  • Curator: An individual who has been granted permission to create a learning path in TeSS while following their community’s editorial process.
  • Owner: An individual who has created a material, topic or learning path in TeSS.

Before registering a learning path, a training provider must:

  1. Assign a learning path curator (owner).
  2. Contact the TeSS team to assign the learning path curator role to their account.
  3. Complete your internal editorial processes (if any) before you start registering the learning paths on TeSS.

After these tasks are completed:

  • A learning path curator has permission to create learning paths for their provider.
  • It is the responsibility of the learning path curator to curate and implement any protocols required by the community providing the learning path. For example, learning paths from the ELIXIR community will follow the protocol created by the ELIXIR Training Platform/Learning Paths Focus Group.

Governance: Maintaining the learning path

  1. It is the responsibility of the learning path curator to maintain their community's learning paths.
  2. The curator can assign collaborators to work on each learning path, depending on the expertise required.

Overview of registering learning paths

To register a learning path you need to follow the three steps described below:

  1. Register Training Materials
  2. Create a learning path topic and add materials to it (repeat for each topic)
  3. Register a learning path and add learning path topics to it

To register a learning path and its topics, first log in. The 'Register learning path' button will become visible on the learning paths page, and the 'Create topic' button will become visible on the learning paths topic page. If you do not see these buttons, contact tess-support@googlegroups.com to request permission.

The three steps to register a learning path are described in full detail below.

Training material

Registering training materials

To register training materials follow the instructions here. If your training material is already registered, skip this step. Each material can be assigned a competency level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Learning path topics

Creating topics

A learning path topic is an ordered list of training materials. A topic can be assigned a competency level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), description and set of keywords. A learning path contains an ordered list of one or more topics.

To create a learning path topic:

  1. On the 'Learning paths' tab, click the 'Topics' button at the top-right.
  2. Click the 'Create topic' button at the top-right.
  3. Give the topic a title, description and keywords.
  4. Select the competency level of this topic, from 'Beginner', 'Intermediate' and 'Advanced'.
  5. To add a training material to the topic, click in the 'Add a new material' box and begin to type its name. Select the correct material. You can provide a comment to be displayed with the material, if you wish to provide additional context or explain which parts of the material are relevant to the topic.
  6. Repeat step 5 to add multiple materials for this topic, all at the same competency level.
  7. You can reorder the materials using the arrow icons.
  8. When you have finished, click the 'Create topic' button.

Give your topics good names

When giving your learning path topic a title, please use a descriptive name. This will also prevent potential overlaps with identical or similar names used by other content providers, thereby reducing the risk of mistakenly selecting the wrong topics.

Examples of good topic names:

  • BIOL30561 Topic 1: Introduction to Galaxy
  • Module 3: Moving into coding environments

Examples of poor topic names:

  • Topic 3
  • Python

Registering learning paths

After you have created all your topics, and added training materials to them, you are ready to register your learning path.

  1. On the 'Learning paths' tab, click the 'Register learning path' button at the top-right.
  2. Complete both the compulsory fields: title, description and fields like scientific topics, keywords, licence, status, DOI, content provider, authors, contributors, target audiences, prerequisites, learning objectives, nodes. We recommend filling as many of these fields as possible to have a rich metadata associated with your course.
  3. For each topic, click in the 'Add a new topic' box and begin to type its name. Select the correct topic.
  4. Repeat step 3 to add multiple topics.
  5. You can reorder the topics using the arrow icons.
  6. The learning path will be public by default. Untick the 'Public' box if you want to hide this learning path from anyone who isn't the creator or a collaborator.
  7. When you have finished, click the 'Register learning path' button.

Managing collaborators

Collaborators are TeSS users who can edit a learning path or topic after it has been created. Only the learning path or topic owner can add and remove collaborators. To add a collaborator:

  1. Navigate to the page for that learning path or topic.
  2. Click the 'Collaborators' button at the top-right of the page.
  3. Start to type the name or username of the collaborator you wish to add and select them. The collaborator needs to be a registered user of TeSS.
  4. Repeat for any additional collaborators.
  5. When you have finished, click the 'Done' button.

Updating learning paths

To update a learning path or topic, you need to be the owner or a collaborator:

  1. Navigate to the page for that learning path or topic.
  2. Click the 'Edit' button at the top-right of the page.
  3. Make your changes then click the 'Update learning path' button at the bottom.

If you wish to delete the learning path or topic, use the 'Delete' button next to the 'Edit' button on the page for that item.

Viewing learning paths

Learning paths can be browsed and searched in TeSS. They are organised by topic.

  1. To view the learning paths, click 'Learning paths' in the main menu. (Tip: To view a learning path you do not need to be logged in to TeSS.)
  2. To browse all topics, click the 'Topics' button on the top-right.
  3. Alternatively, you can click in the search box, type your query and press Enter.
  4. Click to view a learning path. Read the summary box. The details of the included training materials appear below; click each item to open it. Information about the content provider appears on the left.
  5. To create a personal collection of your favourite learning paths, click the star icon at the top of each learning path to add them to a list. You can view your starred resources later by clicking the user icon at the top-right of the screen then 'My stars'. To use the star feature you need to be a registered TeSS user.

    6. Viewing topics

    1. On the 'Learning paths' tab, click the 'Manage Topics' button at the top-right.
    2. You can browse the learning path topics, using the filters on the left to select keywords or date.
    3. Alternatively, click in the search box and type a query, then press Enter to view the results.
    4. Click the title of a topic to view it. From the topic page, you can view all training materials, in order.
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