Plan a new course

Most Liverpool Dental courses are self-paced — learners enrol whenever and finish whenever — so the planning decisions here differ from a cohort-paced university module. This page covers the choices that matter.

Settings → Schedule & Details for ENDO101. The pacing radio sits in the middle — once the course has started, the choice locks, so set it correctly on day one.

Self-paced vs instructor-paced

	Self-paced	Instructor-paced
Start date	Course-open date for the learner	Hard start; content reveals on schedule
Best for	Single-author CPD modules	Multi-week cohort programmes
Discussion volume	Low — async	Higher — needs moderation
Default for Liverpool Dental	✓	rarely used

Set this under Settings → Schedule & Details → Course pacing. Pick Self-paced unless you’re explicitly running a cohort. Once the course has started, the choice can’t be changed — Studio greys the radio buttons out.

Schedule fields that matter

• Course Start Date — the first date learners can see content. For self-paced courses set this to “now” or a sensible launch date.
• Course End Date — leave blank for evergreen CPD, or set it if the content has a clinical-guidelines expiry.
• Enrolment Start / End — controls enrolment, not access. Leave start blank to allow enrolment from day one.

A workable outline pattern

For a 1–3 CPD hour module:

Section 1 — Introduction
  Subsection — Welcome & learning outcomes (1 unit)
  Subsection — Pre-assessment (1 unit, ungraded)

Section 2 — Core content
  Subsection — Topic A  (2–4 units)
  Subsection — Topic B  (2–4 units)
  Subsection — Topic C  (2–4 units)

Section 3 — Apply
  Subsection — Case-based exercises (XBlocks)

Section 4 — Assess
  Subsection — End-of-module assessment (graded)
  Subsection — Reflection prompt (ungraded)

The pre/post pattern lets learners self-rate against the end-of-module score, which is a strong CPD reflection signal.

What to do next

• Create and manage components
• Control content visibility and access