Develop a Course

Create and publish your instructional content to a desired format.

Important: Ensure that your publishing scenario correctly interprets the suggested DITA 1.3 Learning maps structure. For more information, contact your Heretto CCMS Administrator and see Learning Maps.

Create a Course

Heretto CCMS enables you to create courses by using the DITA learning and training specializations.

Before you begin:
  1. In the content library, create the folder structure for your course. See Create a Folder.
  2. Create the following Learning maps in the appropriate content library folders. See Create Learning Maps and do the following:
    1. Create the Learning publication map.
      Learning publication maps contain course-level content. You will use this map to publish your course.
    2. Create Learning group maps.
      Learning group maps contain reusable module-level content.
    3. Create Learning object maps.
      Learning object maps contain reusable lesson-level content.
  3. Append the Learning maps so that they reflect your course structure. See Add Existing Content to a Map and do the following:
    1. Append the Learning group maps to the Learning publication map as Learning group map references.
    2. Append the Learning object maps to the Learning group maps as Learning object map references.
  4. Add instructional content to your course by doing the following:
    1. Create Learning topics in the appropriate content library folders. See Create Learning Topics.
    2. Append the Learning topics to the appropriate Learning maps. See Add Existing Content to a Map
      Tip: When you append a Learning topic to a Learning map, Heretto CCMS automatically chooses the correct reference type.
    3. Optional: Reuse the existing technical content from your content library by doing any of the following:
    • Append your technical topics as Learning content references to the Learning maps. See Add Existing Content to a Map.
    • Reuse technical elements in your Learning topics.
Publish your course to an appropriate format. See Publish a Course.

Create a Folder

Use the Create folder window to create a new folder for organizing your files.

  1. In the content library, click the New folder icon.
    Figure 1. Create a new folder
    New folder icon in Heretto CCMS
  2. Enter a name for the folder.
    Important: Folder names can only contain alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores. They cannot contain spaces or non-English characters.
  3. Click Create.

Create Learning Maps

You can create Learning publication maps, Learning group map, and Learning object maps.

Learning publication maps
Generic Learning maps that organize content on a course level.
Learning group maps
Contain a single Learning group element that organizes content on a module level. Learning group maps can be easily reused in multiple Learning publication maps.
Learning object maps
Contain a single Learning object element that organizes content on a lesson level. Learning object maps can be easily reused in multiple Learning group maps.
  1. In the content library, navigate to a folder and click Create New.
  2. Select Learning Map.
  3. Enter a title and file name.
  4. Optional: Assign the file to collections by clicking Collections and selecting collections from the list.
  5. Optional: Assign metadata to the file by filling in the Metadata fields.
  6. Depending on the type of the Learning map that you want to create, do one of the following:
    OptionDescription
    To create a Learning publication map,Click Create.
    To create a Learning group map,Do the following:
    1. Click Create & Edit.
    2. On the left, in the Map Editor, right-click your map and select Append element > Empty > learningGroup.
    3. In the Map Editor, click Close.
    To create a Learning object map,Do the following:
    1. Click Create & Edit.
    2. On the left, in the Map Editor, right-click your map and select Append element > Empty > learningObject.
    3. In the Map Editor, click Close.

Add Existing Content to a Map

You can insert existing maps and topics from your content library into a map.

  1. In the content library, hover over a map and click the Dock button.
  2. In the content library, right-click a map and select Dock button.
  3. In the content library, navigate to the component(s) that you want to add to the map.
  4. If you want to add multiple components, select the components. See Select a Range of Files.
  5. Drag and drop the component(s) from the content library into the Map Editor.
    Tip: A line appears that indicates where the component will be added. If you drop a component on another component, a green box appears. The green box indicates that the new component will be added as a child of the component that is already in the map.
    A video showcases how the user can drag and drop components to easily insert them into a map tree.
  6. If prompted, from the Insert drop-down menu, select a relevant reference type and click Insert.
    When adding content to the map tree the user can select a reference type from a drop-down menu.
    Note: Your Heretto CCMS instance can be configured to automatically select the appropriate reference type for you. If you want to select the reference type on your own, you can hold Shift while dragging and dropping a resource into the map tree.

    To disable or enable the intelligent drag and drop feature, contact a Customer Success Manager.

Select a Range of Files

You can quickly select multiple files in the content library by selecting a range of files.

  1. In the content library, navigate to the directory where you want to select a range of files.
  2. Select the first file in the range of files that you want to select.
    select a range of files
  3. Hold Shift and click the last file in the range of files that you want to select.
    select a file range part 2

Create Learning Topics

The learning and training specializations include a number of topic types that help you structure your instructional content.

  1. In the content library, navigate to a folder and click Create New.
  2. Perform any of the following actions:
    • To create a Learning plan topic, click Create New > Learning Plan.
    • To create a Learning overview topic, click Create New > Learning Overview.
    • To create a Learning content topic, click Create New > Learning Content.
    • To create a Learning summary topic, click Create New > Learning Summary.
    • To create a Learning assessment topic, click Create New > Learning Assessment.
  3. Enter a title and file name.
  4. Optional: Create the file in a folder different from the current folder by clicking Change and selecting a new location.
  5. Optional: Assign the file to collections by clicking Collections and selecting collections from the list.
  6. Optional: Assign metadata to the file by filling in the Metadata fields.
  7. Do one of the following:
    • To create and open the file, click Create & Edit.
    • To create the file and return to the content library, click Create.

Publish a Course

You can export instructional content to various formats. Common outputs include SCORM packages and PDF files.

For more information about instructional content publishing, see Publishing Instructional Content.

  • Create a course by using the DITA learning and training specializations. See Create a Course.
  • Ensure that your publishing scenario supports the suggested DITA 1.3 Learning maps structure. See Learning Maps.
  • If you want to use your course in a Learning Management System (LMS), ensure that your LMS is compatible with your SCORM publishing scenario.
  1. In the content library, hover over a Learning publication map, click the Output icon, and click Publish.
  2. In the content library, click on a map, and in the right pane select Output and click Publish.
  3. From the list on the left, select a publishing scenario.
  4. Optional: In the Enter Description field, enter a meaningful description.
    Once you publish the document, this description appears in the list of finished publishing jobs.
  5. Set the publishing parameters.
    The publishing scenarios are configured by your CCMS administrator.The publishing scenario can include the following parameters.
    Template
    Enables you to select output style.
    Transformation Type (or Output Type)
    Enables you to select the output format.
    Ditaval (or args.filter)
    Enables you to select a DITAVAL file for conditional publishing.
    Locales
    Enables you to select a locale when publishing localized content.
    Webhooks
    Enables you to send webhooks on successful publish or any publish.
    Debug publish
    Generates additional files in the debug folder that you can use to troubleshoot your publication.
    Track changes
    Include or exclude tracked changes (suggestions) from the Content Editor in the output.
    Note: By default, this feature may not be available. For more information, contact your Customer Success Manager.

    For more information about the DITA Open Toolkit parameters, see https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/parameters/parameters_intro.html.

  6. Click Publish.
    The resource publishes. It may take a moment to complete.
  7. Download the published files by hovering over the publishing job and clicking the Download icon.