Courses for the next academic year are now available to instructors in VIULearn. These courses will use the new content experience. You can find support resources on the CIEL website for how to add, edit and manage content in the new Content tool. CIEL staff are also happy to help. Please connect with us if you would like to schedule time to meet or if you have questions. You can reach us at learnsupport@viu.ca or call 250-740-6179. If you’re on the Nanaimo campus, we also accept in person drop ins in B305 R512.
What has changed?
Here are some of the high level changes you will want to keep in mind as you get your courses ready for next year.
For instructors
- Centralized toolbar: Editing tools are now always visible at the top of the content area for faster access.
- Always visible table of contents: Content pages load in a page viewer beside the table of contents instead of as their own page for simpler navigation.
- Add Existing button now includes uploading files: This is now the primary button for all file uploads as well as linking existing activities.
- HTML page descriptions: Descriptions for HTML pages are no longer supported. Move any critical information from these descriptions into the page body itself before copying a course into your new course space.
- Content statistics: Content completion tracking is no longer at the bottom of pages; find them under the cog icon at the top of the table of contents.
For students
- Decluttered interface: Bookmarks and Course Schedule have been removed from the content area to keep the focus on course materials. Students can continue to access the Calendar on their homepage to see course schedule information.
- Streamlined navigation: The table of contents remains visible on the side while viewing pages, so students no longer have to navigate away to find the next item.
- Improved progress tracking: Each module now clearly shows a completion count (e.g., “3 of 5 completed”) to help students track their work at a glance.
- Reflect in ePortfolio and Print buttons removed: To print, students should use the Download button. Students can still create reflections in ePortfolio, but they will no longer see that prompt in content.
- Collapsible descriptions: For PDFs and external links, descriptions appear in a field at the top that students can collapse to see more of the document.