Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General

• Design-a-Course is a quick and easy-to-use software tool that allows novice users to create sophisticated web-based training (WBT) courses within minutes. Questions, scoring, tracking and reporting are all automated to allow you to focus on course development. Design-a-Course is a combination of the development environment (which is downloaded and installed to your local machine) and the runtime component which is the web application that resides on the remote Design-a-Course server and runs in any standard web browser*.

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• Design-a-Course was developed using web standards and technologies such as HTML, Java and JavaScript, which means that published courses will run on Windows, MacOS, or Linux/Unix based machines.

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• Ease of use separates Design-a-Course from other WBT authoring software packages on the market today. Design-a-Course is here to help the first-time WBT developer and there is NO programming required. Design-a-Course also comes with a built-in Learning Management System (LMS) database. Results in the LMS can be exported to an Excel™ spreadsheet with a single click.

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• Unlimited. As long as your account is current, you will always receive the latest version of the Design-a-Course Author for free.

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• Each learner represents one student account. Should an employee learner complete his/her curriculum or leave the company, client can replace them with another learner and will therefore not affect their quota.

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• If you choose the self-hosting option, the systems requirements will be:
  
  • Dedicated Linux Server running SuSe Linux 9.1
  • 1 GHZ x86 CPU ( 2 GHZ - Pentium 4 or AMD 64 or equivalent recommended)
  • 512 GB RAM (1gb ECC RAM recommended)
  • SCSI or Serial ATA Hard Drive
  • 40gb Disk Space (Mirrored Disks recommended)
  • 100Mbps Ethernet Card
    

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Course Development

How difficult is Design-a-Course to use?

• If you can use Word™, WordPerfect™ or any other windows based word processor, you should be designing courses in about 20 minutes. Even if you have never used a WBT (Web-Based Training) authoring software before, you will quickly be developing courses like a pro.

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• No. Design-a-Course's graphical user interface enables anyone to build course pages quickly and easily. When you build a course, the Author sets up a folder on your hard drive where all files associated with the course are saved to automatically. For each page you create in the course, an HTML page is created and saved to this folder, and these pages make up your course.

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• Your account comes with one gigabyte (a lot!) of disk space. More can be purchased if necessary. However, you can develop an unlimited number of courses with a single URL account license. Your URL account license is only limited by your number-of-students plan. You can upgrade your plan at any time – even in the middle of your billing month.

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• Yes. You control who has access to your courses with a single click. You also assign user names and passwords to your customers.

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• You can import your content using the standard Windows CUT/COPY and PASTE, by selecting an existing HTML file, or by simply typing directly on the page like you would in any word processing application. Professional developers can use existing pages developed in Dreamweaver™, Hot Metal™or any other HTML development tool and use them in Design-a-Course.

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• Yes, it's simple to copy and paste text from Word into the Author. Simply have your Word document open at the same time as the Author, then copy and paste between the two. However, if you wish to insert tables and pictures, it is best to use the Author's Insert Table and Insert Picture functions.

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• Yes, it is completely possible to insert PowerPoint slides into the Design-a-Course Author. For specific how-to instructions, please see the Help files that accompany the Author.

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• Design-a-Course uses True/False, Multiple Choice, Select All That Apply, and Fill-in-the-Blank question types. In addition, for both correct and incorrect answers to questions, you can give the student an explanation based on their answer or branch them to another section of the course.

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• Yes.

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• Yes.

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Security

• SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, is a technology which allows web browsers and web servers to communicate over a secured connection. This means that the data being sent is encrypted by one side, transmitted, then decrypted by the other side before processing. This is a two-way process, meaning that both the server AND the browser encrypt all traffic before sending out data. Design-a-Course uses SSL to process and deliver an encrypted data connection between a client and a server. Data is encrypted by the sending software, in this case Design-a-Course, and decrypted by the receiving software, your browser. This process provides a high degree of confidentiality.

• Confidentiality is important for both parties to any private transaction. In addition, all data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering--that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit.

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• Your courses and student results are completely safe. Your account and courses are accessed through secure HTTPS protocol, and our servers have off-site backup and dedicated connection to the Internet that is monitored 24 x 7.

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• For the protection and security of your data, Design-a-Course’s redundant servers are located at a secure facility located in Colorado Springs, CO. Client data and courseware are the property of the client. Data and courseware cannot be viewed or used by anyone other than the client.

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Learning Management System (LMS)

• Yes, Design-a-Course has an excellent scoring summary. It automatically grades your tests and keeps track of the results. These results are automatically saved to your secure, password protected space on Design-a-Course’s server, and are available immediately after testing. 24 x 7.

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* Certain requirements are necessary