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BenchPrep's intuitive content management system, BluePrint, is designed to help you craft a diverse array of courses tailored to your needs. Whether you're new to course design or a seasoned pro, we've got you covered with step-by-step workflows to guide you through the process. As you begin, review each course workflow to learn how to get started and to identify which one is the best for you. Though there are several different routes you can take to successfully create a new course, the workflows below are recommended by the BenchPrep Professional Services team.
Creation of Asset-Based Courses
Asset-Based courses showcase existing resources created outside of the BenchPrep platform. A key benefit to asset-based courses is that they can be brought to market quickly. They are especially beneficial in launching courses created in other authoring platforms, such as Storyline, Rise, Articulate, or another Content Authoring Tool. Supported file types include but are not limited to videos, SCORM packages, and PDFs. Learn more about the types of supported assets here.
Learners launch asset-based courses from the Learning Hub. While these courses do not include BenchPrep’s unique features, such as Confidence Levels and Study Plans, they do deliver an easy-to-navigate learning experience. Asset-based courses are an ideal choice for skills training, compliance training, and continuing education.
Course Creation Workflow
| Step 1 | Create an Asset-Based Course in BluePrint. | How to Create an Asset-Based Course |
| Step 2 | Decide if you want to upload assets one by one or in bulk. | Tip: If you’re including more than 1 individual asset in a course, we recommend using our Import Content tools. |
| Step 3 | Upload assets one-by-one and/or in bulk. | Tip: If you plan to import content at different times, change your course’s status in BluePrint from conversion to published by clicking the Publish Course button on the Course Details page. When importing content to a published course, the newly imported content will be added to existing assets in the course. Uploading content into courses with a conversion status will overwrite that content. How to upload assets in bulk How to upload an asset individually |
| Step 4 | Change the order of your assets (if needed). | Tip: To change the order of the assets in the course, go to the Assets section, switch from the grid view to the tree view, and drag-and-drop the assets in the desired order. When you’re done, select Save. |
| Step 5 | Build your course and test! |
BenchPrep Course Creation Workflows
The following workflows are recommended for BenchPrep Courses for the following types of courses:
Question or Test Bank Course
Question or Test bank courses are designed to prepare learners—typically for a high-stakes exam—through practice questions and tests. These courses are created in BluePrint and accessed via the learning application, so learners can have access to the unique features of BenchPrep, including but not limited to Study Plans and Confidence Levels.
Course Creation Workflow
Question or test bank courses may be created manually or via import. Both workflows share the same foundational steps for preparing the content.
| Step 1 | Define your Question Categories and Subcategories (if using). |
Tip: Before you begin, make sure your Categories are clear, avoid overlaps, and have at least 5 questions per category. Ensure each question has an assigned category or will fit into the existing categories.
Tip: BenchPrep supports two levels of categories: parent category and child category. If you need to incorporate a third level, consider consolidating the levels in the question category names. Alternatively, consider tags to incorporate additional category hierarchies.
Tip: In addition to defining the categories, determine the order in which you would like them to appear to learners |
| Step 2 | Decide which question types you will be using |
Tip: The BenchPrep platform supports a variety of interactive question types. |
| Step 3 |
if using tests, determine which test type is best for you: unlimited or full-length
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Introduction to Tests |
| Step 4 |
Determine how you would like to configure your questions and tests. The BenchPrep platform supports multiple options for displaying your questions to learners:
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Feature Access: Practice Questions and Exams
Tip: Category Practice and enabling question features is a great starting point. Looking for more but not sure where to start? The Professional Services Team can consult for your use case.
Tip: implementing Dynamic Exams and Custom Practice requires coordination with the BenchPrep team. |
| Step 5 | Create a BenchPrep Course in BluePrint. |
How to create a BenchPrep Course
Tip: If you are using side by side question display, select yes to “Utilize Side by Side Question Display?” on the course creation page.
Tip: if your question bank will contain questions that are used in multiple courses, create the course as a Bank. Banks allow one central location to manage content that appears in multiple courses. See The Difference Between a "Bank" and a "Course" for more information. |
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Step 6 |
Create course styles if not already created. |
Tip: need support creating custom styles? Contact your Customer Success Manager for support. |
| Step 7 | Decide if you want to upload questions or create them individually. |
Tip: if your questions are final and in HTML format, we recommend importing them via our content import tool.
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| Step 1 | Create your Question Categories and Subcategories (if using). | Tip: the order of Categories in the BluePrint is the order that will appear to learners. |
| Step 2 | Create your test(s) (if using) and add test instructions for your users. | Tip: How to create tests in BluePrint
Tip: save time by bulk-assigning questions to tests once your questions are ready. See Step 4 below. |
| Step 3 | Create questions and supporting passages (if needed) individually. |
How to create questions individually Tip: take advantage of custom styling to help give visually differentiate content within questions where appropriate |
| Step 4 | Bulk assign your questions to tests (if applicable). | Tip: you can add questions to tests as you create questions, from the test edit page, or in bulk. Assigning your questions to a test via batch edit saves time. See Batch Editing Questions |
| Step 5 | Create a Study Plan to provide guidance for completing the content (if using). |
How to create a Structured Study Plan in BluePrint
Tip: Implementing an Adaptive Study Plan requires coordination with the BenchPrep team. |
| Step 6 | Build your course and test! |
| Step 1 | Prepare your questions for import |
Tip: include styling tags in your questions csv import. This way, your questions will be simultaneously imported and styled. Tip: you can import questions and create tests with one questions csv import. Tip: If you plan to import questions at different times, change your course’s status in BluePrint from conversion to published by clicking the Publish Course button on the Course Details page. When importing content to a published course, the newly imported content will be added to existing questions in the course. Uploading questions into a course with a conversion status will overwrite existing questions. |
| Step 2 | Create a Study Plan to provide guidance for completing the content (if using). |
How to create a Structured Study Plan in BluePrint Tip: implementing an Adaptive Study Plan requires coordination with the BenchPrep team. |
| Step 3 | Build your course and test! |
Certification Training/Prep Course
Certification training/prep courses are courses designed to help learners achieve mastery. These courses may include a high volume of content and incorporate all content types and features supported in BluePrint, including but not limited to flashcards, lessons, questions, tests, assets, videos, audio files, and SCORM packages.
Creating a certification training/prep course in BenchPrep is perfect for the goals of certification, recertification, exam preparation, and other instances where learners benefit from immersion in a topic.
Course Creation Workflow
Decide on your course’s organizational structure before adding content, in terms of both the path your learners will take through the course and the organization of your course content.
If you are going to include questions, tests, or flashcards in your course, it may be more efficient to create the categories for these items first, and then build your Study Plan and add content. Once the categories already exist in your course, it is easy to create content items and add them to categories by selecting them.
| Step 1 | Determine the types of content you will include in the course and define your content categories. |
Tip: In the BenchPrep platform, content is organized by Categories, or key topic areas. For course structure and data collection best practices, categories across lessons, questions, and flashcards are often identical.
Tip: A course’s Lesson Categories often serve as the course’s table of contents. Lesson categories are also a good guide to creating question and flashcard categories.
Tip: Before you begin, make sure your Categories are clear. For question categories, avoid overlaps and have at least 5 questions per category. Ensure each question has an assigned category or will fit into an existing category.
Tip: In addition to defining the categories, determine the order in which you would like them to appear to learners.
Introduction to Lessons and Lesson Categories.
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| Step 2 | Create a BenchPrep Course in BluePrint. | How to Create a BenchPrep Course |
| Step 3 | Create course styles if not already created. |
Tip: need support creating custom styles? Contact your Customer Success Manager for support. |
| Step 4 | Decide on your method of content ingestion: manual or imported. |
Tip: We recommend uploading lessons, questions, and flashcards using the import tool if your content is final, in HTML format, and is or can be adaptable to a csv
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| Step 1 | Import lessons (if using). |
Tip: If you plan to import lessons at different times, change your course’s status in BluePrint from conversion to published by clicking the Publish Course button on the Course Details page. When importing content to a published course, the newly imported content will be added to existing questions in the course. Uploading questions into a course with a conversion status will overwrite existing questions.
Tip: include styling tags in your lessons csv import. This way, your lessons will be simultaneously imported and styled. You can also make changes post-ingestion. |
| Step 2 | Import questions and tests (if any). |
Tip: you can create tests at the same time as importing questions. Tip: remember to add test instructions for your users. |
| Step 3 | Import flashcards, if using. | Importing Flashcards and Flashcard Categories |
| Step 4 | Add interactions to your course (if using). | How to upload Interactions in BluePrint |
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Step 5 |
Create the Study Plan to provide guidance for completing the content (if using). Add your content to the Study Plan. | |
| Step 6 | Build your course and test! |
| Step 1 | Create your Lesson Outline and lessons. | Introduction to lessons |
| Step 2 | Create your Question Categories and Subcategories (if using). Create your questions. |
How to create questions individually |
| Step 3 | Create your test(s) (if using) and add test instructions for your users. |
How to create tests in BluePrint
Tip: save time by bulk-assigning questions to tests once your questions are ready.
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| Step 4 | Create your Flashcard Categories and flashcards, if using. | Creating flashcards |
| Step 5 | Add interactions to your course (if using). | How to upload interactions in BluePrint |
| Step 6 | Create the Study Plan to provide guidance for completing the content (if using). Add your content to the Study Plan. | |
| Step 7 | Build your course and test! |
Micro-Course
Micro-courses are short courses intended for learners to review a subject for awareness, but not necessarily mastery. Micro-courses can often be completed in one sitting and may include all content types and features supported in BluePrint, including but not limited to flashcards, lessons, questions, tests, assets, videos, audio files, and SCORM packages. The micro-course experience is a perfect match for short-form courses delivering skills training, compliance training, and continuing education.
The workflow here demonstrates the process of building out a micro-course that includes lessons, questions, flashcards, tests, interactions, and a Study Plan. This workflow also shows a way to get your course building process started quickly by adding lessons, questions, and flashcards directly via the Study Plan. Use this workflow when you have a small amount of content and you would like to get your course set up fast. You can also use this workflow to build out a short course for which you are still creating content, since it is an easy way to add new content while building out your learners’ journey through the material through the Study Plan.
Note: Developing a course by adding content via the Study Plan, as recommended for these short courses, is only available for lessons, practice questions, and flashcards.
Course Creation Workflow
Create your study tasks and groups from the Study Plan section of the course in full first before adding content, especially if you aren’t sure where all of your content will fit. While you can always make changes to your course after the content has been added, crafting your Study Plan outline first will ensure that you establish the right path through the content for your learners.
| Step 1 |
Determine the course curriculum, or the pathway through which learners will consume the course content. For each type of content you will include (lessons, questions, flashcards), determine how the content will be organized by categories. Create a clear, concise naming convention for study task groups and study tasks. Make it easy for learners to see what it takes to complete the course. |
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| Step 2 | Create a BenchPrep Course in BluePrint. | How to Create a BenchPrep Course |
| Step 3 | Start adding content via the Study Plan. |
See method #3 in How to create a Structured Study Plan in BenchPrep Tip: Start this process with your lesson content, with categories and subcategories to create the outline of your course. |
| Step 4 | Create and add your lesson content as you continue to build out your content and the Study Plan. |
See method #3 in How to create a Structured Study Plan in BenchPrep |
| Step 5 | Create questions from the Study Plan while adding study tasks for practice questions. | How to Create Questions Individually See method #3 in How to create a Structured Study Plan in BenchPrep |
| Step 6 | Add flashcards to your course by creating a Study Task within a Study Task Group that makes sense for your learners’ path, and uploading it to your course. |
How to create flashcards in BluePrint |
| Step 7 | Create your test(s) (if using ) and add questions to tests alongside instructions for your users. Reorder your test questions if needed. |
Tip: Questions are created as part of the practice experience by default.
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| Step 8 | Add interactions to your course (if using). | How to upload interactions in BluePrint |
| Step 9 | Add your tests and interactions to the Study Plan (if using). |
How to create a Structured Study Plan in BenchPrep |
| Step 10 | Build your course and test! |
