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Understanding Course Templates

Purpose: Use this article to understand how Course Templates work in Administrate, how they relate to Events, and where to find detailed guidance for each…

Purpose: Use this article to understand how Course Templates work in Administrate, how they relate to Events, and where to find detailed guidance for each Course Template area.

A Course Template is the reusable course record used to create future Events. It defines the course-level structure, defaults, descriptions, content, schedule, personnel and resource requirements, communications, finance settings, and achievements that support repeated delivery.

In this article

What Course Templates are for

Course Templates define the reusable course-level structure behind future Events. They help administrators standardize how repeated deliveries of the same course are created, configured, priced, staffed, delivered, and completed.

Use Course Templates for:

  • defining the reusable course record behind future Events
  • setting default course structure and delivery requirements
  • organizing course metadata and learner-facing descriptions
  • configuring content, schedule, personnel, resources, communications, finance, and achievements
  • maintaining consistency across repeated deliveries of the same course

Course Templates are especially useful when the same course is delivered multiple times, because each new Event can begin from a consistent template instead of being built from scratch.

Course Template versus Event

A Course Template defines the reusable course-level structure. An Event is the specific scheduled delivery created from that template.

  • Course Template: reusable defaults, descriptions, structure, requirements, and rules
  • Event: dates, learners, attendance, results, finances, activity, and delivery-specific assignments for a live delivery

Note

If a change should apply to future deliveries of the course, update the Course Template. If the change applies only to one scheduled delivery, update the Event instead.

For a broader explanation of the relationship between courses, templates, and scheduled deliveries, see Courses, Course Templates, and Events: Structure and Inheritance.

How the Course Template screen is structured

The Course Template screen is organized into tabs. Each tab controls a different set of reusable course-level settings.

Overview

The Overview tab defines the identity and catalog-facing information for the course, including title, code, descriptions, and discovery metadata.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Overview

Personnel & Resources

The Personnel & Resources tab defines the staffing, qualification, logistical resource, task, and account association requirements associated with the course. Use it to manage personnel role requirements, Achievement requirements, resource requirements, tasks, and operational delivery preparation.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Personnel & Resources

Content

The Content tab defines the instructional structure and learning materials associated with a Course Template. Content configured at the template level provides the baseline structure for Events created from the template.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Content

Schedule

The Schedule tab defines the standard session structure for the course. This schedule can be copied into Events when new deliveries are created.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Schedule

Communications

The Communications tab controls the messaging framework associated with the course. It supports the communication structure used by future Events.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Communications

Finance

The Finance tab defines default pricing and financial behavior for the course. These settings can be inherited by future Events and adjusted when needed.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Finance

Achievements

The Achievements tab defines the certifications, achievements, qualifications, or completion credentials associated with the course. These rules determine what learners can earn when they successfully complete Events created from the template.

Detailed guide: Course Template — Achievements

Typical Course Template workflow

A common Course Template setup workflow is:

  1. Use Overview to define the course identity and catalog details.
  2. Use Personnel & Resources to define delivery roles, staffing requirements, qualification requirements, resource requirements, tasks, and account associations.
  3. Use Content and Schedule to define what the course contains and how it is structured.
  4. Use Communications and Finance to set messaging and financial defaults.
  5. Use Achievements to define completion outcomes.
  6. Create Events from the template when you are ready to schedule delivery.

This workflow is a guide, not a required order. Some organizations configure finance, communications, personnel, resources, or achievements earlier depending on their operational process.

Course Template operational guides

Use the following guides for detailed setup and field-level behavior for each Course Template area.