Information Services

Introduction to content types in Learn

A description of the common content types you can add to your Learn course.

Looking for Help with Learn?

From the beginning of the 23/24 academic year, all new courses will be delivered using an updated Learn interface. In order to ensure that users can access support materials for current and previous year courses we have kept old support materials on Edweb pages and created a new Sharepoint Learn site full of useful resources for the new interface.

For Learn resources for current courses, please visit the Learn Sharepoint (University of Edinburgh users only).

Here you can access the most up-to-date information such as:

  • Good practice guidance
  • Training and support resources 
  • How to guides

To access support material for older courses please use the pages below as usual.

 

There are many types of content you can add to your Learn course. We are going to focus on the most commonly used content types.

The most common content types are described below:

Content

Description

Item Add any type of file, text, image or link with optional descriptive text. Items can be used to present a combination of content. The functions in the editor allow formatting of the text, file attachment, embedding of multimedia, insert equations, links, and tables.
File Add a file with a title, but no additional text. A description cannot be added with the link, therefore it is not accessible practice to use this method to add files.   We’d recommend adding files as attachment to Item content types as an alternative.
Audio Add an audio file – includes autostart and loop options.
Image Add an image – includes image dimension and border options.  Do not only use images to convey any important text information as these are not accessible. Use alternative text descriptions to give a clear and succinct description of what the image is for screen reader users. Alt text defines what this file is for a visually impaired or blind user using assistive technology, such as screen readers.
Web link A link to an outside website or resource. Use a meaningful name for the link.
Content folder Add folders and sub-folders to organise content items.