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Slate: laying out content and duplicating modules and courses

Align and move images, build nested dot points, and reuse work by duplicating Slate modules and courses.

Written By Manning Blackall

Last updated 6 days ago

The Slate content editor with a formatted activity.

Slate is RTOPilot's online learning builder, connected to your courses through the LMS integration. This article covers laying out content in Slate (aligning images and nesting dot points) and reusing work by duplicating modules and courses.

Who this is for: Administrators and course authors who build online learning in Slate.

Align and move images

Images in Slate content can be aligned left, centre or right, and dragged to a new spot in the activity. Putting a diagram right beside the step it explains makes content much easier to follow, especially on smaller screens.

A selected image in the Slate editor with its alignment toolbar.

  1. Open the module and the content activity.

  2. Select the image to show its tools.

    The image tools that appear when an image is selected.

  3. Choose left, centre or right.

    The left, centre and right align buttons with image settings and delete.

  4. To move it, drag the image. The surrounding content shifts to show where it will land.

  5. Press Esc while dragging to put everything back.

Students see the same layout you set while authoring.

Tip: large images are fitted to the screen for students and can be opened in an image viewer, so you do not need to shrink detailed diagrams.

Nested dot points

Start a list from the editor toolbar. Lists can go several levels deep, with a different bullet style at each level. Use them for step-by-step procedures, criteria with sub-points, or grouped key facts.

A dot point list nested three levels deep, with a different bullet style at each level.

The editor toolbar with heading, bold, italic, bullet list, numbered list, link and image buttons.

  • Press Tab to indent a dot point.

  • Press Shift+Tab to bring it back out.

Gotcha: keep nesting to two or three levels. Deeper lists get hard to read on a phone.

Duplicate a module

Clone a module to get an editable copy straight away. Handy for a near-identical module for a new cohort, a different delivery mode or a refreshed version.

Duplicating a Slate module.

  1. Open the modules list and find the module.

  2. Select the Duplicate icon on its row and confirm.

    The Duplicate module confirmation.

  3. Rename the copy and edit it. The original is untouched.

Duplicate a course

Duplicating a course creates a new course shell that links to the same modules. Use it to offer the same module set under a new course name, then link it to the RTOPilot course in Programs and courses.

Duplicating a Slate course.

  • Module content is not deep copied. Editing a shared module changes it in both courses.

  • Student enrolments and progress are not copied, so the new course starts clean. Enrol students as usual (see Managing enrolments).

Tip: if the new course needs different content, duplicate the modules you want to change first, then swap them into the duplicated course.

Content limits

A content activity holds up to 20,000 characters. For longer topics, split them across several activities so students get natural break points and progress saves more often.

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