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- Update link to "Batch Creation of Courses" reference.

\label{Create_Course}
The ``Course and Community Creation'' menu provides access to a number of utilities
which Domain Coordinators can use to either manage the process of course creation.  An individual course or community can be created interactively by completing a web form which offers several choices for generating the new course or community: 

\begin{itemize}
\item Username: set the username of the owner, who will also receive a coordinator role.
\item Course Title: This is the name under which the course will appear on the
Roles screen.
\item Course Home Server: This is the server where the course will be housed.
\item Course ID: This is an optional parameter to internally label the course. 
Stored in the course environment.
\item Course Code: This is the institutional code used to identify the course according to the naming scheme adopted by your institution for ``official'' courses.
\item Map: This the top level sequence file in the course. If left blank, a 
standard course will be created containing the first resource item (see below).
\item NOT Standard Course: It this box is checked, the Map above becomes the
top-level map for the course, and
the main course sequence cannot be edited in DOCS. For standard courses, 
the top-level map is a course-specific ``uploaded'' document, and points to 
the above map.
\item First Resource: This is the first resource which comes up after somebody
selects a role in this course (standard courses only).
\item Clone an existing course: An alternative to creation of a new course with
 a single item or a non-standard course with a sequence file as the top-level map is to copy the contents of an existing course into the new course.
\item Open all assessments: Sets the course-level open date for all assignments 
to ``now''. Circumvents the ``not open to be viewed'' problem.
\item Set policy/content feedback: Sets the recipient address for these types
of feedback messages to the course coordinator.
\item Disable student resource discussion: Disables the ``bottom-of-the-page'' discussions.
\end{itemize}

Two types of course ``containers'' are currently available in LON-CAPA: 
\begin{itemize}
\item Course 
\item Community 
\end{itemize}
The key difference between the two is that the Coordinator of a Course may import any published resource into the course as long as he/she has access rights for it, whereas import into a Community is restricted to just those resources for which the Coordinator is the author, or a co-author.  In addition, the names of standard roles in the two containers have different names: (Course Coordinator vs. Coordinator, Instructor vs. Leader, Teaching Assistant vs. Assistant Leader, Student vs. Member).

In addition to using a web form to create courses one-at-a-time, Domain Coordinators can upload an XML file containing descriptions of courses to create multiple courses, see: Batch Creation of Courses (\ref{Batch_Creation}).  If the ability to request courses has been enabled, and certain course types have been set to require Domain Coordinator approval, then the ``Approve or reject requests'' item can be used to display a list of requests requiring approval.  These may be approved or rejected.  If a conduit has been established to an institutional data source which provides information about instructors of record, then the ``View pending official course requests'' may contain a list of requests for official courses, held pending validation. Validation can be attempted; if it still fails it is possible to override this and force creation of the course.

Lastly, there is access to a utility which can be used to display course and community creation history.