Meet the CONTENTED elearning system

Many people just plunge into their first CONTENTED course. They do what comes naturally, they don't read instructions, and everything works out fine.

But if you prefer to be prepared, read this first!

Choose a browser and allow pop-ups

For the best experience, we strongly recommend using either Internet Explorer or Safari. Some other browsers show our courses rather oddly!

Avoid these browsers:

At some point your computer will ask permission to open pop-up windows. Most people only need to give permission once. (Some government organisations have their own requirements.) You'll need to permit pop-ups from our two web sites:

Our system has three main elements:

  1. an elearning web site where we manage learners and courses
  2. the actual courses, which do the teaching
  3. supplementary resources: tips pages (like this page) and examples

1. The elearning web site manages your courses and test scores

Everything starts on our elearning web site, http://be.contented.com. That's where you log in. There you'll find your Home page and My Courses page.

Keep your elearning web site open!

It must stay live to track your test scores and the courses you've finished. If you close it before you've finished your study session, your test scores will be lost.

Home (your home page) lists the courses you still have to finish. As soon as you finish a course, it's removed from the home page. So don't be surprised when that happens—be pleased you've made progress.

My Courses lists all your courses, regardless of whether you've studied them. They will stay on this page for as long as you have access, regardless of whether you pass or fail.

See those two orange tabs on the My Courses page?
tabs for Standalone courses and Diploma courses
Click on "Diploma courses" to see the Diploma that you bought. Click again, on the blue diploma name, and you'll see all your courses. Click on "Standalone courses" to see any courses you bought that weren't part of a diploma.

My profile asks you to complete some details about yourself. Very important: your address! We'll need that later to send you a Diploma in Web Content. Here's where you can also change your password to something you'll remember more easily.

My group will show you who is studying in the same group as yourself (if anyone). That's relevant if, for example, your manager registered a number of staff at the same time.

The faq button, and other links inside the courses, link to pages like this one: help pages for learners. Depending on your computer set-up, they may open in the same browser window but a new tab.

Click on any buttons and links. You can't break anything!

Ready, steady, study! Starting your first course

Click on a blue course name on either list (on Home page or My courses). You'll see—it's simple.

First you see another web page: "About this course". That's just to warn you where you're going. But you won't want to see this page again. See this?
Next time don't show this screen.

Just check that checkbox, and next time you click on a course name, you'll get into the course more quickly. Just click on course names and "Continue" buttons and you won't go wrong.

2. Inside the courses—everything's different!

Wow! When you actually enter a course, everything looks different.

The course opens in a clean, new, orange and white window, and it's not a web page. It looks more like a slide show, with a table of contents down the left hand side. Our courses use Articulate software, not web pages.

Navigating your way around a course

Please, play! Try clicking on any menu item, on the orange arrows, the play button, the Next or Previous buttons. Try different ways to navigate around a course: see what suits you best.

You can't break anything, so please have fun.

3. Supplementary resources: tips and examples

Our extra teaching resources are mostly web pages on our main web site, www.contented.com (not the elearning web site). They include tips pages like this one and example web pages.

The CONTENTED courses are about writing better web content. So guess what? You can't learn to write web content unless you look at web pages—real web pages, not just PDFs. So naturally our courses have scores of example web pages.

Clicking links to example pages and tips pages

The courses can open in a really large new browser window. You may think you have lost a window. Don't panic: it may be hidden behind the course window.

The other tips pages have plenty of other information for you. Explore them whenever you feel like it, or if you strike a problem.

FAQs for learners
Logins and access codes
Study tips

But hey, it's time to get started on your study! That's a lot more fun than reading this information. Off you go—enjoy your study!