Hey everyone! I need some advice on how to handle online courses that change while students are taking them.
Our setup:
- Courses are made with XML in a CMS
- Published to a database
- Shown on an ASP.NET website
- Users sign up and take courses
The problem is some courses are super long. Students might take weeks to finish. But if we update a course while someone’s in the middle of it, it messes things up. New questions might pop up in parts they already did. Or the scoring might change.
Does anyone have ideas for making courses that authors can update without messing up students who already started? I’m looking for good design patterns or architecture tips.
Thanks for any help!
Hey Oliver63, interesting problem you’ve got there! 
Have you considered using a course state tracking system? It’s kinda like saving your progress in a video game. When a student starts a course, you could create a personal ‘save file’ for them that tracks what they’ve done and what’s left.
This way, even if you update the main course, their personal tracker keeps them on their original path. You could store this in your database alongside the course content.
What do you think about this approach? It might need some work on the backend, but it could solve the ‘new stuff appearing mid-course’ problem.
Also, I’m curious - how often do your courses typically get updated? And have you asked your students how they feel about course changes mid-way through? Their feedback could be super valuable here!
Let me know if you want to bounce around more ideas. This is a tricky one for sure!
hey oliver, rly complex, try versioning courses. old students stick with original version while new ones get updates. may require db tweaks, but it’s less messy. hope it helps.
I’ve dealt with similar challenges in my e-learning projects. One effective approach is implementing a snapshot system. When a student enrolls, create a ‘frozen’ copy of the course content specifically for them. This way, they always see the version they started with, regardless of subsequent updates.
For the technical implementation, consider storing course content in a NoSQL database like MongoDB. Its flexible schema can handle course variations easily. You could also use a Git-like versioning system for your XML files, allowing you to maintain multiple iterations of a course simultaneously.
Remember to clearly communicate to students if major updates occur, giving them the option to switch to the newer version if desired. This balance of stability and flexibility has worked well in my experience.