Core Concepts

Nimbu is built on a modular architecture designed to separate your Curriculum Design from your Training Delivery. This separation is what enables "Compliance Efficiency" - the ability to update your training material in one place and have it reflect across your entire organisation without manual duplication.

By treating your Courses as Master Blueprints and your Classes as specific Cohort Instances, you maintain strict version control for audit readiness while giving trainers the flexibility they need to manage individual student intakes.

What's Covered in This Article

This article explains the fundamental building blocks of Nimbu:

• Courses vs. Classes: Master blueprints vs. live delivery instances
• Units and Content: Learning modules and what goes inside them
• Activities vs. Resources: Graded content vs. study materials
• Lifecycle States: Draft, Published, and Inactive status
• How Enrolment Works: How students connect to Classes

The Blueprint: Courses and Units

Courses

• What They Are: Master templates that define complete qualifications or programs (e.g., "Certificate III in Commercial Cookery").
• What They Contain:
  • Default Units that make up the course
  • Course information and requirements
  • Pricing and registration settings
• Key Point: Courses are blueprints. Students never enrol directly into Courses - they enrol into Classes that deliver those Courses.

Units

• What They Are: Individual learning modules within a Course (e.g., "SITHCCC027 - Prepare dishes using basic methods of cookery").
• What They Contain:
  • Activities (Assessments and Observations)
  • Resources (study materials)
  • Learning journey settings
  • Completion requirements
• Key Point: A Course defines which Units students must complete. The same Unit can be reused across multiple different Courses.

The Delivery: Classes

What Classes Are

• Definition: A Class is a specific cohort or intake delivering a Course to students (e.g., "Commercial Cookery - January 2025 Intake").

How Classes Work

• Inheritance: When you create a Class, it automatically inherits:
  • Default Units from the Course blueprint
  • All content (Activities and Resources) from those Units
• Customisation: You can then customise the Class without changing the master blueprint:
  • Add elective Units for specific students
  • Add supplementary Resources
  • Set Class-specific schedules
  • Assign trainers
• Important: Changes to a Class only affect that Class. The master Course blueprint remains unchanged.

Content Types: Activities vs. Resources

Every Unit contains two types of content with different purposes.

1. Activities (Graded Content)

Content that requires completion and trainer marking. Always contributes to unit results. Two Types of activity:

• Assessments
  • Digital knowledge-based evaluations
  • Question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Selection, Short Answer, Upload
  • Auto-marked (MCQ, T/F, Selection) and manually marked (Short Answer, Upload)
  • Result: Satisfactory (S) or Not Satisfactory (NS)
• Observations
  • Practical or workplace-based assessments
  • Question types: Checklist, Upload, Short Answer
  • Always manually marked by trainers
  • Result: Satisfactory (S) or Not Satisfactory (NS)

2. Resources (Study Materials)

Non-graded learning materials for study and practice.

• Resource Types:
  • PDF - Documents and reading materials
  • Video - Embedded or linked video content
  • Quiz - Self-marking practice tests
  • SCORM - Interactive e-learning packages
  • Article - Rich text learning content
  • Canva - Embedded designs
  • LTI - External learning tools
  • HTML - Custom interactive content
  • Podcast - Audio materials
• Key Point: Resources support learning but don't require trainer marking. They can be marked as "Completion Required" if desired.

The Distinction

• Resources = "Learn this information"
• Activities = "Show me you can apply it"

Students typically study Resources first, then demonstrate competency through Activities.

Lifecycle States

All content moves through three possible states.

Draft

• Purpose: Internal development and testing
• Visibility: Only staff (Content Editors, Administrators)
• Use for: Building, editing, and QA before release

Published

• Purpose: Active and ready for delivery
• Visibility: Staff and students (when enrolled)
• Key changes:
  • Units can be added to Courses
  • Courses can be used to create Classes
  • Content becomes available in Classes
• Important: Published content has restrictions to protect active students. You cannot delete Published content or change core settings that would disrupt learning.

Inactive

• Purpose: Archived but retained for records
• Visibility: Staff only (not available for student learning)
• Use for: Retiring outdated content while maintaining audit trails
• Key Point: Inactive content cannot be used to create new Classes but remains viewable for compliance purposes.

How Enrolment Works

The Core Rule

Students enrol in Classes, never directly into Courses.

The Process

1. Student selects a Course from the catalogue
2. System places them into an available Class delivering that Course
3. Student gains access to all Units in that Class
4. System creates individual Unit enrolments for progress tracking

The Complete Structure

Course (Blueprint)
   └── Contains Default Units
        └── Units contain Activities + Resources  



Class (Delivery Instance)
   └── Inherits Units from Course
        └── Students enrol in Class
             └── Progress tracked per Unit

The Workflow

1. Content Editors create Courses and Units (Blueprints)
2. Administrators/Trainers create Classes (Delivery Instances)
3. Students enrol in Classes
4. Trainers activate content and manage delivery
5. Students complete Resources and Activities
6. Trainers mark Activities and finalise results
7. System tracks progress and maintains audit trails

Related Articles:

• What is a Course?
• What is a Class?
• What is a Unit?
• What is Content?
• Glossary