Create Course Assets and Textbooks in OLX

Create Course Assets and Textbooks in OLX#

Tags: educator how-to

Authors create an asset policy file to provide details of the assets used in a course. Assets can include image files, textbooks, and handouts.

Authors must enter policy details for each asset added to the static directory. For more information, see Create Course Assets in OLX.

Create the Asset Policy File#

Authors define policies for course assets in the assets.json file.

Save the assets.json file in the policy directory. Use one assets.json file for all of the courses that might be in the directory structure.

Asset Policy JSON Objects#

For each asset, the following fields must be provided in a JSON dict for that asset:

contentType

The MIME type of the file.

content_son
A collection that contains:

  • category: Equal to asset.

  • course: The course number.

  • name: The file name.

  • tag:

  • org: The organization that created the course.

  • revision

displayname

The file name.

filename

The full path and name of the file in the Open edX Platform.

import_path

null (TBD - why?)

locked

true if users can only access the file from within the course. false if users can access the file from outside of the course.

thumbnail_location
Either null (for assets without a thumbnail type, such as PDFs), or, an array containing:

  • c4x

  • The organization.

  • The course number.

  • thumbnail

  • The filename for the thumbnail.

  • null (TBD - why?)

Example Asset Policy File#

The following example shows the JSON policy for an image file and a PDF textbook.

{
    "Education_for_a_Digital_World.pdf": {
        "contentType": "application/pdf",
        "content_son": {
            "category": "asset",
            "course": "OLXex",
            "name": "Education_for_a_Digital_World.pdf",
            "org": "OpenedX",
            "revision": null,
            "run": "2025",
            "tag": "c4x"
        },
        "custom_md5": "be2c4a1483397675d7bd124c100d02f9",
        "displayname": "Education_for_a_Digital_World.pdf",
        "filename": "asset-v1:OpenedX+OLXex+2025+type@asset+block@Education_for_a_Digital_World.pdf",
        "import_path": null,
        "locked": false,
        "thumbnail_location": null
    },
    "Intro_to_OLX_course_card.png": {
        "contentType": "image/png",
        "content_son": {
            "category": "asset",
            "course": "OLXex",
            "name": "Intro_to_OLX_course_card.png",
            "org": "OpenedX",
            "revision": null,
            "run": "2025",
            "tag": "c4x"
        },
        "custom_md5": "f007dbebf9fb14d666a01614b97a860e",
        "displayname": "Intro to OLX course card.png",
        "filename": "asset-v1:OpenedX+OLXex+2025+type@asset+block@Intro_to_OLX_course_card.png",
        "import_path": null,
        "locked": false,
        "thumbnail_location": [
            "c4x",
            "OpenedX",
            "OLXex",
            "thumbnail",
            "Intro_to_OLX_course_card-png.jpg",
            null
        ]
    },
  }

Create Textbooks#

As described above, first upload a textbook asset to the course in the static directory.

Accessibility concerns

See the notes in the Add Course Textbooks article around accessibility - namely, that PDF textbooks are accessible whereas PNG/image files are not.

Then, as described above, link it in the course assets.json file.

Finally, update the policy.json file (described in Create OLX Course Policies) with information in the pdf_textbooks key:

{
  "course/2025": {
    "pdf_textbooks": [
      {
        "chapters": [
          {
              "title": "Full Book",
              "url": "/asset-v1:OpenedX+OLXex+2025+type@asset+block@Education_for_a_Digital_World.pdf"
          }
        ],
        "id": "6Education_for_a_Digital_World",
        "tab_title": "Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe"
      }
    ],
}

See also

Add Course Assets (reference)

Course Assets in OLX (how-to)

What is Open Learning XML? (concept)

Example of an OLX Course (reference)

Getting Started with OLX (quickstart)

What is the OLX Course Structure? (reference)

Maintenance chart

Review Date

Working Group Reviewer

Release

Test situation

2025-11-06

sarina

Ulmo

Pass
Contents