The lesson editor

Lesson content is written in a block editor that opens over the course page. Choose the pencil beside a lesson in the outline.

How a lesson is put together

Every lesson opens with a layout block that holds everything else. You do not create it — it is there — and it decides whether the lesson is a single column of content or a video beside text.

Inside it you add blocks: paragraphs, headings, lists, images, videos, documents and questions.

Writing

• Enter starts a new paragraph block.
• The + button adds a block of any other kind.
• Blocks can be dragged into a different order.

Save when you are done. The lesson updates for everybody immediately — there is no separate publish step for lesson content.

The blocks you have

Deliberately a short list. Every block is something the reader’s page has to render well and the system has to keep safe, so the set is narrow on purpose:

• Text — paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes.
• Image — see Adding an image or a document.
• Video — see Adding a video.
• Video and text — a layout with the video beside the words, which on a narrow screen stacks.
• Questions — six kinds. See The six question types.

Writing for the reader

Two things worth keeping in mind, because they are hard to fix later:

Use real headings rather than bold paragraphs. They give the lesson a structure a reader can scan, and they are what makes a long lesson navigable.

Keep a lesson to one idea. It is the unit learners resume on, the unit progress counts, and on a staged course it is what sits inside a module that opens on a date. A lesson covering four things is four things somebody cannot stop between.

Who can edit

Instructors and contributors, plus your site’s administrators. Assistants cannot — see Who can do what on a course.