Manage Course Lessons

Who this is for

Teachers building or reorganizing the lesson structure inside a course.

What this page answers

• How are lessons organized into units?
• How do format-neutral lessons and Exam Mode work?
• How do child tasks fit under a root lesson?
• How do working copies protect live lessons during edits?
• How do I track classes learning from this course?

Prerequisites

• an active course in Materials (/platform/materials)

1. Add lessons to the course

You can quickly add a new lesson directly from the course page using the Add lesson button.

Format-neutral course materials

Course lessons are format-neutral curriculum materials. You do not lock a lesson into a "Class lesson", "Exercise", or "Homework" at creation time. Instead, format and duration belong to how you choose to use the material when you assign it or add it to a class plan:

• Live meeting: Taught synchronously with students in the live classroom.
• Exercise: Completed independently by students for practice.
• Homework: Completed independently and submitted back to the teacher for review.

Exam Mode

When a lesson is intended for formal student assessment, you can turn on Exam Mode in the lesson's settings. Materials with Exam Mode require independent student work and cannot be taught as live classroom meetings.

Rename a lesson from the course page

When you only need to change the title, use the lesson title's inline edit control on the course page. Save the new name with Enter or by moving focus away; press Escape to leave the name unchanged. Renaming does not open the editor or change lesson content.

Create several lessons at once

The Add lesson dialog can create a batch of lessons. Enter a number and a name pattern, or paste one lesson name per line. Use {num} in a pattern (e.g. Lesson {num}: Introduction) when you want the lessons numbered automatically. The dialog displays progress as lessons are added.

If the batch is interrupted, the completed lessons remain in the course and the dialog keeps the remaining items so you can continue without creating duplicates.

2. Organize lessons with Course Units

Every course organizes root lessons into collapsible Units (starting with Unit 1). Units act as visual chapters that divide your curriculum into clear learning stages.

Unit details and AI cover generation

Each unit features:

• Title and description: Clearly state the unit's learning objective or theme.
• Unit cover image: Upload custom artwork, pick from the school image library, or click Generate cover to create artwork with AI using artistic style presets and an optional descriptive prompt.

Managing units

• Reordering: Drag lessons within a unit or between units.
• Empty units: An empty unit preserves its place in the outline so you can scaffold future curriculum structure ahead of time.
• Deleting a unit: When you delete a unit, its lessons are not deleted—they automatically move into the unit above, and an instant Undo toast lets you reverse the deletion immediately if clicked.

Course Header Readiness & "No content" Hints

On a course page, a compact third header line below the author displays the empty and total lesson count with a tooltip summarizing course readiness (for example, "The course has 12 lessons.Every lesson has content." or "2 lessons have no content yet.").

On any course lesson card that displays "No content", a helpful hint explains how to make it ready for teaching:

• If it already has an unpublished working copy: "Open the lesson and press Publish on the bottom panel. Then you can assign the lesson."
• If it is empty: "Open the lesson, add content, and press Publish on the bottom panel."

3. Attach nested child tasks to a lesson

Any root lesson can have up to 7 nested child tasks.

Child tasks are always delivered as independent work (such as homework or practice exercises) and unlock alongside their parent lesson:

• Automatic unlocking: When a root lesson is scheduled or released in a class program, its nested child tasks unlock automatically based on the class's opening rules (such as after the class meeting or after the previous item is passed).
• Visual nesting: Child tasks appear indented beneath their parent lesson in the course outline and lesson directory, keeping practice materials grouped with their core lesson.

4. Open each lesson in the editor to build content

Once a lesson exists, click it to open the Lex Editor where you can:

• write teaching content with text, tables, audio, and video blocks
• add interactive widgets and exercises
• configure lesson-level controls
• add a cover image (upload an image or click Generate cover for AI art)
• select a Document Theme (Classic, Studio, Forest, or Azure)
• configure a Header Wallpaper (solid pastel tone, preset pattern, or wide image banner)

Safe editing with Working Copies

All course lessons are active immediately upon creation (version 1). Any subsequent edit you make—whether typing, adding blocks, importing templates, or generating with AI—automatically opens a private Working Copy.

A lesson with unpublished edits displays an Unpublished changes badge in the editor and an amber asterisk after its title on the course outline. Students and unstarted class sessions continue receiving the last published version until you click Publish changes. See Working copies for details.

Lesson Editor Service Bar

When viewing the Published version of a course lesson (by toggling the two-segment Working / Published switcher), the top service bar offers "Assign to class" directly so you can assign the finished material to a student cohort in one click. To keep the service bar focused and clean, older secondary controls (View assignments, Save as template, and the lesson-type badge) are removed.

5. Reorder lessons and units

Use the course outline to drag lessons into the exact sequence you want:

• Drag lessons up and down to change order within a unit.
• Drag lessons across unit boundaries to reassign them to a different unit.
• Reorder entire units to restructure your syllabus.

6. View AI Analysis Reports

For independent homework and exercises, the lesson table surfaces the AI analysis status directly in the Output column. You will see an icon indicating whether the lesson is ready to analyze, currently analyzing, or if the report is available to view. For child lessons, this icon appears directly on the expanded child row so you don't have to open the lesson menu.

7. Update Several Lessons at Once

Use Select on the course lesson list when you need to make the same change to multiple lessons.

Common batch actions:

• Create class: Spin up a new class cohort directly from selected course lessons.
• Assign to class: Assign selected lessons directly into an existing class program.
• Edit shared properties: Update answer reset, read-only mode, delayed answer reveal, time limit, assessment billing, Exam Mode, or release rules across selected lessons.
• Copy: Copy selected lessons into another course.
• Archive: Hide active lessons from the main outline without deleting them.
• Restore: Restore archived lessons back to the active course outline.
• Delete: Permanently delete archived lessons when they are no longer needed.

Select the lessons, choose the action from the batch bar, review the confirmation, and wait for the progress indicator to finish.

8. The All lessons Tab, Unsorted Lessons & Guest Links

To manage lessons across your entire school regardless of which course they belong to, navigate to the All lessons tab in Materials (/platform/materials).

Both the course outline and the All lessons tab include a filter bar. Use the More filters menu to narrow down the lesson list by tags, language, and CEFR or grade level.

Unsorted Lessons

When adding a lesson outside a course, it is placed in Unsorted lessons. Unsorted lessons are stored in a central system bin, ideal for ad-hoc reference materials, exploratory drafts, or one-off sessions before you organize them into a course.

Assign to a guest by link

Every lesson row menu includes Assign to a guest by link. This generates a shareable guest link that gives an external or trial student:

• 30 days of free access to complete an exercise or homework task without prior account creation or enrollment.
• An independent Library Guest Room for a live classroom lesson, allowing you to run a sample lesson without altering your own Instant Lesson room.

Lesson Row Actions

• Start instant lesson: Directly launch a live classroom room (available for any lesson not marked as Exam Mode).
• Assign this lesson: Assign the lesson directly to a class program or guest.

9. Assign vocabulary with the Words tab

The course lesson sheet has a Words tab for attaching a vocabulary list to the lesson. When the lesson is released to a student — on assignment, or when a learning path unlocks it — those words land in that student's own vocabulary automatically, with translations prepared into the student's own language. There is no separate assignment step.

Build the list

Turn on Assign words to learn, then type one word or two-word phrase per line. If you pasted a comma- or semicolon-separated list, click Format list to normalize it into one item per line.

• The limit is 50 words, and a counter shows "N of 50 words" as you type.
• Duplicates are dropped, with a notice telling you what was removed.
• A line that cannot be used is called out by its position in the list — for example, an item with more than two words.
• Add words from Lesson Builder pulls in the vocabulary the AI plan already produced for that lesson, so you do not have to retype it.

What happens after you save

Locuto.PRO prepares audio and translations in the background. A status strip follows the work: queued, then "Words and audio are being prepared", then ready. Translations are added as they become available. If some items fail, use Retry failed words.

Each lesson row on the course page shows an "N words" badge while its vocabulary is queued but not yet delivered. You are notified when delivery finishes, and also if it fails.

Turning the toggle off keeps the list as a draft — nothing is sent to students. Clearing the list asks for confirmation first.

Students study these words on their own Learn Words page — see Vocabulary (student view).

10. The Classes Tab & Teaching this Course

Every course page includes a Classes tab (?tab=classes):

• Active and closed classes: Inspect all classes currently studying this course, their assigned teachers, student enrollment numbers, and completion progress.
• Teach this course: Click the Teach this course button in the course header to launch a new class directly from this course. This opens the unified 4-question setup dialog (What the class learns, How students go through lessons, Meetings with the class, and How lessons open) and populates the class plan with the course's units and lessons.

Related pages

• Lex Editor Guide
• Working copies
• Vocabulary (student view)
• Classes & Student Groups