The lesson editor is where you build the pages of a lesson. This article covers the tools around the elements: pages, selecting and copying, undo, search, versions, the trash and working with others.
Open a module, then Edit Lesson on any lesson.
Finding your way around
The header holds the lesson name, which you can rename in place, Show Overview to jump to another lesson of the module, Checklist and Exit. Saving and Saved show whether your changes have reached the server. The three-dot menu holds Version history, Search content, Lesson statistics and Trash.
The Elements panel lists what you can add. The side panel switches between Pages and Element, the settings of the selected element. Elements, checklist and preview are described in Lesson content types.
Working with pages
The Pages panel shows each page as a tile. Drag a tile to change the order, and drag an element onto a tile to move it to that page. Add new page adds a page at the end.
The three-dot button on a tile offers Duplicate, which places a copy with all its elements right after the original, Hide or Show, and Delete. A lesson always keeps one page, so the last one cannot be deleted. A deleted page and its elements move to the lesson trash.
Setting the duration of a page
Each page has a duration in minutes next to its name. A page without one shows Set duration in red. Click it and type the minutes, or use From content for an estimate from the length of videos and audio, the reading time of text and a fixed time per task or quiz.
Adding a video recalculates the duration from the content, and adding an audio file adds its length. Deleting a video or audio element subtracts its length again. The lesson shows the sum of its pages, course progress weighs lessons by these durations, and the marketing badge adds them up as the video time of the course.
Marketing badges for your courses
Selecting several elements
Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click elements to add them to the selection, or click one and Shift-click another to select everything in between. The Bulk actions bar then offers Duplicate, Move to page and Delete. Clear selection or Esc ends the selection. Move to page only appears when the lesson has at least two pages.
Copying and pasting elements
Select an element and press Ctrl+C. Element copied confirms the copy. Ctrl+V pastes it after the selected element, or at the end of the page. The copy stays available in this browser, so you can paste it into another lesson or course as well.
The line between two elements shows Add element. It opens a quick list of elements with the copied one on top under Clipboard. Typing "/" into an empty text element opens the same list.
A video you uploaded or recorded is not copied along: the pasted video element is empty, and you choose the video again.
Pasting long text
When you paste text that mixes headings, paragraphs, lists or code into a text element, Split pasted content? shows a preview of One element next to Separate elements. Split content creates a headline, text, list or code element for each part. Cancel keeps it in one element.
Undo, redo and keyboard shortcuts
Undo and Redo next to the save status take back changes to elements and pages, such as adding, moving, duplicating, hiding and deleting. Hover over them to see the step. After you delete an element, Element deleted offers Undo too.
The editor keeps up to 50 steps. Reloading, switching lessons or restoring a version or a trash item starts a fresh history. Inside a text field, Ctrl+Z undoes your typing instead.
Press ? to open Keyboard shortcuts:
- Esc closes panels and deselects, Del deletes the selected element.
- Ctrl+D duplicates, Ctrl+C copies and Ctrl+V pastes an element.
- Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes.
- Alt+Up and Alt+Down move the selected element, Alt+Left and Alt+Right switch to the previous or next page.
Shortcuts pause while you type in a field. On a Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl.
Searching the module
Search content searches lesson names, page names and element content across all lessons of the module, from two characters on. Results are grouped by lesson, with Current lesson marking the open one. Click a result, or use the arrow keys and Enter, to open that page.
Version history
Your work is saved as you go, and the editor keeps versions of the lesson automatically: one version per five minutes of changes, up to the 50 most recent. Version history lists them with date, author and the number of pages and elements. Current state marks the version that matches the lesson right now.
Restore this version saves the current state as a version first, so you can go back. Pages and elements that the restored version does not contain move to the lesson trash. Elements whose type no longer exists are skipped, and the panel says how many.
The lesson trash
Pages and elements you delete in a lesson wait in Trash for 30 days. This trash belongs to the lesson. Deleted lessons, modules and courses go to the trash under Settings instead.
The panel lists Deleted pages and Deleted elements with the date each was deleted and when it expires. Restore puts an item back; an element of a deleted page comes back only after you restore the page. Delete permanently removes one item for good, Empty trash removes everything. After 30 days, items are removed automatically.
When an element with a video is deleted for good, the video itself is deleted only if it comes from your media library and no other lesson, no copy and no published or earlier course version still uses it.
Editing together
When colleagues have the same lesson open, Also editing in the header names them, and an element one of them has selected shows Editing now with their name.
If someone else saved a change in the meantime, This lesson was changed somewhere else. appears and your last change is not saved. Reload loads the current state, and you continue from there.
If the connection drops, No connection to the server appears. Keep working: your changes are saved once the connection is back. If a save fails for another reason, Saving failed offers Try again and Reload. Exit waits until every change is saved.
Designing a lesson image
The card at the top of the editor shows the lesson image, name and total duration. Hover over the image and choose Change image to upload one, or Design with the studio to open Lesson Studio, which starts with the lesson name as its title. Use as lesson image saves the design as the lesson image.
Who can do what
- Opening a module to reach its lessons takes Edit Module.
- Working in the editor, including restoring versions and trash items, takes Edit Module or Edit Course.
- Delete permanently and Empty trash take Delete Module. Without it, the trash only offers Restore.
All of this changes the draft. Members see your changes after you publish the course again with Update Course.