Creating a Course: Units and Lessons

The content of your Course will be taught through Lessons. Lessons can be organized into modules or chapters, called Units. Units are optional, but help keep your course well-organized. This article will show you how to add Lessons to your Course, and how to organize them into Units.

If you aren't already at the course editor, go to the Zippy Courses Dashboard and edit your course. Click on Units & Lessons. You'll find three buttons in the Course Entries Area -- New Lesson, New Unit, and Add Existing Content.

Creating Lessons

Click on the New Lesson button. A Lesson will be created and added to the Course Entries list. Give the Lesson a title by typing it into the field that says “Enter title here”

To the right of the Lesson title are six Action Icons:

  • View Lesson: Launches a preview of the Lesson

  • Edit Lesson: Opens an editor where you can edit the content of the Lesson.

  • Scheduling: Reveals the scheduling options for the Lesson. Learn more about Scheduling Options.

  • Quiz: Reveals the Quiz options for the Lesson. You can also choose to make completing the Quiz mandatory before a student can progress. Learn more about creating and publishing Quizzes.

  • Lesson Access: A Course can have multiple Access Tiers that allow you to do things like sell different versions of your course. This icon reveals the Access Tier options for your Lesson.

  • Delete Lesson: Removes the Lesson from the Course.

Don't forget to save your work by clicking the Save button.

Creating Units

Click on the New Unit button. A modal window will appear asking you how many Lessons you would like in this Unit.

Enter the number of lessons you want and click the Create Unit & Lessons button. An alert will tell you that the Unit and Lessons have been created. Close the modal window or add more Units and Lessons. Now you can enter titles for your Units and Lessons that were just created.

Units have four Action Icons:

  • View Unit: Launches a preview of the Unit and Lessons grouped within it.

  • Edit Unit: Opens an editor where you can edit the content of the Unit.

  • Lessons: Toggle the Unit to reveal or hide the Lessons grouped within it.

  • Delete Unit: Removes the Unit from the Course.

Editing Lesson and Unit Content

To edit a Lesson or Unit, click the Edit Action Icon (pencil) to launch the edit screen.

Editing Unit or Lesson content is identical to editing a blog post or a page using WordPress. The edit screen provides a space for the Unit or Lesson Title and the standard WordPress post editor. Within the editor, you may use the standard Embed features or any shortcodes from other plugins that you have installed.

There is also an options box for Featured Media and Downloads (for Lessons only) on the edit screen. Learn more about these in the articles on  Setting Up Featured Media and Adding Downloadable Files to your Lessons.

Once you are done editing the Unit or Lesson content, click Save to save and continue editing, or return to the course with the Save and Return to Course button.

Organizing Course Content

Lessons can exist independently within the course, or be organized into chapters or modules with Units. To organize your Lessons, just drag to re-order or group them into a Unit. Units can also be re-ordered by dragging and dropping.

Once you are done creating and organizing your content, save your work by clicking the Save button. Or make the changes live by clicking the Publish or Update button.