Build and publish a course

A course opens at its outline. The first band shows the course's name, a line saying where it is and who can see it, and the course's pages as tabs: Outline, Course page, Students, Cohorts (for a course taught in cohorts), Discussion, Report and Settings. A member who can only view the course sees the Outline, the Discussion and a cohort course's Cohorts.

Start a course

Choose New course in Courses. Under Start from, choose Blank and type a title, or Paste JSON and paste a whole course in the format of Create a course by pasting JSON. Create course makes it as a draft in Personal or the selected team, with one module, Module 1, and opens its outline.

The outline

Each module is a band with its lessons under it. Under each lesson's title the row shows its kind, Draft until it is published, its length, when it opens if it has its own rule, Free preview, Optional, and once students have taken it, how many completed it.

• Rename a module: click its name and type the new one.
• Add a module: Add module at the top of the outline. It goes at the end. A course can have up to 100 modules.
• Add a lesson: Add lesson to {module} under a module. Type a title and choose its kind and its module. The lesson will be added to the end of the module as a draft, and its editor will open. A course can have up to 500 lessons.
• Reorder: drag a lesson by its grip, or use its up and down arrows. A lesson can be dragged into another module. A module moves with the up and down arrows beside its ⋯ menu. The up arrow on a module's first lesson moves it to the end of the module above, and the down arrow on its last lesson moves it to the start of the module below. Students keep their progress on a lesson that moves.
• When a module opens: the module's ⋯ menu → Change when it opens…. See When course lessons open, and how long students keep access.
• Delete a module: the module's ⋯ menu → Delete module. Magpie asks first. Its lessons will be deleted too; students' progress, attempts and submissions on them stay in the course's report.

A lesson's title opens its editor, described in Write lessons and add videos.

The course's details

More → Edit details… opens the course's details. Each saves on its own:

• Title and Subtitle. The subtitle is shown under the title on the course page and in your school's catalogue.
• Cover: a picture from Your images for the course page, the catalogue and the course's Store product. Remove cover takes it off.
• Address: the course's part of its address, after your school's. It is made from the title and can be changed until the course is first published. After that it is fixed, so links to the course keep working.
• Catalogue: Listed shows the course in your school's catalogue. Unlisted leaves it out, and only people with the address find it.

The course page

The Course page tab holds what a visitor reads before enrolling, in the order the course page shows it. Click a part to write it; it saves when you leave it.

• Description, in Markdown.
• What students will learn: one outcome per line, up to 12. The course page shows them as a list.
• Who it is for, in Markdown.
• Promotional video: shown at the top of the course page to everyone, signed in or not. It is added as a lesson's video is.
• Questions and answers: Add a question adds a pair, up to 20. Drag a pair or use its arrows to reorder; Remove asks first.
• Instructors: each instructor's name, picture and bio from their Account settings, with a line of their own for this course, such as "Studio owner, 12 years teaching". Who teaches is chosen in the course's Settings.

View course page opens the public page of a published course, or a preview of a draft's.

Preview as student

Preview as student opens the course in a new tab as a student with access sees it, draft lessons included, so the outline stays open in its own tab. A line at the top says it is a preview. Nothing done in a preview is saved: no progress, answers, comments or views.

Publish a course

Publish course is beside the course's name while it is a draft. If something is missing, the line Not ready to publish under the course's name says what, with a link to fix it:

• a published lesson: publish at least one lesson first;
• the free plan's 1 published course, when another is already published: upgrade, or archive the published one;
• for a course people pay for: a price in Settings, a cover picture, and a published Store. See Sell a course.

When nothing is missing, Magpie asks once, saying where the course page will be and who can join. The first course Personal or a team publishes opens its school: Publish course then asks for the school's address, magpie.diy/learn/ followed by a name you choose. It cannot change after that. The school's name, logo and colours are in Set up your school.

Publishing will open the course page at its address, list the course in your school's catalogue unless it is unlisted, and put its Store product on sale if it has one. Share then gives the address to copy or send. Students cannot see a lesson until the lesson itself is published.

Archive and restore

More → Archive course stops new students enrolling and takes the course out of your school's catalogue. Students who have access keep it. A paid course's Store product is taken off sale; its orders stay.

Restore course publishes an archived course again. On the free plan it needs room for another published course.

Duplicate a course

More → Duplicate course makes a draft called "{course} (copy)", with the same modules, lessons (all drafts), quiz questions, files, videos, course page and settings. The copy has no students, cohorts, discussion, certificates or Store product. Its videos are the original's videos, so they use no more storage; its files are copied, and count toward the storage of the member who duplicates it.

Export as JSON in the same menu downloads the course's outline and text, and a draft's Import JSON… replaces its outline. Both are described in Create a course by pasting JSON.

If Publish course still refuses after everything it named is done, Contact support.