Add sections and lessons to Courses

Creating well-structured learning content is key to helping your teams succeed in sales conversations with prospects and customers. Lessons are the core of Courses, containing the materials for learners. This is where you’ll create and upload the Course content. To streamline the process, any content you add is saved to the files library, except for authored and voiceover content created within the Course.

Each lesson can include up to five pieces of content, and there’s no limit on how many sections with lessons you can add. In this article, you'll also learn how to configure the settings for each of your lessons.

See how it looks

Key features

• Add lessons to sections and configure their settings
• Select, create, or upload learning materials for Course lessons
• Benefit from flexible content management to create more engaging learning initiatives

You need this to succeed

The quick way

1. Drag and drop a Section block to the Course Builder
2. Drag and drop one or more Lesson blocks to your section
3. Configure settings for each lesson in the ride side panel
4. Choose to upload, select, or create content for each lesson

Do this step by step

1. Begin by Creating a Course in the Course Library. See the Create a Course article to learn more. 
2. Depending on the template you chose during Course creation, your Course may already include a section. If not, drag and drop a Section block into the Course Builder.

   Note: Sections allow you to group multiple lessons together. This helps organize the structure of your Course.

3. Add a title to your section by clicking the Untitled section text field. Enter a title and then press the Enter key.
4. Drag and drop the Lesson block to the section you created, and enter a relevant title.
5. Anytime a new lesson is added to the Course, the Lesson Settings panel will open on the right.
   • Enter the Time to completion, which is how long you expect a user to complete the lesson.
   • To Allow users to make annotations on lesson documents, check the box. It allows users to make notes directly while taking Courses.
   • To Allow users to download lesson assets, check the box. This setting enables downloading assets to a user’s desktop and does not apply to mobile devices.
   • There are three different options for adding content to a lesson. Choose one of the following:
     • Upload from Computer: choose a file from your device.
     • Select Content: search for and add assets from the libraries.
     • Create Content: design a new lesson from scratch.

Upload from computer

This option is for uploading files, recordings, or other completed content.

1. To upload files directly into a Course, select Upload from Computer.
2. You can either browse your local folders or drag and drop content to upload into the Course.
3. Once you've selected some content to upload, you can add tags or search for existing tags to label the content you are uploading. Click Upload.
4. After the file is processed, click Done. The file is added to the Files library and attached to the Course.
5. To remove the content from your Course, click the trash icon next to the filename. The file will remain in the Files library.

Select content

1. To select files from the Content Library, click Select Content.
2. A file picker will allow you to select files from your Files library to add to the Course.
3. You can easily search for content or filter by type, property, tag, and source.
4. All the files you select will be added to that lesson in the Course. Click Insert Item(s) when you're ready.
5. To remove the content from your Course, click the trash icon next to the filename. The file will remain in the Files library.

Create content

There are several ways to create content. Below are the available options and how to use them:

Screen Capture

Screen Capture lets you record your screen while providing commentary, making it ideal for product demos and process training, such as Salesforce. Before you start recording, open the application you’ll demonstrate in a separate window. If it’s web-based, detach the tab from your browser to easily switch between Showpad and the app, ensuring users see only the relevant information. Prepare a rough script for your commentary to avoid multiple re-recordings.

Note: The Screen Capture is supported on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers.

1. Click Create Content and select Screen Capture from the drop-down menu.
2. Check the Enable webcam box to include webcam footage along with the audio during the recording.
3. Click Next.
4. Select Start screen share.
5. A pop-up window will appear, asking you to select the tab, window, or application you want to record. Select and click Share.
6. Select the microphone and camera you want to use and click Start recording. You will have a 3-second countdown before your recording begins. Then platform will begin recording your selected screen and your audio and video.
7. When you’ve finished recording your session, click Stop recording.
8. You can watch it back and choose to Record again or click Save.

Authored

This content tool works like a standard word-processing tool. You can write content directly, insert links to outside resources, iframe objects, and even embed files from Google Drive or Box into the lesson.

1. From the Create drop-down menu, click Authored.
2. Provide a Title for the content.
3. Enter text into the text box, and it will appear in the lesson. Basic HTML formatting is supported, so you can customize the look of your written content.
4. To point to a location outside Showpad, click on the link icon in the options above the text box. In the Display Text field write what you want the link to display as. In the Link Type field, choose email or URL. If you choose email, add the email address, subject, and body. If you choose URL, paste the link in the URL field and click OK.
5. To embed a Box or Google Drive file directly into the lesson, click the Source button and paste the direct link or embed code in the main text box. If permitted, the content will automatically update in Showpad when changes are made through Google or Box.
6. To add iframe objects to visualize embedded links, for example, questionnaires prepared via Google Forms or Monkey Survey, click the Source button and paste the embed code in the main text box. 

Webcam

To make the content look and feel more like a direct instructive interaction, you can record information via webcam. This can help elevate the Course instruction or information to a more engaging level.

1. From the Create Content dropdown menu, select Webcam. 
2. Check the Enable webcam box to include webcam footage along with the audio during the recording.
3. A larger window will open. Select the microphone and camera you want to use, and click Start recording. You will have a 3-second countdown before your recording begins.
4. When you're finished, click Stop recording.
5. You can watch it back and choose to Record again or click Save.

Voice over

The Voice over option adds context to a static piece of content. This allows you to upload a file and add commentary while scrolling through.

1. From the Create Content menu, select Voiceover. 
2. Choose to upload a file from your local hard drive or select content from your Files library. 
3. Check the Enable webcam box to include webcam footage along with the audio during the recording.
4. Click Next.
5. Select or upload the content for your voice over.
6. Once you’ve added your file, a larger window will display your content. You can scroll through this content to make sure it’s the correct file before recording.
7. Select the microphone and camera you want to use. When you are ready, click Start recording. You will have a 3-second countdown before your recording begins.
8. When you're finished, click Stop recording.
9. You can watch it back and choose to Record again or click Save.

Next, see how to add a test or survey to your Course.