Create a course with AI
Create builds a whole course from a description, your own documents, or a plan you already have. It asks its questions one at a time by default, shows you everything it’s about to build on a summary, and writes nothing to your organization until you press Build it.
What this does
Section titled “What this does”You answer a short run of questions — what you want to teach, what to create, what material to use, where the structure comes from, how learners move through it — and the flow turns them into a course: modules, lessons, and as much of the lesson content as you ask it to write.
Two things are worth knowing before you start:
- Nothing is written until you press Build it. Every answer before the summary can be changed freely, and leaving part-way through creates nothing at all.
- You can bring your own structure. Upload a syllabus, paste an outline, or start from a saved template, and the course follows your plan rather than one the AI invents. See Course plans & templates.
Your organization may call a course a program, a track or a programme — the screens use your organization’s word. See Terminology.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Permission to create a course. Without it the flow says “You can’t create programs here” and offers to take you to your existing ones instead.
- Optionally, documents to build from — upload them here or pick ones already in Sources.
- Optionally, a plan or syllabus whose structure you want to keep.
- Optionally, a curriculum set up, if you want to align outcomes to a framework. See Curriculum & reference data.
Open it
Section titled “Open it”| Where | How |
|---|---|
| Your home page | The Create tile |
| Programs | Create program in the page header |
| Directly | /dashboard/create |
Guided, or all at once
Section titled “Guided, or all at once”The flow opens in Guided mode: one question per screen, with Previous, Skip and Next, and the step you’re on said in words.
All at once puts every question on one long page, for people who already know what they want and would rather scroll than click. Switch with the control at the top of the first screens.
Both modes edit the same answers. Switching part-way loses nothing in either direction — the switch changes how the questions are laid out, not what you’ve said.
On a phone the flow is always guided and the switch isn’t shown; one question at a time is the only layout that fits.
The questions
Section titled “The questions”In guided mode they come in this order. In All at once, the same questions are the numbered sections of one page.
1. What do you want to teach?
Section titled “1. What do you want to teach?”Write it as you would explain it to a colleague. Include the topic, learners and anything important.
This is the only required answer. As you type, chips appear under Understood: showing what was picked up — the type, the topic, the difficulty, the number of items. Only those four; it doesn’t infer subject or grade, and the screen doesn’t pretend otherwise.
2. What should we create for you?
Section titled “2. What should we create for you?”The course outline is always included. Choose any extra work you want prepared:
| Card | What it means |
|---|---|
| Teaching materials | Explanations and activities inside each lesson. Turn it off for a structure you fill in yourself. |
| An assignment | Work for learners to complete and hand in — instructions, a rubric and a sample answer, drafted for you to review. See Assignments. |
| An assessment | A separate quiz or test attached to this course — a real assessment, not a lesson called “assessment”. |
3. Do you want to use your own material?
Section titled “3. Do you want to use your own material?”Optional. Add documents when the course should follow your notes, textbook or presentation — up to 15. Modules, lessons and materials are built from what’s inside them first, and they stay attached as the course’s knowledge base, so anything you add later is grounded in them too.
Documents are read in the background, and each one shows where it’s up to — Uploading, Waiting for a reader, Reading document, Preparing content, Ready, or Needs attention. You can carry on answering while they’re read; where only some are ready, you can plan with those and add the rest later. A file that can’t be read is dropped with a message, and Retry is offered.
Fill gaps with general knowledge decides what happens where your material runs out. Your sources are used first either way; off keeps everything strictly inside your files.
4. Where should the structure come from?
Section titled “4. Where should the structure come from?”The modules and lessons — either we propose them, or you bring a plan you already have.
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Let the AI propose it | From your description and any documents you attached |
| Take the structure from your documents | Their own headings become the modules and lessons |
| Upload a plan | A syllabus or outline as PDF, Word, slides, an image or markdown |
| Write the outline | Type or paste it — a paragraph, a rough list, or a finished outline |
| Use a saved template | A structure you or a colleague saved from an earlier course |
Here too you can set how many modules and lessons per module you want, or leave both on Auto. Bringing your own plan is covered in Course plans & templates.
5. How will learners take this course?
Section titled “5. How will learners take this course?”Self-paced, Cohort, Blended, Certification, Event-led or Pathway. This only sets the pacing and completion rules, and you can change it later in the course settings.
The options are reordered — never hidden — for the kind of organization you are: a school sees Cohort first, because a school year is a cohort moving together; a company sees Self-paced first, because people start when they’re hired.
6. Which outcomes should this cover?
Section titled “6. Which outcomes should this cover?”Optional. Skip it and the course is still made.
- Suggested for what you described — outcomes derived from your prompt, tap to add. These work for non-academic topics too, not only school subjects.
- From your curriculum — a framework you’ve set up. It opens at the part of the framework your description names, and starts expanded for schools and collapsed for companies.
- Write your own — free text, for organizations with no curriculum configured.
7. What goes inside each lesson?
Section titled “7. What goes inside each lesson?”Leave everything on Auto and AI chooses from your description and material.
| Setting | Options | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | Let the AI choose · I’ll choose | Who picks which kinds of material each lesson gets |
| What to generate | Text · Questions · Images · Audio | Every kind you switch on is produced for every lesson |
| Images should be | Auto · Photos · Illustrations | Photos come from a stock library; illustrations are drawn by the AI |
| Audio length | ~1 min · ~3 min · ~5 min | Approximate length of each narrated clip |
| Items per lesson | Auto, or a number | How many pieces each lesson gets |
| Difficulty | Auto · Easy · Medium · Hard | Auto reads it from your prompt — a stated grade level, for instance |
| Tone | Auto · Professional · Friendly · Encouraging · Formal | The voice the material is written in |
Review what we’ll build
Section titled “Review what we’ll build”The last screen before anything happens is a summary:
Nothing has been created yet. Change anything here — we build it when you press Build it.
It lists every setting that applies to what you’re making, with the value it will actually use. A question you skipped reads as its default — “Self-paced · Default” — never as a blank, because a blank is indistinguishable from a setting that won’t be applied. Settings that don’t apply to your choices aren’t shown at all.
Edit on any row opens the same control the question used, in place. Settings still on their defaults are gathered into one line you can expand.
This is also where you choose how much to write now:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Every lesson | Runs unattended, takes a few minutes, and notifies you when it’s done |
| Just the first lesson | Quick — see what it writes before committing to the rest |
| (teaching materials off) | Structure only; you fill the lessons in yourself |
Where something has to be fixed first, the summary says so under Fix this before we can build it rather than letting you press a button that would fail.
Then Build it.
What it does with your documents
Section titled “What it does with your documents”A course built from your material should look like your material. To that end:
Each lesson is grounded in the part of the document that’s about it, rather than the whole file.
Your own pictures are used. Figures pulled out of your documents go into the lessons rather than being invented or fetched from a stock library — and every image carries a badge saying where it came from:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| From your document | A figure out of the material you attached |
| Stock | A stock-library photograph |
| Generated | Drawn by AI |
A course built from your own screenshots can also contain drawn ones, and those are not the same thing — particularly where the picture claims to show a real system. The summary after generation tells you how many of each you got.
“One module per file” is honoured. Say it in your description and ten decks produce ten modules, each pinned to its file.
“Auto” decides the shape of the course from your prompt and your sources.
It says what it read, in your own words, so you can tell whether it understood the material before you commit to building.
After you build
Section titled “After you build”Build it creates the course. From here on it exists in your organization.
Here’s the shape of it
Section titled “Here’s the shape of it”The modules and lessons, editable:
Your program already exists — this is what goes in it. Keep the parts you want and drop the rest; the lessons and their materials are only written when you continue.
Rename any module or lesson inline, add lessons, remove modules, and remove the assessment. Where the structure came from a plan you supplied, each lesson carries the notes your plan gave it, and you can edit those too. Items built from a document are marked Built from ….
What will the lessons contain?
Section titled “What will the lessons contain?”The AI picked these for this program. Remove anything you don’t want, or add your own — each lesson still gets whatever fits it best.
A set of cards — each one a kind of material, each with a description of what it is. Remove what you don’t want, or search the full list and add more. Leave it empty and the AI chooses per lesson.
It writes, you carry on
Section titled “It writes, you carry on”Choosing to write every lesson hands the work to a background job:
We’re writing your program. 24 lessons are being written. This takes a few minutes — you can close this and carry on; we’ll send you a notification the moment it’s done.
Lessons fill in as they finish, so the course may look empty for a minute. You get a notification in your inbox when it’s done — see Notification inbox.
If the structure was built but the writing job couldn’t start, you’re told plainly: “The program was built, but writing the materials couldn’t be started. Open a lesson to generate there.”
Reference
Section titled “Reference”| Thing | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Modes | Guided (default, one question per screen) · All at once (one page). Same answers; switching loses nothing. Always guided on a phone |
| When something is first written | At Build it on the summary. Never before |
| Leaving before Build | Nothing is created |
| Leaving after Build | The course exists; lessons are written only when you continue |
| Structure sources | AI proposes · your documents’ headings · an uploaded plan · a typed outline · a saved template |
| Attached documents | Up to 15. Stay attached as the course’s knowledge base, grounding later generations and the learner tutor too |
| A supplied plan | Stays attached to the course; see Course plans & templates |
| AI switched off | The whole flow still completes — structure only; a plan can still be typed by hand |
| Per-session limit | “You’ve reached this session’s limit of N generations. Reload to start a fresh session.” |
| Pacing order | Reordered by organization type; every option always present |
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”“You can’t create programs here.” You don’t hold permission to create a course. An administrator can grant it — or add lessons to a course you already have.
I can’t find the Guided / All at once switch. It’s only shown while there are questions left to answer, and never on a phone, where the flow is always guided.
I switched modes and worried I’d lose my answers. You didn’t. Both modes edit the same answers.
The chips didn’t pick up my subject or grade. They never do. Only type, topic, difficulty and count are read from your description. Set the rest on the course afterwards.
My documents were ignored. Either they hadn’t finished being read, or they failed — the document list shows Needs attention and offers Retry. You can also attach them to the course afterwards from Sources.
The course looks empty after building. If you chose to write every lesson, they fill in as they finish. Wait for the notification.
The lessons are empty and no job ran. Check the lesson question — with nothing switched on under What to generate, the lessons are created empty by design. The summary says so before you build.
I left part-way and wondered whether a draft was left behind. Not if you left before Build it — nothing is written until then. If you left after building, the course exists; find it in your course list.
The summary won’t let me build. It lists what needs fixing under Fix this before we can build it.
“You’ve hit the AI limit.” Either the per-session generation cap (reload) or your organization’s AI budget (Lurno adjusts it).