Add Lecture Content

You add a variety of content to your lectures to further enrich the learning experience of your students. This article shows you how to add and arrange content to course lectures.

For a list of supported file types available on Teachable, learn more about file types and recommended image sizes.

Overview

Using the lecture editor, you can add files, text, quizzes, and code to your lectures. You can also rearrange content and set embed and/or download options.

To get to the lecture editor, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Teachable admin area.
2. In the admin sidebar, select the course you want to add content to. 
3. Click Curriculum and select an existing lecture to edit, or create a new lecture.
   

For information on how to add or remove entire sections or lectures, refer to the Sections and Lectures article.

Add video and captions

To add video files to your lecture:

1. Click the Add Video tab.
2. Inside the lecture area, drag the video file you wish to upload to the grey file uploader. Alternatively, click the Choose files button to add files from your device.
   
   TIP: You can also upload files from a connected cloud storage site (i.e., OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox). Learn more about connecting to a cloud storage option.
   
3. After selecting the file you’d like to add, click Upload.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 to add additional videos within a single lecture.

To preview the video as it will appear to students within the lecture, click the Preview button. When ready to publish the lecture so students can view the content, click the Publish button.

Once the upload is complete, a thumbnail is automatically generated from the video file. To change the thumbnail, click the Update Thumbnail button and choose an image file from your device.

Add video captions and subtitles

You can also add subtitles to lecture videos using an .srt file or subtitle file. This type of file contains video subtitle information like the start and end timecodes of text and the sequential number of subtitles.

To upload video captions or subtitles:

1. Once the video has been uploaded, click the Upload Captions button on the right side of the video lecture block.
2. Choose the language your captions are in from the drop-down menu and upload the .srt file. A notification will appear indicating that the captions have been successfully uploaded.
   

Replacing or deleting video captions

To replace or delete your video captions, click on the Upload Captions button. Then, click the Replace button to upload a new file or click on the red trash can icon to remove captions from the video altogether.

Add files

To add other files (e.g., pdfs, images, or audio) to your lecture:

1. Click the Add File tab.
2. Inside the lecture area, drag the file you wish to upload to the grey file uploader. Alternatively, click the Choose files button to add files from your device.
   
   NOTE: You can also upload files from a connected cloud storage site (ie OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox). Learn more about connecting to a cloud storage option.
   
3. After selecting the file you’d like to add, click Upload.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 to add additional videos within a single lecture.

A notification will appear once the file has finished uploading. The file will appear in the content list for that lecture. To preview how it will appear to your students, click the Preview button in the top right corner. When ready to publish the lecture so students can view the content, click the Publish button.

Add text

In the text editor, you can add and format text, as well as images through the text box. The text editor is a What You See Is What You GetWYSIWYG text editor; this means that what you type, and how you format the text, is how it will appear on your lecture page.

Here are the formatting tools available in the text editor:

• Headers
• Align (Left, Center, Right)
• Bold
• Italic
• Underline
• Hyperlink
• Blockquote
• Code
• Bulleted List
• Numbered List
• Color (RGB, HEX, HSL)
• Horizontal Rule
• Clear Formatting
• Image

To add text to a lecture, complete the following steps:

1. Inside the lecture area, click the Add Text tab to add a text block to your lecture page.
2. Enter text into the text editor field. The formatting tools will appear at the top of the text block.
   
3. To upload and embed an image in the text editor, click on the Image icon. Drag or select the images you'd like to upload to the text block. Alternatively, you can add images using the Add File block.
4. Click the Add Text button once you have finished creating your text. You’ll see the text appear in the content list for that lecture.

If you need to edit the text again, click the Edit Attachment button to re-open the text editor, make your changes, and click Save.

Add quizzes

Within your lectures, you can add multiple-choice style quizzes to track your students’ progress. There are two types of quizzes that you can add to your course:

• Non-Graded - Quiz scores are not graded or reported in the Reports section of your school admin. Additionally, any course compliance settings specific to quizzes will not affect non-graded quizzes.
• Graded (Pro plan and up) - Quiz scores are graded and reported in the Reports section of your course admin. Any course compliance settings added to your course will affect graded quizzes.

To add a quiz to a lecture, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Add Quiz tab. To make the quiz a graded quiz, click the "This quiz will be graded" checkbox. Otherwise, proceed to step 2. 
   
2. A box will appear to add your first question to your quiz. Type the question in the box labeled Type question here.
3. Below the question box, a box will appear to add an answer. Type the answer in the box labeled Answer choice. As you add an answer, a new answer field will automatically appear. To delete an answer, click the trash can icon to the right of the answer box.
   

   TIP: You do not have to use all of the answer fields. If an answer field appears that you do not need, leave it blank. The blank item will not appear to your students.

4. To mark which answer is correct, check the box on the left-hand side. You can select more than one correct answer per question.
5. Once your question and answers are complete, click the Add Question button to add the question to your lecture. Repeat steps 2-4 as many times as needed to complete the quiz.
   

To edit your questions and/or answers, click on the pencil icon next to the question. To delete a quiz question, click the trash can icon.

Add code examples

Code added to this block will display to the students as view only, but will not be active code on the lecture page.

You can choose from a variety of coding languages from the drop down menu, including:

To add a code example to your lecture:

1. Click the Add Code Example tab.
2. Use the drop down menu on the top left of the example code block to choose the code language. Enter the example code into the code block field.
3. When you are finished, click the Add Code Example button at the top of the block. The code block will appear in the content list for that lecture.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 to add multiple examples in different code languages.
   

To edit the code block, click on the Edit attachment button. Click Save to save your changes. To delete, click the More options icon and choose Delete Attachment. 

Add custom code

While the code example block only displays code, you can also implement HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code in a lecture by using a custom code block. For example, you can use the code block to embed live video streams or webinars (including YouTube videos) directly into a lecture. You can also use the code block to embed forms and other materials to your lectures.

To add custom code to your lecture:

1. Click the Add Custom Code tab.
2. Enter the code into the code block field.
3. Click Add custom code. The code block will appear in the content list for that lecture.
4. To edit the code block, click on the Edit attachment button. Click Save to save your changes.

Add upsells

For schools on the Pro plan and up, you can also add upsells to other products in your school directly in your lecture pages. Learn more about adding upsells to your lectures.

Arrange content

If you would like to change the order in which your lecture content appears, you can do so by dragging the blocks as demonstrated:

Upload from a third-party cloud storage site

Within the video and file uploader, you can choose to add files directly from your device, or you can connect to the following third-party applications to add files to your lecture:

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Microsoft OneDrive

To connect:

1. Click on the third-party application from the sidebar list.
2. Login using your credentials for that specific site.
3. After login, click Allow to grant permission for the file uploader to access the content in your cloud storage account.
4. Options from that account will display within the file uploader once connected.
   

Download and embed settings

Each file you upload to your lecture has a download setting and an embed setting.

Download setting:

When the Enable Download option is toggled on, students will see a Download button under that file within the lecture, which they can click to download and save the file to their device.

Some file types (e.g. Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc.) are only available for download, and cannot be embedded directly into the lecture. For these, select the Enable Download option to ensure that the files will be visible to your students.

If you want to enable or disable downloads for all files within a lecture, you can toggle this feature on or off on the lecture level. 

Embed setting:

The Embed attachment icon will embed the file within the lecture. When a file is embedded, it will be visible within the lecture page. This means that if you turn off the embed option, the file itself will not be visible on your lecture page. You might choose to turn off the embed if you just want your students to download the file on their device.

Delete Lecture Content

To delete content within a lecture, select the More options icon to display the Delete Attachment button. Click Delete in the pop-up window to confirm deletion. Deleting content within a lecture is a permanent action that cannot be undone.

You can also delete entire lectures and sections within your course Curriculum. Learn more about deleting lectures and sections.