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.

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. If the course is not displayed, click View All to see all courses in your school.
3. Click Curriculum and select a lecture, or create a new lecture to add content to.

Supported content types

You can embed video, images, PDFs, and audio files directly into a lecture in your Teachable course, and/or make the files downloadable for your students. Teachable supports the following file type(s) for embedding and downloading:

Video

• Supported file type: .mp4, .mov, or .avi
• Recommended resolution: 720p (1280 x 720px)
• Recommended frames per second (fps): 24-30
• Supported file size: 2GB or smaller
• Audio specifications: H.264 + AAC audio

Images

• Supported file type: .png or .jpg
• Recommended resolution: 1000px wide or bigger (desktop and mobile)
• Banner suggested dimensions: 1500x800px or 1800x600px
• Image/Image with Text suggested dimensions: 1200x800px (landscape), 1200x1600px (portrait)

Audio

• Supported file type: .mp3
• Recommended resolution: High Quality
• Audio specifications: AAC audio (advanced users) 

PDF

• Supported file type: .pdf (non-fillable)

Other file types that are not supported by Teachable can be uploaded, however, they cannot be embedded into a lecture—instead, they’ll appear in your lecture as a downloadable file. To avoid confusion, ensure that your students have the applications necessary for opening the file. For example, in order for a student to open a Word document, they'll need to have Microsoft Word.

Alternatively, if you wish to embed a file type that isn't supported (e.g. Powerpoint), it may be possible to embed the content using a code block and embed code snippet. 

Add files

Chances are that you have a variety of content types in each lecture—videos, text, downloadable files, and so on. Teachable allows you to connect to the following third-party applications so that it’s easier to add files to your course:

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Microsoft OneDrive

To add files to your lecture, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Add File tab.
2. Inside the lecture area, drag the files you wish to upload to the area labeled Drop video, audio, PDF, or other file(s). Alternately, click the Choose files button.
   
3. After selecting which file(s) you’d like to add, click Upload.

When the upload is complete, a notification will appear indicating that the lecture content has been updated. Then, the file will appear in the content list for that lecture.

Download and embed settings

You can embed the file or make it downloadable by toggling the icons that appear in the file block.

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. 

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.

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 WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor; this means that what you type, and how you format the text, is how it will appear on your page.

Here are the formatting tools available in the text editor:

• Headers
• Bold
• Italicize
• Underline
• Hyperlink
• Blockquote
• Align (Left, Center, Right)
• Bulleted List
• Numbered List
• Color (available colors based on your school's Theme)
• Clear Formatting
• Image

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

1. Inside the lecture area, click the Add Text tab.
2. Enter text into the text editor field. To modify the formatting of the text, highlight the text you wish to modify and then click on a formatting tool.
   
3. To upload and embed an image in the text editor, click on the Add Image icon. Drag the images you'd like to upload to the area labeled Drag file here. Alternately, click the Choose files button. This image will automatically embed into the text block inline with the text.
4. Click Add Text. You’ll see the text appear in the content list for that lecture. If you need to edit the text again, click on the Edit Attachment button to re-open the text editor, make your changes, and click Save.

Add quizzes

Adding quizzes can be an effective way to measure and evaluate your students’ learning progress and achievement. 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.
• Graded (Professional plan and up) - Quiz scores are graded and reported in the Reports section of your course admin.

Add a non-graded quiz

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

1. Inside the lecture area, click the Add Quiz tab.
2. Click the Add Question button to start adding questions and answer. In the Type Question Here field, write your first quiz question. In the Answer Choice field, write the answer choices for the question. As you add answers, new answer fields will automatically appear.
   
   

   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.

3. Check the box on the left-hand side to denote the correct answer. You can also select more than one answer. Click the red X button to remove answers from the quiz.
4. After adding all questions and possible answers to your quiz, click the Add Question button. The quiz will appear in the content list for that lecture.
5. You can edit your questions or change/add answers by clicking on the external editor button next to the question.
   

Add a graded quiz

If you’re on the Professional plan and up, then you have the option of enabling graded quizzes. Once you enable the graded quiz option, quiz results will be reported in your school’s course reports. To make a quiz a graded quiz, follow the same process outlined above. Then, select the This quiz will be graded checkbox at the top of the quiz editor

Add code

School owners can implement HTML code in a lecture by using a 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.

Complete the following steps to add HTML code to your lecture:

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

You can also display code examples to your students by clicking the Add Code Example button. You can choose from a variety of coding languages when you turn on the Display Source toggle, including:

• CSS
• Dart
• Go
• Haskell
• HTML
• Java
• JavaScript
• JSON
• MySQL
• Objective-C
• PHP
• Ruby
• Scala
• Plain Text
• Typescript
• YML

Add video subtitles

School owners 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. For more information about how to properly format an .srt file, refer to this guide provided by our video host, Wistia.

To upload video captions, complete the following steps:

1. After you’ve uploaded a video to your lecture, 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.

Mark lectures as free previews

Marking a lecture as a free preview helps potential students decide whether or not a course is right for them, rather than purchasing the course and then asking for a refund afterward.

If you have a Course Curriculum block on your Sales Page, users will be able to access any lecture marked as a free preview after clicking the Preview button. If they attempt to navigate to a lecture that has not been marked as a free preview, they will be denied access.

To mark a lecture as a free preview, toggle on the respective eyeball icon in your Course’s Curriculum page:

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: