Create your first course

This tutorial publishes one complete course with two lessons and checks it as a student. Do it once, end to end, before building a catalogue — the structure decisions here repeat on every course.

Allow about thirty minutes.

Before you start

• The POM theme is active and the license is valid.
• The course and lesson URL slugs are decided.
• You have a non-administrator test account.

1. Create the course

1. Open Courses → Add New Course.
2. Enter the title — what students see everywhere.
3. Write the description in the editor. This is the course landing page: what it teaches, who it is for, what it requires.
4. Set a featured image. It is used on the course page and in the student's My courses table.
5. Publish.

2. Define the sections

Still on the course, open Course settings → Sections.

1. Add a section and give it a name — Introduction.
2. Add the rest — Module 1, Module 2, Wrap-up.
3. Update the course.

Sections are the backbone of the outline. Create them before the lessons, because each lesson has to pick one, and the picker is built from this list.

Two or three sections is plenty for a first course.

3. Create the first lesson

1. Open Courses → Add New Lesson.
2. Enter the lesson title.
3. Write the lesson content.
4. In Lesson settings → Configuration:
   • choose the Attached course;
   • save the lesson, then choose the Attached section — the section list is built from the course you just attached;
   • add a Lesson video URL if the lesson has one, and set the video type for YouTube or Vimeo;
   • set the Estimated time, which appears in the outline.
5. Set the order attribute, which decides the lesson's position.
6. Publish.

4. Create a second lesson

Repeat step 3, giving it a later order value. Two lessons are enough to prove the outline, the navigation and the progress bar.

Consider marking one of them This lesson is a preview, so you can test the preview behavior later.

5. Set the access rule

Back on the course, in Course settings → Configuration, choose one:

Then write Content if no access — the message a blocked student reads. Say what they need to do, and link to it.

6. Verify as an administrator

1. Open the course page.
2. Confirm the sidebar shows the progress bar and the section accordion.
3. Confirm both lessons appear, in the right section and the right order, with their estimated times.
4. Open a lesson and confirm the video and content render, and that the sidebar and the back link are present.

7. Verify as a student

This is the step that matters.

1. Open a private browser window.
2. Visit the course while signed out.
3. Sign in as the test student and repeat.
4. Confirm the result matches the rule you configured.

Full procedure: Test the course as a student.

If something is missing

Next: Test the course as a student.