Courses & Discipleship

Creating Your First Course

A course is a collection of lessons organized around a topic or theme — a sermon series, a membership class, a Bible study, or a volunteer training. Courses can be self-paced or run as live group sessions.

1. Go to Courses in the sidebar.
2. Click + New Course.
3. Enter the course title (e.g., "Foundations of Faith: A Membership Class," "Romans: The Gospel Unpacked," "Volunteer Orientation").
4. Write a description — 2–3 sentences that explain who this course is for and what they'll get out of it. This appears on the course enrollment page.
5. Upload a cover image (recommended: 1200×630px). This is the first thing potential students see — use a compelling, on-brand image.
6. Set enrollment type:
   • Open — anyone with the link can enroll
   • Invite Only — students enroll only after you add them manually or via an enrollment link you control
7. Leave the course in Draft mode while you build it — drafts are invisible to students.
8. Click Create Course. You're now in the course builder.

Building Lessons

Lessons are the individual units inside a course — each one can contain video, text, discussion questions, scripture, and downloadable files. A typical course has 4–8 lessons.

Adding a lesson

1. Inside your course, click + Add Lesson.
2. Enter the lesson title (e.g., "Week 1: Why the Church Exists," "Session 3: Prayer as a Spiritual Discipline").
3. Click Edit Lesson to open the lesson builder.

Lesson block types

• Video — paste a YouTube or Vimeo URL, or upload a video file directly. The video player auto-tracks watch progress per student. This is typically the primary content block — place it at the top.
• Text — rich text editor for notes, summaries, teaching content, or transcripts. Use this for students who prefer reading over watching.
• Scripture — enter a Bible reference (e.g., "Romans 8:1–11"). The text renders automatically using ESV by default (you can change the translation in Course Settings). Students can tap a word to view Strong's concordance definitions inline.
• Discussion Question — a prompted question for group discussion or personal reflection. During a live session, this question can be pushed live to all connected students simultaneously (see Live Session article).
• File Download — attach a PDF, worksheet, slide deck, or study guide. Students can download it directly from the lesson page.
• Divider — a visual separator between sections of a long lesson.

Ordering lessons

1. From the course page, drag lesson cards by their handle to reorder them.
2. Students progress through lessons in order by default. You can allow free navigation (students can jump to any lesson) by toggling Allow Lesson Jumping in Course Settings.

Running a Live Synced Session

Live Session mode lets you lead a group through a lesson in real time — whether they're in the room with you or watching from home. You control the pace and can push content to everyone's screen simultaneously.

Starting a live session

1. Open the course and navigate to the lesson you want to teach.
2. Click Start Live Session in the top bar.
3. A join code appears (e.g., FCC-48). Share this code with your students — they type it on the lesson page to sync to your session.
4. Students joining see a "Waiting for instructor" screen until you begin.
5. Click Begin Session to start. All connected students are immediately synced to your current position in the lesson.

Controlling the session

• Advance — click Next Block to push the next content block (scripture, discussion question, video) to all students simultaneously.
• Discussion Questions — when you reach a Discussion Question block, it appears highlighted on every student's screen with a pulsing indicator. Students can type their responses — you see them in real time in your instructor panel.
• Student count — the top bar shows how many students are live. If someone drops, they can rejoin with the same code.
• Pause — click Pause Session to freeze all student screens while you speak or take a break. Resume when ready.

Ending the session

1. Click End Session.
2. Students' lesson completion is recorded automatically based on how far you advanced.
3. The session transcript (discussion responses) is saved in Courses → Session History — useful for follow-up notes and pastoral care.

Tracking Student Progress

Your course dashboard shows exactly where every enrolled student is in their journey — who's engaged, who's fallen behind, and who finished.

Viewing course-level progress

1. Open a course and click the Students tab.
2. You'll see a list of every enrolled student with their completion percentage.
3. A progress bar shows how far they've gotten. Green = completed; yellow = in progress; grey = not started.
4. Click any student's name to see their lesson-by-lesson progress: which lessons they've completed, when, and how long they spent on each.

Filtering by progress stage

1. Use the Filter dropdown to view:
   • Not Started — enrolled but haven't opened a single lesson
   • In Progress — have opened at least one lesson but haven't completed all
   • Completed — finished every lesson

Sending a nudge to students who've fallen behind

1. Filter to In Progress or Not Started.
2. Select the students you want to reach (or click Select All).
3. Click Send Reminder.
4. Write a short, encouraging message — something like "Hey! Just wanted to check in. Lesson 3 is one of the most powerful in the series — whenever you're ready, we'd love for you to continue." The message sends as an email from your church's address.

Issuing Completion Certificates

Completion certificates are a meaningful way to mark the end of a discipleship pathway — a membership class, a training program, a Bible study series. They can be issued automatically or manually.

Setting up certificates for a course

1. Open your course and go to Settings → Certificates.
2. Toggle Enable Completion Certificates on.
3. Enter the certificate title (e.g., "Certificate of Completion — Foundations of Faith").
4. Add an optional signature name and title (e.g., "Pastor James Williams, Lead Pastor"). This appears at the bottom of the certificate.
5. Choose Auto Issue or Manual Issue:
   • Auto Issue — certificate is generated and emailed to the student automatically the moment they complete the final lesson
   • Manual Issue — you review completions and issue certificates individually, which allows you to hold a brief ceremony or personal acknowledgment before sending
6. Click Save.

Manually issuing a certificate

1. Go to the Students tab and filter by Completed.
2. Click a student's name to open their record.
3. Click Issue Certificate. They receive an email with their personalized certificate as a PDF — ready to print and frame.
4. Alternatively, click Issue All Certificates from the Students tab to issue to all completed students at once.