Building a Course Curriculum

Overview

A course curriculum on Tuition.in is a tree with three levels:

1. Course — the top-level container with a title, description, and price.
2. Sections — chapters or modules (e.g., "Unit 1 — Kinematics", "Week 3"). Each section has a title and an optional summary.
3. Items — either a Lesson (video, document, text, or embed) or a Test (a quiz or practice exam) inside a section.

Students work through the curriculum top-to-bottom. Their progress is tracked per lesson (watched / completed) and per test (attempts + scores), and displayed in the sidebar of the learner view.

Course vs Test Series

At the top of the curriculum builder there is a Course type toggle with two options:

• Course — the default. A mix of lessons and tests. Tutors teaching a subject with video explanations, notes, and practice quizzes should use this.
• Test Series — when you want to offer only tests (no video or document lessons). Common for JEE/NEET mock-test packs, UPSC practice sets, or competitive exam prep where students primarily want to practice under exam conditions.

Changing this toggle updates the format field on the course and changes how it appears in search results and on the public course page. You can switch between the two at any time — your sections and tests are not affected.

Opening the curriculum builder

1. Go to your courses dashboard: /dashboard/tutor/courses (or /dashboard/institution/courses).
2. Find the course you want to edit and click the Curriculum button.
3. You land on /dashboard/tutor/courses/{id}/curriculum. The left panel shows a live tree of sections and their items; the right panel shows an editor modal when you're adding or editing a lesson or test.

Working with sections

Add a section: Click + Add section at the bottom of the section list. Enter a title (required) and an optional summary. Click Save.

Rename or edit: Click the pencil icon next to any section title. Change the title or summary and save.

Delete: Click the trash icon. This permanently removes the section and all of its lessons and tests. You'll see a confirmation prompt before anything is deleted.

Reorder: Drag sections by the handle on the left side. The order is saved immediately.

Lesson types

Inside a section, click the + Add lesson dropdown to choose a lesson type. Four types are available:

Video lesson

The most common lesson type. Fill in:

• Title — shown in the curriculum sidebar (e.g., "Lecture 3 — Newton's Second Law").
• Video URL — supported formats:
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=… or https://youtu.be/…
  • Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/…
  • Direct MP4: any publicly accessible .mp4 URL
• Duration (seconds) — optional but recommended. The platform shows a human-readable duration (e.g., "42 min") next to each lesson and uses the total to display the course's overall length.
• Provider — auto-detected from the URL. You don't need to fill this in manually.

Document lesson

Renders a PDF inline (in an <iframe>) so students don't need to download anything.

• Document URL — must be a direct, publicly accessible URL ending in.pdf. Google Drive sharing links (drive.google.com/file/…) work if you set sharing to "Anyone with the link".
• Duration — not applicable for documents; leave blank.

Text lesson

A text lesson is a typed body of content — ideal for reading material, definitions, worked examples, or supplementary notes.

• Content — plain text, rendered with line breaks preserved. Long-form content with headers and bullet points works well here.

Embed lesson

Paste any <iframe> snippet — Google Slides, Canva, Figma, a Khan Academy exercise widget, or any embed-enabled tool.

• Embed HTML — the raw HTML from the tool's "Embed" or "Share → Embed" option. Typically looks like <iframe src="…" width="…" …></iframe>.

Free preview lessons

Any lesson can be marked as Free preview using the checkbox in the lesson editor. Free-preview lessons are visible to all logged-in users — not just enrolled students.

Use this to let prospective students sample your content before enrolling. A common pattern: mark the first lesson of each section as free preview.

Adding tests to a section

Inside any section, click + Add test to open the test editor. Choose the test kind:

• Quiz — shorter, ungraded or auto-graded check-for-understanding.
• Exam — full-length, timed, tracks attempt count.
• Practice — unlimited attempts, no time limit.

After creating the test, the question editor opens. See the Tests & quizzes guide for the full walkthrough on question types and settings.

Reordering content

Within a section, lessons and tests can be reordered by dragging the handle. Sections themselves can also be reordered. All reorder operations save immediately — there is no "Save order" button.

The order field on each item controls the sort position. If you're using the API to bulk-import curriculum, set order starting from 1 within each section.

Tips for a good curriculum

• Keep sections focused. A section should cover one topic. Students use section names to navigate, so "Unit 1 — Kinematics" is better than "Section 1".
• Mix lesson types. A video followed by a text summary followed by a short quiz is much more engaging than 10 videos in a row.
• Set video durations. The total course duration shown on the public page influences enrollment. A blank duration looks like an incomplete course.
• Use free preview strategically. Mark one lesson per section as free preview. This gives prospects a taste of every topic without giving away everything.
• End sections with a quiz. A short 5-question quiz at the end of a section reinforces learning and gives students a confidence milestone to aim for.