Do you want to add lessons to your Thrive Apprentice course ensuring you do it the right way? You can add multiple lessons under one Thrive Apprentice course and they can be of different types.
In this article, we’ll see how you can create and publish a lesson in a Thrive Apprentice course on your website.
- Creating a Course in Thrive Apprentice
- Creating a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
- Types of Lessons you can create in Thrive Apprentice
- Previewing and Editing a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
- Publishing a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
Creating a Course in Thrive Apprentice
A course is a top level module that can contain multiple lessons within. To create a lesson in Thrive Apprentice you must create a course first.
Need help creating a course? You can refer to our document here that will help create a course in Thrive Apprentice.
Creating a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
After you create a course, you can start creating a lesson that’ll be a part of it.
To start creating a lesson, open your WordPress admin area, navigate to Thrive Dashboard >> Thrive Apprentice, and click on the course you want to add the lesson to.
When you open that specific course page, click the Content tab to open it.
In the Content tab, you’ll be able to add different kinds of content such as Lesson, Assessment, Chapter, Module.
To add a lesson, click Add Lesson.
When you click Add Lesson, you’ll see a popup to enter the lesson details you want to create. The details requested in this popup are as below.
- Lesson Name: The name that summarizes what the lesson is about.
- Lesson Type: The lesson type among text, audio, or video.
- Lesson URL: The URL where this lesson will be found on your website.
- Lesson Summary: This is the summary that introduces the contents of the lesson.
- Allow users comment on this lesson: This will allow users to comment on this lesson if you select Yes.
- Give users free access to this content?: This is set to Inherit the Access Restriction rules from the parent product. You can allow logged in users or all users by picking the option.
- Would you like to add a custom lesson cover image?: You can add a cover image for this lesson.
Giving free access to the Lesson
While entering the lesson details, you’ll see a field that asks whether you want to give the lesson you are creating for free.
The options you’ll see here are as listed below.
- Free for logged in users (require registration): Selecting this option will let you give out this lesson for free to logged in users who’ve registered on your website.
- Free for all users (no registration required): Selecting this option will let you give out this lesson for free to all the users trying to access it.
- Inherit access restrictions from product: This option is selected by default and inherits the access restrictions you’ve set at product level.
After filling in the details here, click Save to save the lesson details. This will list the newly added lesson under the Contents tab in the course.
Types of Lessons in Thrive Apprentice
Thrive Apprentice allows you to publish three types of lessons viz. Text, Audio and Video in Courses.
You can select the type of lessons you want to create in the popup asking you to enter the Lesson details.
Creating a Text Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
A text lesson is one in which you can add content as written documents and posts.
To publish a text lesson select the type as Text Lesson in the dropdown while creating a lesson.
Creating an Audio Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
When you opt to publish an audio lesson, select the type as Audio Lesson while creating it.
While you can enter the lesson name, the slug, summary, and the other options like you do for a text lesson, you’ll have to select the source for the audio file you’ll be using here.
To select the source of the audio file for the audio lesson, click the dropdown box where SoundCloud is selected by default. This will show you two options, viz., Soundcloud and Custom.
Fetching an audio file from SoundCloud
If you want to use your audio file from SoundCloud and publish it as an Audio lesson on your website, select SoundCloud as the source and enter the audio file URL in the field beside it.
Note: To obtain the audio file URL, open the audio file in SoundCloud, click the Share button and copy the URL you see in the field.
After adding the details, click Save.
Adding a custom audio file as a lesson
If you want to use a custom audio file and publish it as an Audio lesson on your website, you’ll need to first upload the audio file to the media library on your website. You can also upload it to a separate folder on your web server via FTP or your hosting control panel’s file manager.
After you’ve uploaded the audio file, and selected the lesson type as Audio, select the source of the file as Custom, after which you can enter the custom code to fetch this file.
There are two ways you can embed an audio file in an audio lesson in Thrive Apprentice.
- Embedding with an HTML tag
- Embedding with a Shortcode
Embedding with an HTML tag
To embed an audio file with the HTML tag you can use the <audio> HTML tag.
Here’s what you can enter in the field that asks you to enter the custom embed code after you select the source as Custom.
<audio controls>
<source src=”your-audio-file.mp3″ type=”audio/mpeg”>
<source src=”your-audio-file.ogg” type=”audio/ogg”>
Your browser does not support the audio element.
</audio>
Note: Please replace “your-audio-file.mp3” with the actual URL of your audio file. Also, it is recommended to provide both .mp3 and .ogg audio file formats for better browser compatibility.
Once done, click Save.
Embedding with a Shortcode
To embed an audio file with a shortcode you can use the shortcode [ audio ] (without the spaces within square brackets).
Here’s the shortcode you can add to the field when you select a custom source for the audio file.
[ audio src=”your-audio-file.mp3″ loop=”on” preload=”auto” ] (without spaces next to the square brackets)
The Shortcode parameters:
The [ audio ] (without spaces) shortcode supports the parameters listed below.
- src: The audio file’s URL (required).
- loop: Adds a loop to the audio (e.g., loop=”on”).
- autoplay: Automatically starts playing the audio (e.g., autoplay=”on”). Use this with caution, as it can be disruptive to users.
- preload: Specifies how the audio should be preloaded (e.g., preload=”auto”, preload=”metadata”, preload=”none”).
- muted: Mutes the audio (e.g. muted=”on”)
After you enter the shortcode, click Save.
Creating a Video Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
Just like the Audio lesson, Thrive Apprentice also lets you publish Video lessons for which you can embed videos from other platforms into your website or display uploaded video content.
To publish a Video lesson, ensure you select Video lesson as the lesson type while creating one.
After selecting the type as a Video lesson, you’ll then be asked to select the source of the video. You can choose to embed videos from any of the following platforms.
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Wistia
- Bunny.net Stream
- Custom
When you select the source of the video as YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia or Bunny.net Stream, you’ll need to enter the Video URL in the field beside it.
Embedding a video from YouTube
To embed a video from YouTube, paste the YouTube video URL in the given field. You’ll additionally be able to manage the following controls.
- Optimize related videos: Related videos will show at the end of the video that you’ve inserted as the lesson.
- Auto-hide YouTube Logo: The YouTube logo from the video will not be visible anymore. (This option is no longer available due to the changes in the settings and policies of YouTube.)
- Auto-hide Player Controls: The player controls such as volume, play/pause will not be visible.
- Autoplay: The video will automatically start playing when a user enters the lesson.
- Hide Full-Screen Button: The Full-Screen button will not be shown.
After you’ve entered the video details, you can also manage how the lesson progress will look based on the watch progress and the watch time of a user.
Embedding a video from Vimeo
To embed a video from Vimeo, paste the Vimeo video URL in the given field. You’ll additionally be able to manage the following controls.
- Hide Video Title: Hides the title being displayed on the video.
- Hide Author Name: Hides the name of the author who uploaded it to Vimeo.
- Hide Author Portrait: Hides the portrait of the author who uploaded it to Vimeo.
- Autoplay: The video will automatically start playing when a user enters the lesson.
- Hide Full-Screen Button: The Full-Screen button will not be shown.
After you’ve entered the video details, you can also manage how the lesson progress will look based on the watch progress and the watch time of a user.
Embedding a video from Wistia
To embed a video from Wistia, paste the Wistia video URL in the given field. You’ll additionally be able to manage the following controls.
- Auto-hide player controls: The player controls such as volume, play/pause will not be visible.
- Autoplay: The video will automatically start playing when a user enters the lesson.
- Hide Full-Screen Button: The Full-Screen button will not be shown.
After you’ve entered the video details, you can also manage how the lesson progress will look based on the watch progress and the watch time of a user.
Embedding a video from Bunny.net Stream
To embed a video from Bunny.net Stream, paste the direct play URL from Bunny.net Stream in the given field. You’ll additionally be able to manage the following controls.
- Responsive: This will ensure the video looks good on all devices irrespective of the screen size.
- Autoplay: The video will automatically start playing when a user enters the lesson. Autoplay is not currently supported by default on mobile devices (tablets, phones). It will also not work unless the muted option is checked for browsers like Chrome and Safari. It would work if the user changes the browser settings regarding autoplay with sound.
- Preload: Preloads the video on the lesson page.
- Loop: Plays the video on loop.
- Muted: The video is muted.
After you’ve entered the video details, you can also manage how the lesson progress will look based on the watch progress and the watch time of a user.
Embedding a video using custom code
Just like you can use custom HTML code and a shortcode to embed an audio file in an audio lesson, you can use custom code to embed a video too.
To embed the custom code, select the source of the video as Custom and enter the custom code in the field beside it.
Previewing and Editing a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
Once you’ve selected the type of lesson, added in all the details and clicked Save, you’ll be taken back to the Content tab of the course where you’ll see the new lesson listed there.
You can then choose to preview, edit, delete, and publish the lesson from here.
Previewing a Lesson
Previewing a lesson will give you an idea of how it will look in the frontend. That is why it is a good idea to preview a lesson before you hit publish.
To preview a lesson, hover over the lesson and click Preview.
Editing a Lesson
If you want to make changes in an existing lesson, you can use the Edit Lesson option.
To edit a lesson, hover over the lesson and click Edit.
When you click Edit, you’ll see further options that you can click on to edit
- Add content: When you want to add some content to the lesson.
- Edit details: When you want to edit the details such as the title, slug, summary, source, etc. of the lesson.
- Add resources: When you want to add some resources to a lesson.
- Duplicate lesson: When you want to create a duplicate copy of the lesson.
- Delete lesson: When you want to delete the lesson from the course.
Publishing a Lesson in Thrive Apprentice
Once you’ve finalized the lesson with accurate details and content, you then proceed to publish it.
To publish a lesson, hover over the lesson on the course page and click Publish.
Hitting publish with publish the lesson immediately.
If you want to schedule the lesson for a future date, hover over the lesson, then hover on the publish option, and click Schedule.
When you click Schedule, you’ll be able to pick a date and time of when you want to publish this lesson.
After picking the right date and time, click Save.
Need more help on scheduling a lesson? Please refer to our document here.
We’ve just seen how you can create different types of lessons, edit them and publish them in Thrive Apprentice.
Note: To publish a course, you need to have at least one lesson published inside that course. However, a published lesson in an unpublished course will not be visible on the live site, it just means that it is completed and no extra modifications are needed.
Next, if you want to display your published Thrive Apprentice lesson on a Thrive Architect page, here’s a document that can help.