Member Login
AboutPricingDemoBlogDiscover

Writing and publishing a lesson

How a staff member records what was covered in a session, attaches materials and publishes the lesson for parents.

Ask Classy

Step by step

  1. 1

    Open Attendance and click the session.

  2. 2

    Choose the Lesson tab in the panel.

  3. 3

    Write what you covered and press Create lesson (or Save).

  4. 4

    Optionally upload files under Attachments.

  5. 5

    Press Publish so parents can see it.

How it works

Gives parents and members a write-up of each session, topic, exercises, homework, together with files such as photos, video or documents.

A lesson belongs to one specific session and is written on the Attendance page. Open the session (or press Mark attendance in the session window in the calendar) and choose the Lesson tab in the panel. A dot next to the tab shows its state: green, published, grey, draft.

  • The Lesson tab is only visible to staff with the View lessons permission.
  • Writing, attaching files and publishing require the Author lessons permission. Without it the lesson is read-only.

A lesson goes through three states: No lesson yet → Draft (after the first save or uploaded file) → Published …. Only staff see a draft. After Publish the lesson is shown to parents and members and they get a new-lesson notification.

Good to know

Publishing can't be undone. Changes to the text and files after publishing are visible to parents straight away, without a new notification.

Attendance doesn't have to be finalised before you publish a lesson.

If you click outside the panel while you have unsaved text, it doesn't close, save, or close it with the X.

Parents only see the lesson if they or their child are members of the session's group.

On this screen

Lesson tab in the session panel

The tab next to **Attendance** in a session's panel.

Opens the lesson for that session.

Only shown with the View lessons permission. The dot next to the label is green for a published lesson and grey for a draft; no dot means there is no lesson yet. Opening another session returns the panel to Attendance.

Lesson status badge

No lesson yet · Draft · Published …

Shows whether the lesson doesn't exist yet, is a draft or is published.

Tells you whether parents can already see the lesson.

No lesson yet: nothing saved. Draft: saved, but only staff can see it. Published … (green), parents can see it.

Content field

The lesson text.

Where you describe what was covered in the session.

A large text box with the hint What did you cover today?. Below it: Saving creates the lesson for this session. Files alone are fine, uploading one creates it for you. (for a new lesson) or Saving updates the existing lesson. The button is Create lesson for a new lesson (disabled while the box is empty) and Save for an existing one, an existing lesson can be saved with empty text. Below the box you see Created … · Last updated …. Without the Author lessons permission the text is read-only, and with no lesson it says No lesson has been written for this session.

Attachments section

Uploading and removing lesson materials.

Lets you share photos, video, slides and other files from the session.

Press Click to upload a file and choose one file. Limits: Images, video, audio, documents, spreadsheets, presentations or archives · up to 10MB · 10 files max.

  • Allowed types: images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG, BMP, TIFF), documents (PDF, Word, TXT), spreadsheets (Excel, CSV), presentations (PowerPoint), archives (ZIP, RAR, 7z, GZIP, TAR), video (MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV, MPEG) and audio (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, WebM, AAC, FLAC).
  • Errors: That file type isn't supported…, That file is over the 10MB limit., This lesson already has 10 attachments, the maximum allowed.
  • If there is no lesson yet, uploading a file creates it automatically as a draft.
  • Spaces in the file name are replaced with underscores.

Files are listed under the button; tap a name to open it and the X (Remove attachment) to remove it. With no files it says No materials yet. Without the Author lessons permission files are visible but can't be uploaded or removed.

Publish button

Makes the lesson visible to parents and members.

Shares the draft and notifies the session's participants.

Only shown for a saved draft, next to the hint Notifies everyone confirmed or attending. After publishing the button disappears and the badge becomes Published …. People who confirmed attendance and those recorded in attendance are notified. Publishing again never sends a second notification.

Authored by line

Authored by {{name}}

Who last wrote the lesson.

Shows the team who is responsible for the lesson.

Shows the staff member who last created or saved the lesson text.

Open in calendar link

Opens the panel's session in the calendar.

Takes you to the session itself if you need to change its time or group, cancel or delete it.

It is under the panel title. Opens the Calendar page of the admin dashboard on the session's day with the session window open. Shown when the panel was opened from the Attendance page.

Frequently asked questions

Who is notified on publishing?

Everyone who confirmed they're attending or was recorded in the session's attendance.

Can a lesson be just files?

Yes. Upload a file without writing text, the lesson is created automatically.

Related topics