Course Management

This guide explains how to create, edit, and structure courses in EmbayLMS as a tenant administrator or content author.

Prerequisites

• Role: Admin or Content Author
• Tenant must be provisioned and active

Create a course

1. In the left sidebar, navigate to Admin → Courses.
2. Click New Course.
3. Fill in the required fields:

4. Click Create Course. You are taken to the course editor.

Tip: If you have a folder selected in the tree (left of the course list) when you click New Course, the new course is created in that folder.

Categories vs. folders — two different things

These are distinct and serve different purposes:

A course can have a category and sit in a folder — they’re independent.

Organize courses into folders

The Admin → Courses page has a unified folder tree on the left showing your folders and the courses filed in them. Folders can be nested as deeply as you like.

• All courses — clears the filter and shows every course.
• A folder — filters the list to courses filed in that folder and its subfolders.
• Unfiled — courses that are in no folder.

Each folder shows a course count. Use the ▸ chevrons to expand or collapse a branch.

Reorganize by drag-and-drop

Click Organize (top of the tree) to enter edit mode, then:

• Create a folder — click + New folder (root level) or the + that appears when you hover a folder (sub-folder). Folders are named “New folder” — double-click to rename.
• Re-nest a folder — drag it onto another folder to make it a child, or drag it out to the root to make it top-level again. Re-parenting works in any direction. A folder can never be dropped into one of its own sub-folders.
• Move a course — drag a course onto a folder to file it there, or out to the root to unfile it. You can also set the folder from the course editor’s Details tab.
• Delete a folder — click the trash icon. Its sub-folders move up to the parent and its courses become Unfiled — nothing is lost.

Click Done to leave edit mode. Every change is saved immediately and audit-logged.

The course list table shows each course’s folder as read-only — (re)file courses via the tree. The Category is set in the course editor, not in the table.

Edit course details

The course editor is organized into tabs:

• Details: Title, descriptions, category, folder, thumbnail, and duration.
• Modules: Add, order, and configure the course’s content modules (see below).
• Settings: Catalog visibility, enrollment rules, course info, and the Skills mapping link.

Click Save after any change. Changes to a Published course create a new draft version; learners continue on the previous version until you Publish the new draft.

Course thumbnail

The thumbnail is the image shown as the background of the course card everywhere the course appears — the catalog, the learner Home, and search results. When no thumbnail is set, the card uses your brand gradient.

1. Open the course editor (Details tab).
2. In the Thumbnail field, click Upload (or Replace if one is already set).
3. Choose an image. Wide images (16:9) look best on the card.
4. Click Save to apply.

To revert to the brand gradient, click Remove, then Save.

Thumbnails are stored encrypted (SSE-KMS) and served via CloudFront. A replaced image gets a fresh URL, so learners always see the latest version immediately.

Manage modules

Modules are the content units inside a course (videos, documents, SCORM packages, quizzes, etc.).

Add a module

1. On the course editor, click the Modules tab.
2. Click Add Module.
3. Choose a module type:

4. Enter the module Title and optional Description.
5. For file-based types, click Upload and select the file from your computer. Files are scanned for malware before being stored.
6. Click Save Module.

How modules complete (and what completes the course)

A course completes — and issues its certificate — only when the learner finishes every required module. Each module type completes its own way:

Mark a module not required (clear its Required flag) to make it optional — optional modules don’t gate completion. Course progress on the learner’s Home is the percentage of required modules completed.

Allow self-completion — for a passive module (video, document, etc.) you can turn on Allow learners to mark complete so a learner can check it off manually. This is off by default.

Reorder modules

Use the ↑ / ↓ arrows beside each module row to change the order. The order is saved immediately.

Edit or delete a module

• Click the pencil icon to edit title, description, type, or attached URL/file.
• Click the trash icon to delete. Deletion is permanent — learner completion records for that module are retained but the content is removed.

Publish a course

1. Open the course editor.
2. Verify that all modules are in the correct order and all required fields are filled.
3. Click Publish in the top-right corner.
4. The course status changes to Published and becomes visible in the learner catalog.

Note: A published course cannot be edited in place. Making changes creates a new Draft version. Publish the new draft when ready.

Free plan course limit: the Free plan includes 3 active (published) courses. Publishing a 4th is blocked with an upgrade prompt — archive or delete a published course to free a slot, or upgrade to any paid plan for unlimited courses. Courses that are already published are never affected retroactively.

Schedule publish / unpublish (LMS-200)

Instead of publishing by hand, you can schedule it:

1. In the course editor’s Catalog panel, set a Scheduled publish date/time and/or a Scheduled unpublish date/time.
2. Save.

A background job checks hourly and acts automatically:

• At the scheduled publish time, a draft/scheduled course is published (its latest draft version is published and active enrollments migrate to it — exactly like a manual Publish), and the schedule is cleared.
• At the scheduled unpublish time, a published course is archived (removed from the catalog; completions preserved), and the schedule is cleared.

Because the sweep runs hourly, a course goes live within an hour of its scheduled time. An archived course is never auto-published — restore it first. Each automatic change is recorded in the audit log (actor: system).

Unpublish or archive a course

• Unpublish: Returns the course to Draft. Learners currently enrolled can still see their progress but cannot access new content.
• Archive: Hides the course from the catalog. Existing completions are preserved.

Troubleshooting

Need help? Contact your EmbayLMS onboarding team or open a support ticket.