Instructor guide

A course goes from idea to published in five steps: create the draft, send your videos, add lectures, add quizzes and resources, then submit it for review. This guide walks through each one, for instructors in any professional field.

Before you start

You need an instructor account, a complete teaching profile, and to accept the Instructor Terms.

1. Get instructor access. Ask the ScholarAura team to turn your account into an instructor account. You then see Instructor dashboard and Create course on the Courses tab.
2. Complete your teaching profile. Students see it on every course page you teach, so it is your first impression. Go to Edit profile and add:
   • a clear, friendly photo of your face;
   • your current role and organisation, for example "Associate Professor, ABC College" or "Senior Data Analyst, XYZ Ltd";
   • a short bio of 3 to 5 sentences: your experience, what you teach and who you help;
   • your areas of expertise, and your LinkedIn link.
3. Accept the Instructor Terms. They explain the content rules, your rights to your course, payments and refunds.

Plan your course

Start from what students will be able to do at the end, then plan lectures that get them there. A plan on one page saves hours of re-recording.

• What you'll learn: write 4 to 6 outcomes, each starting with an action word. For example, "Read a balance sheet" or "Calculate paediatric doses safely". These appear at the top of your course page.
• Who it's for: name the learners in one or two lines, for example "Final-year engineering students preparing for placements".
• Before you begin: anything students need first, such as software, basic knowledge, or nothing at all.
• Outline: list your lectures in order. Each lecture covers one idea and has a clear title.
• Length: 5 to 15 minutes per lecture works well on phones. Split longer topics into parts.
• Free preview: choose one or two lectures anyone can watch before buying. Pick your best teaching, not just the introduction.
• Quizzes: decide where a short quiz checks understanding. Students must pass every quiz to get a certificate.

Record good videos

Clear sound matters more than a fancy camera. Students forgive simple video, but not audio they can't hear.

• Sound: use a wired or clip-on microphone, record in a quiet room, and do a 10-second test first.
• Light: face a window or a lamp, never sit with a bright window behind you.
• Framing: record in landscape (sideways), with your face and slides easy to see.
• Screen recordings: use a large font and zoom in on small details.
• File: MP4 in 1080p or 720p is ideal. Keep one lecture per file, named in order, for example 01-introduction.mp4.
• Content check: watch each video once before sending it. Remove mistakes, background noise, and anything that breaks the content rules.

Step 1: Create the draft

Open Instructor dashboard, then Create course. A draft is private: only you and the ScholarAura team can see it.

After you save, your course's lecture page opens. That's where Steps 2 to 5 happen.

Step 2: Send your videos and get video IDs

Paid lectures play from ScholarAura's own protected video library, not YouTube. You can't upload videos from the website yet, so the ScholarAura team adds them for you.

1. Put your video files in a Google Drive folder, named in lecture order.
2. Share the folder with scholaraura@gmail.com and email the course name.
3. The team checks each video, adds it to the library, and sends you a video ID for each file. An ID looks like 3a1f2e4c-....
4. Keep the list of IDs handy for Step 3.

Direct upload from your dashboard is planned for later.

Step 3: Add lectures

On your course's lecture page, choose Add a lecture once for each video, in order.

1. Title: what the lecture covers, for example "Lecture 3: Writing SUMIFS formulas".
2. Video ID: paste the ID from Step 2. The site checks it exists and fills in the length for you. If the video service is unavailable, type the length in minutes yourself.
3. Short description: 1 or 2 sentences on what students learn in this lecture. Students see it in the course content list.
4. Free preview: tick this for the one or two lectures anyone may watch before buying.
5. Order: use the up and down arrows to rearrange lectures at any time.

Step 4: Quizzes and resources

Quizzes check understanding and are required for the certificate. Resources give students something to keep.

• Lecture quiz: open Quiz on a lecture to add a few multiple-choice questions about it.
• Final quiz: open Final quiz on the course page for questions covering the whole course.
• Keep quizzes fair: every question should be answerable from your lectures, with one clearly correct answer.
• Resources: open Resources to add files such as notes, slides, worksheets or templates. Files can be PDF, Word, images or ZIP, up to 25 MB each.
• Only share files you have the rights to. No copied textbooks or paid material from others.

Step 5: The ready-to-publish checklist

Your lecture page shows this checklist. Submit for review unlocks once the required items are done.

Required:

• Title, description, category and price filled in
• At least one lecture added
• Everything follows the Instructor Terms content rules

Recommended:

• Cover image added
• "What you'll learn" filled in
• At least one free preview lecture
• A short description on every lecture
• Quizzes added where they help, including a final quiz
• You watched the free preview as a student would

The publishing journey

Draft → Submit for review → Approved and published, or changes requested. After approval, you may unpublish while enrolled students keep access.

Courses go live only after ScholarAura approves them.

If the team asks for changes, you fix them and submit again. Once approved, the course is live. Unpublishing later stops new sales, but enrolled students keep their access.

After publishing

A published course grows through sharing and steady attention to students. Check your Instructor dashboard once or twice a week.

• Share it: use the share buttons on your course page for WhatsApp, LinkedIn and email.
• Answer questions: reply to student questions in the course Q&A. Your dashboard lists questions with no answer yet.
• Track progress: open Student progress to see each student's completed lectures, last lecture activity, quizzes passed and certificate status.
• Read reviews: thank students for helpful feedback, and use it to improve lectures.
• Keep it current: fix mistakes and add lectures when your field changes. New lectures must follow the same rules.
• Taking it down: you can unpublish to stop new sales. Students who already enrolled keep their access.

Certificates and refunds

Certificates are automatic. A student gets one after finishing every lecture and passing every quiz in your course. Anyone can check a certificate is real on the Verify page.

Students can ask for a refund within 7 days of buying, if they haven't finished the course and no certificate was issued. A refunded sale is removed from your earnings, and the student loses access and any certificate.

Getting help

Email scholaraura@gmail.com with your course name and a screenshot of the problem. You can also ask Aura, the helper at the bottom of every page, which raises a support ticket for you.