Courses in the Mobile App (Student Resource)

In this article, you'll learn how to navigate your course material using the Thinkific Mobile App, as well as what course features are supported, which ones are not, and what the supported features look like in the app.

Accessing Your Courses

Our article Getting Started With the Mobile App is a good place to get familiar with the basic navigation of the Mobile app, including where to find your learning products!

When you first log in to the Mobile App, you will be brought to your Home screen. On this screen, you will find your top three courses sorted in the order of last accessed, with your most recently accessed course first on the left.

If the course you want to open is one of these three, simply click on the course card to open that course.

If you are enrolled in more than three courses, you will be able to scroll to the left of the three most recently accessed courses listed on your Home screen and click Show All to view all of your courses.

You can also view all of the courses you are enrolled in by clicking on the Learn tab at the bottom of your Home screen.

The Learn tab contains a list of the courses you are enrolled in. You can search for the course you want to access by using a search function or by filtering courses by categories.

Once you locate the course that you want to work on, click on it to select it. The next section of this article will explain how to navigate once you've selected your course.

If you've clicked on the wrong course, or you want to return to the previous page once you've opened a course, simply hit the "x" in the top left corner of the course screen to close the course content.

Navigating Within a Course

In the previous step, you located and selected a course to work on. Once you have clicked on your course, a screen containing the course curriculum outline will open.

This screen will act as both an introduction to the course, as well as an index of the lessons contained within the course. From this screen, you will be able to see all of the chapters and lessons contained within your course, and how much progress you have made on the course.

The course curriculum will show the following:

A course name, percentage completed, and the total number of published lessons
A Resume or Start button
Link to a Community space, if your course is connected to a Community Space
Lesson icons with a green checkmark indicating completed lessons
Lesson icons with no green checkmark indicating lessons that were not completed
Lesson type
An indicator if a lesson is a prerequisite, i.e. you are required to complete it before you can move to the next chapter
An indicator if a lesson is not yet available - the indicated date will specify when the lesson will be released
An indicator if a lesson can only be accessed via the web (browser)

You can also collapse or open chapters by clicking on the chapter name.

To begin your course:

If you have not started the course yet, select Start to begin.
If you have already started this course, and you want to continue from the lesson you were viewing last, you can select Resume to continue the course.
If you want to jump to a specific lesson within the course, you can scroll down to find that lesson, and click on it to resume from that point.

Your course content will now open in the Mobile App Course Player.

The Mobile App Course Player

If you've taken courses before using the web (browser) version of Thinkific, you will already be familiar with our Course Player and how it works. If you are not familiar with the Course Player, check out our article The Thinkific Course Player for a quick demo.

The Course Player in the Mobile App looks and acts very similar to how it does on the web (browser) site, with a few adjustments to allow for mobile functionality.

Lessons

When you open a lesson within your course, you will see:

The name of the course you are working on at the top of the screen
A clickable menu icon
Clicking this icon will bring you back to the course curriculum menu
The name of the lesson you are currently on (directly under the course name)
The lesson material
The Complete button (to complete one lesson and move to the next)
This button won't be visible until you have scrolled down to the bottom of the lesson

Just like in the web (browser) version of the Course Player, you will move through your lesson content to the bottom of the page, where you can select Complete to mark your current lesson as completed and move to the next lesson.

Chapters

Chapters are used to structure the material in your course, and each chapter of your course will contain one or more lessons.

You can see the chapters in your course from the main Course Curriculum outline. Click on the chapter name to collapse or open lessons within it.

Once you have completed all of the lessons within a Chapter of your course, you may see a chapter completion popup. You can either select Continue to continue with the course or tap anywhere on the screen to return to the lesson.

Supported Course Features

The lesson types listed below are all available on the Mobile App. Click to expand each of the dropdowns to learn more about how each lesson type works in the Mobile App:

Text Lessons

All of the same features available in the web (browser) version will be available in the Mobile App.

Video Lessons

Video lessons on the Mobile App function the same way they do on the web (browser) version. This means you will be able to:

Skip forwards and backward in the video
Play the video in fullscreen mode
Change the video playback speed
Continue playing the video even when the screen is locked or another app is opened
If closed captions are available, enable and disable the subtitles
If enabled, download the video
If enabled, download additional materials (downloadable content)
If enabled, autoplay the video (unless you are using a screen reader - in this case, the video will not autoplay automatically)

Some of the features for video lessons that you won't be able to use on the Mobile App include:

Change the quality of the video
Save video progress
- You won't be able to start a video in the Mobile App in the same place you left off in the web (browser) version, and vice versa.
- Video progress can only save if you resume the video using the same device and method (web browser or Mobile App) that you were previously watching it on
  For example, if you were watching a video in a lesson in the Mobile App, left, and then came back to resume that video on the Mobile App, your progress on the video would still be there.

When you open a video lesson in the Mobile App, the video will be pinned at the top of the lesson. You can scroll through any text material below the video, and the video will remain pinned to the top of the lesson.

Once the video has ended, you can select Continue on the video player screen to move to the next lesson or Cancel to remain on the lesson.

Audio Lessons

Audio lessons on the Mobile App work in exactly the same way they do on the web (browser) version. You'll still be able to use the features you're familiar with, such as:

Skipping forward and backward in the audio
Changing the playback speed of the audio
Continue playing the video even when the screen is locked or another app is opened
If enabled, download the audio
If enabled, autoplay the audio

Download Lessons

Download lessons in the Mobile App also function much like they would in the web (browser) version of the course. You won't be able to view the file from within the app, but you can download the file directly onto your device.

Download lessons that also contain text (like the one shown in the image below) will have two tabs at the top of the lesson: one tab titled Details which contains the text portion of the lesson, and the other tab titled Download which contains the downloadable portion of the material.

PDF Lessons

The PDF viewer on the Mobile App functions similarly to the web (browser) version, with a few small differences.

When you open a PDF lesson in the Mobile App, you will see:

The number of pages in the document
(If enabled by your instructor) A download button
The PDF material displayed in the PDF viewer

If the PDF is password-protected, you will be asked to enter the password to view the content. To zoom in and out on PDF lessons in the Mobile App, use the zoom gesture on your device.

Note: this gesture is different depending on the make and model of your device. Check the links below if you're not sure how to zoom in or out on your device.

Prerequisite Lessons

Prerequisite lessons will still function the same way on the Mobile App as they do on the web (browser) version. You will still need to complete these lesson types before you are able to move to the next chapter.

When trying to open a lesson without completing the prerequisites, you will see a message saying "To move forward, please complete all prerequisites in [Chapter with incomplete lessons]". The locked lessons will have a lock icon next to them.

If you encounter a pre-requisite video lesson, you will need to watch the video all the way through to be able to mark the lesson complete and for the Continue option to become available on that lesson.

Lessons on a Drip Schedule

Lessons on a drip schedule will still function the same way on the Mobile App as they do on the web (browser) version. You will need to wait for the set date (set by your instructor) to gain access to these lessons.

Lessons that are not yet released will have a lock with a clock icon next to them, and a banner with the date when the lesson will be released. If you select this lesson from the Course Curriculum page, you will see a green popup banner saying: "this content will be available to you on [the time and date your instructor has selected]".

One important thing to note is that not all of the features and/or lesson types that are available on the web (browser) based version of your course will be available on the Mobile App version.

As you are working through your course material, you may encounter an unsupported lesson type. If this does happen, you will see a message saying "[Lesson name] Take this lesson on the web and return to the app once you're done". You will also see a popup with this message when completing a lesson before.

From here, you can choose to either Skip Lesson or click View on the Web to access the lesson via the web (browser) version. Note that you might need to re-sign into your account in the browser.

If you receive this message on a lesson that contains prerequisite material, you will not have the option to skip the lesson, and will need to open and complete the lesson in your browser to move to the next lesson.

Some of the features and lesson types that you will need to access in the web (browser) version include:

Multimedia Lessons
Presentation Lessons
Live Lessons
Assessment Lessons (Quizzes, Surveys, Assignments, Brillium Exams)
Free Preview Lessons
On-lesson discussions

Important Considerations

The Mobile App will save your course progress from the last place you left off in the course - this progress will also be translated into the web (browser) version of your account.
- The only exception to this is video lesson progress - video progress can only save if you resume the video using the same device and method (web browser or Mobile App) that you were previously watching it on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I enroll in a course from within the Mobile App?

Not at this time. You will need to use the web (browser) version to enroll in any courses before you will be able to access them using the Mobile App.

I purchased courses from two different schools hosted on Thinkific. Can I show them all in the app?

No, you cannot combine courses and communities from different schools. You will need to log out of one school and log into another one if you want to switch between courses that are located in different Thinkific sites. See how to do it here: How to Install and Log In to the Thinkific Mobile App (Student Resource).

Can I access content offline?

No, the Thinkific Mobile App does not support the delivery of the content offline. Your instructor might allow you to download certain lesson content (videos, PDFs, audio), which you can view directly on your device.

Can I download files from lessons?

Yes! Both Downloads and PDF lesson types are available on the Mobile App. Additionally, your instructor might allow you to download certain lesson content (videos, PDFs, audio)which you can view directly on your device.

Does the course progress in the app transfer to the web version and vice versa?

Yes. When you complete a lesson on the mobile app, it will be marked as complete in the web version as well. This is also true for the reverse.