Lessons in Thinkific's new course builder are more flexible than ever, letting you add and arrange content in any way that works for you! Learn how to add content and customize your course settings in the new builder.
This feature is currently in beta, and is available by default on Thinkific sites created on or after January 28, 2026 and on some Thinkific sites created prior to January 28, 2026. We are working on adding features and functionality and releasing it to more customers. Stay tuned for updates if you do not see the option on your site!
About This Feature
With the new course builder, lessons are now a blank canvas that let you add, mix and match content and media however you desire. You have complete creative control over how your lessons are constructed, and no longer need to create separate lessons for each additional piece of content.
As you create your lessons in the new course builder, you will see exactly what your learners will see, with in-line editing directly in the lesson itself, and no more jumping between the builder and player to see how changes affect the learner experience.
Learn more about the new course builder, including what features are available, what's coming in the future, and frequently asked questions: Introducing Thinkific's New Course Builder
Important Considerations
- As this feature is currently in beta, we're actively adding features and functionality, and would love to hear your input! You can share your feedback with us directly within the course builder: New Course Builder: Sharing Feedback
- You can use both course builders to create, publish and sell new courses, but you cannot move or migrate course materials between the two experiences.
- Courses created with the new course builder do not yet support the following:
- Availability on the Thinkific mobile app.
- Some settings options including video % completion required, free preview lessons, and pre-requisite lessons.
- Course reviews, completion certificates or drip schedules.
- Custom code snippets or 3rd party apps extensions to the Course Player.
Chapters and Lessons
Your course can have up to 25 chapters, and 25 lessons in each chapter.
Your course can have multiple chapters and lessons - you can think of chapters as buckets that can contain one or more lessons. Chapters and lessons can be added, deleted, and rearranged as desired.
Add new chapters and lessons
To add a new chapter:
- Click the + Chapter button at the bottom of the page
- Enter your desired chapter title
- Click Save
To add a new lesson:
- Locate the chapter you would like to add a lesson to
- Click + Add lesson
Rename existing chapters and lessons
To rename a chapter:
- Click on the chapter title in the curriculum
- Enter a new title
- Click Save
To rename a lesson:
- Click on the lesson in the curriculum
- Click the pencil icon next to the lesson title at the top of the course builder
- Enter a new title
- Click Save
Move chapters and lessons
To move a chapter:
- Locate the chapter you want to move
- Click and hold the drag icon (dots to the left of chapter title)
- Drag the chapter to the desired location
- Release
To move a lesson:
- Locate the lesson you want to move
- Click and hold the drag icon (dots to the left of lesson title)
- Drag the chapter to the desired location
- Release
Delete chapters and lessons
Deleting chapters and lessons is permanent and irreversible. If you would like to keep the content for reference, but do not want it visible to your learners, instead of deleting you can set the content to draft.
To delete a chapter:
- Click on the chapter title you would like to delete
- Click Delete
- Click Yes, delete the chapter and lessons
Deleting a chapter will permanently delete all lessons included within the chapter.
To delete a lesson:
- Click on the lesson you would like to delete
- Click the ellipsis (three dots) icon in the menu on the right side of the course builder
- Click Delete lesson
- Click Delete
Content Types
The new course builder combines flexibility with simplicity to help you build courses faster. Lessons are a blank canvas where you can mix different types of content - including text, images, video, and PDFs - into a single lesson without juggling multiple separate lesson types.
To add content to your lessons, simply select the type of content you would like to add from the menu on the right-hand side of the lesson and start building!
Expand the sections below to learn more about each of the available content types and how to add and customize them.
Each lesson can have up to 25 pieces of content.
Text
To add text:
- From the content menu, select Text
- Enter your desired text
You can also use the editor at the top of the block to further customize your text:
- Add headings
- Format text (bold, italic, underline)
- Unordered (bulleted) and ordered (numbered) lists
- Adjust text alignment
- Insert links
Video
At this time, videos must be uploaded directly in lessons, as Video Library access is not yet available, and pasting links to externally hosted videos is not yet supported.
This allows you to add a video to your lessons. Videos added in the new course builder will be uploaded to your Video Library.
To add a video:
- From the content menu, select Video
- Select your method of adding video from the tabs at the top of the block:
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired video (or browse and select a file from your device)
Supported file types: .mp4, .mov, .m4v (max file size 2 GB) - Browse library: Select a video from the asset library
- Embed link: Paste a URL from YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, etc.
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired video (or browse and select a file from your device)
To replace a video, hover over the video then click Replace in the menu, then follow the steps above to add a new video.
To view and edit a video's settings in your Video Library, click the Video settings button from the block's menu.
Image
This allows you to add an image to your lessons.
To add an image:
- From the content menu, select Image
- Select your method of adding an image from the tabs at the top of the block:
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired image (or browse and select a file from your device)
Supported file types: .jpeg/jpg, .png, .gif (max file size 20 MB) - Browse library: Select an image from the asset library
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired image (or browse and select a file from your device)
- (Optional) Use the sliders on the sides of the image to adjust the size
To replace an image, hover over the image then click Replace in the menu, then follow the steps above to add a new image.
You can also use the editor at the top of the image to adjust the alignment of your image within the lesson.
This allows you to add a PDF to your lessons. PDFs will display and be scrollable within lessons.
To add a PDF:
- From the content menu, select PDF
- Select your method of adding a PDF from the tabs at the top of the block:
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired PDF (or browse and select a file from your device)
Supported file types: .pdf (max file size 25 MB) - Browse library: Select a PDF from the asset library
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired PDF (or browse and select a file from your device)
To replace a PDF, hover over the PDF then click Replace in the menu, then follow the steps above to add a new PDF.
Audio
This allows you to add audio files to your lessons. Audio files will be displayed as a playbar in the lesson.
To add audio:
- From the content menu, select More
- Select Audio
- Select your method of adding audio from the tabs at the top of the block:
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired audio file (or browse and select a file from your device)
Supported file types: mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm, aac, opus (max file size 25 MB) - Browse library: Select audio from the asset library
-
Upload file: Drag and drop your desired audio file (or browse and select a file from your device)
To replace an audio file, hover over the playbar then click Replace in the menu, then follow the steps above to add a new audio file.
To make an audio file downloadable, hover over the playbar then toggle on Allow downloads.
Quiz
At this time, admin-side analytics and quiz results are not available yet.
This allows you to add a quiz to your lessons to test your learners' knowledge.
To add a quiz:
- From the content menu, select Quiz
- Click Build quiz
Once your quiz has been created, click Add question to start building!
Quiz questions can be either multiple choice (allows the learner to select one option as an answer) or multiple correct answers (allows the student to select several correct answers and they must select all correct answers to receive a passing mark). This can be changed in the top-right corner of the question.
When you add a question, simply enter your question into the question field and your answer choices into the answer fields, then select which option(s) is the correct answer. You can add a new answer option to a question by clicking + Add answer, and delete an option by clicking the trash can icon next to the option you would like to delete.
You can also add an explanation for the correct answer in the Answer explanation field. This field can be used to provide learners with information immediately after they submit their answers. This explanation will be displayed regardless of whether they get the question right or wrong.
To add a new question to your quiz, click + Add question at the bottom of the quiz. To delete an entire question, click Delete question.
After you have added your desired questions and answers, click Save and insert to add it to your lesson!
External content
Embedding externally hosted content lets you display webinar links, surveys, Google Docs, or YouTube videos directly within your course. You can also upload and embed interactive content created in tools like Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, or iSpring.
Learn more about how to embed external content in your course: Using Embedded Content in the New Course Builder
Using Assets From the Asset Library
The asset library is your centralized hub for storing, organizing, and reusing media - videos, images, and documents - within your Thinkific courses. Each file you upload is saved as an individual asset with its own title, description, and metadata, making it easy to find later. With the asset library, you can upload images, videos, and documents to be used and reused across your courses.
Learn more about how to add assets from the asset library: Using Assets in Courses
Move and Delete Content
Once you've added content blocks to your lessons, you can move them into any position in the lesson as you'd like, as well as delete them.
To move content:
- Hover over the content you would like to move
- Click of the up or down arrows from the menu
To delete content:
- Hover over the content you would like to delete
- Click the trash can icon from the menu
Lesson Settings in the New Course Builder
Prerequisite Lessons
There are times when you want to make sure that learners have a good grasp of certain content before they're allowed to move ahead in the course. With our prerequisite lessons, you can now prevent learners from skipping ahead in a course before they've completed all the content prior to those chapters.
Prerequisite lessons will prevent learners from accessing the content in later chapters and instead, display a message that tells them which lessons need to be completed before they can move on. All chapters after a prerequisite lesson will not be accessible so that chapters are completed sequentially in the order you designed them to be taken.
To set a lesson as a prerequisite:
- Select the lesson you would like to make a prerequisite
- Select the gear icon from the content menu
- Toggle on Prerequisite
Free Preview Lessons
Sometimes you want to give prospective learners a taste of your course content before they commit to purchasing. With Free Preview lessons in the New Course Builder, you can mark specific lessons as free to preview, allowing anyone to access that content and enroll for free with no expiration date.
When a learner is enrolled in a Free Preview, they can only access the lessons you've marked for preview. If they try to access any other lesson, they'll be prompted to purchase the course. Once they complete all available Free Preview lessons, they'll also see a prompt to buy — so your free sample naturally drives them toward enrolling.
Learn more about free preview here: Create a Free Course Preview.
To set a lesson as a free preview:
- Select the lesson you would like to make a prerequisite
- Select the gear icon from the content menu
- Toggle on Free preview
Save Your Changes
The new course builder introduces automatic saving, giving you a worry-free course-building experience. Any changes you make while working in the Course Builder are saved automatically, so there’s no need to manually save your progress.
You can see the status of your changes at the top of the course builder, where a message displays when your work was last saved (for example, “Last saved 2 minutes ago”). This helps you quickly confirm that your updates have been captured as you build and edit your course.
Preview Your Course
To preview what your course will look like from a learner's perspective, click the Preview button in the top-right corner of the course builder.
While in preview mode, you can click Close preview in the top-left corner of the screen at any time to return to the course builder.
Course Settings
The Settings tab is where you can edit various settings of your course, such as the name, course image and description, as well as make the course hidden or private. Here's a review of what you can accomplish in this tab:
- Basic settings: Change your course name, add an instructor, or make your course hidden or private.
- Image and description: Customize the image and description for your course.
- Revenue partners and affiliates: Add a Course Admin or a share your course revenue with a Revenue Partner.
- Course welcome email: Customize the welcome email for your course. This will take you out of the course builder and into your Admin Dashboard settings.
Video Completion Required
When this feature is enabled, for any lesson that contains videos, learners will not be able to mark a lesson as complete before they reach the specified completion percentage that you've set for the course. Once the learner has watched the video to the completion percentage, the lesson is automatically marked complete. At this point, the continue button will appear and the learner will be able to navigate to the next lesson using the left-hand navigation.
To enable this feature in your course:
- Select the Settings tab
- Select Course progress and completion
- Under Video completion percentage (%), select Required
- In the Minimum completion percentage field, set your desired completion percentage
- Click Save settings
Course Pricing
Set the pricing for your course in this tab. We also have a guide that outlines different pricing options we recommend you check out: Set Your Course Pricing
Bonus: Check out our blog for a complete guide on pricing your course!
Course Landing Page
The Landing page tab will allow you to build a course page where learners can learn more about the course and enroll.
Learn more about customizing your landing page: How to Customize AI-Generated Landing Pages
Publish Your Course
When you're ready for your learners to access your lesson content, you can publish your course! To publish your course, click on the Publish button in the top-right corner of the course builder.
Learn more about publishing products: Publishing Your Products