Break a long lesson into chapters
A long lesson is easier to watch, or listen to, when a learner can see its shape and jump to the part they need. Chapters do that - a tappable list under the player and named markers on its progress bar, each one the start of a new topic. They work the same on a video lesson and on an audio lesson.
The prompt
“Add chapters to the [lesson name] lesson in my [course name] course - a marker at each new topic with a short, clear title.”
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The list shows each chapter’s start time beside its title, so a learner can see how long each part runs. While the lesson plays, the chapter that is playing is highlighted in the list, on audio and video lessons alike.
Two ways to get them
Let Bernard suggest them. Ask Bernard to add chapters to a lesson and it reads the transcript, spots where the topic changes, and proposes a set of markers with titles. You look them over, tweak any wording, and keep the ones that make sense.
Set your own. If you know exactly where the sections are, just say so - “a chapter at the start, one at four minutes for the demo, one at nine for the recap.” Bernard places them in order with the titles you gave.
Either way, you can come back and re-do the whole set at any time; the new set replaces the old one, and nothing changes for learners until you’re happy with it.
What you need first
The video has to be uploaded and finished processing - chapters are built on the same reading of the video that produces the Captions and transcripts, written for me and the Where do I say that? Search inside my own lessons search. If a lesson’s video isn’t ready yet, ask Bernard for its status and it’ll tell you what’s still cooking. Adding a video in the first place is covered in Put my own video file into a lesson.
Keep them short
Titles work best when they’re a few words - “Loading the kiln,” not “How to safely load the kiln for a raku firing.” Learners scan them, so the shorter and plainer, the better.
Questions people ask
- Where do the chapters come from?
- Bernard can read the video’s transcript and suggest a set of chapters for you, or you can dictate your own - “chapter at 2 minutes called Glazing, chapter at 5 minutes called Firing.” Either way you see them before they go live, and you approve the set.
- How many chapters can a video have?
- Up to twenty, in start-time order, each with a short title. That’s plenty for even a long lesson - enough to be useful without turning the player into a wall of links.
- Do the little chapter pictures update if I move a marker?
- A chapter keeps its thumbnail while it stays roughly where it was. If you move it to a noticeably different point, it gets a fresh thumbnail the next time the video is processed.
- The video is ready but the automatic chapters never appeared - is something wrong?
- Chapters are written in a separate step after the video is processed, and very occasionally that step hits a fault. Your video, captions and transcript are unaffected. Ask Bernard for the video’s status - it will say plainly if the chapter writer failed. You can dictate your own chapters in the meantime, and if it keeps happening, tell Bernard so it reaches us.
- Do chapters work on audio lessons and podcast episodes too?
- Yes. An audio lesson uses the same player as a video, so its chapters show the same way - a list under the player that learners tap to jump to that point, and small marks on the progress bar. A lesson with several recordings (a podcast in parts, say) has chapters per recording.
- I added chapters but my learners can’t see them. Where did they go?
- They are saved - check whether your course styling hides them. If you once asked for no chapters on your courses, that rule is still in your course stylesheet and hides every chapter list, old and new. Ask Bernard “why can’t learners see the chapters on this lesson?” - it will tell you if your own styling is hiding them, and can change that rule (for example, to show chapters on audio lessons only) in your draft for you to approve.
- Can I put links in my lesson notes that jump to a moment?
- Yes. Ask Bernard to turn a list of chapter times in your notes into links - “make each time in the chapter table a link that jumps there”. Tapping one moves the player to that moment, even when the lesson has several recordings, so learners never have to drag the bar by hand.