Remove a lesson from my course
Most of the time, "get rid of this lesson" doesn't mean delete it. It means the lesson is out of date, or it belonged to a version of the course you no longer teach, and you don't want learners landing on it.
Moving it to the end of the course, or retiring the whole course, does that and can be undone. Deleting cannot. Reach for it only when you mean gone.
Ask, and read the list
Delete the Old assessment brief lesson from my Level 3 course.
Bernard tells you what would go before anything happens, and waits for you to confirm. Read that list properly - it is longer than people expect:
- the lesson's written notes
- its transcript and any subtitles
- its edit history, so the words can't be recovered from an earlier version
- its discussion thread
- any knowledge check placed on it (Add a quiz to my course)
- every learner's completion mark for it
That last one is the one people regret. A learner who had finished that lesson no longer has, and if your course awards a certificate on completion, that matters.
Your video and worksheets are safe
They stay in your file vault. Deleting a lesson removes the lesson, not the media it used, so you can build a new lesson from the same video whenever you like.
When it says no
Bernard refuses three cases outright, because each would leave the course quietly broken:
The free taster. A paid course with no preview lesson gives a stranger nothing to judge it by. Move the taster to another lesson first, then delete (Let people watch one lesson free).
The only lesson. A course with no lessons isn't a course. Retire the course instead.
A lesson with others nested under it. They would be left pointing at a parent that no longer exists. Move them out first.
When it disappears
The record goes immediately. The page comes off your site on the next rebuild, which waits for your approval like any other change to your pages (How do I approve or undo changes?) - so if you delete something and still see it live, you have an approval waiting.
The prompt
“Delete the [lesson name] lesson from my [course name] course - tell me what goes with it before you do.”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- Is it reversible?
- No. This is the one course action with no way back, which is why Bernard asks you to confirm and lists exactly what would go before he does anything. If you are not certain, move it to the end of the course instead - nobody has to see it there.
- What goes with it?
- The lesson's notes, its transcript and subtitles, its edit history, its discussion thread, any knowledge check on it, and every learner's completion mark for it. The history going means the words can no longer be recovered from an earlier version either.
- Does my video get deleted too?
- No. The video and any worksheets stay in your file vault, so you can use them again in another lesson. Only the lesson itself goes.
- When do my learners stop seeing it?
- The lesson page leaves your site on the next rebuild, and that rebuild waits for your approval like any other change to your pages. So the record is deleted straight away; the page disappears when you approve.
- Why did Bernard refuse?
- He refuses three cases that would quietly damage the course: the free taster lesson (a paid course would be left with nothing to sample - move the taster first), the only lesson in a course, and a lesson that has other lessons nested under it, which would leave them pointing at a parent that no longer exists.