> ## Knowledge Base Index > Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.simplyprint.io/sitemap.xml > Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further. > Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash). # Building and managing Academy courses # Building and managing Academy courses Courses are the heart of the Academy: ordered sets of slides that students and team members click through to learn. SimplyPrint ships ready-made public courses, and on the right plan you can build your own with text, images, videos, quizzes and live embeds. This guide covers the difference between built-in and custom courses, how courses are organized, and how to create and publish your own. || Building custom courses is part of the Education (School) plan and the Enterprise plan. Print Farm accounts that subscribed before our Enterprise launch keep custom courses. Taking SimplyPrint's public courses is available without a custom-course plan. ## Table of contents - [Built-in versus custom courses](#2-built-in-versus-custom-courses) - [Categories and how courses are organized](#2-categories-and-how-courses-are-organized) - [Creating a course](#2-creating-a-course) - [Slides, quizzes and embeds](#2-slides-quizzes-and-embeds) - [Teacher notes and student materials](#2-teacher-notes-and-student-materials) - [Publishing a course](#2-publishing-a-course) - [Connecting courses to access](#2-connecting-courses-to-access) - [Related articles](#2-related-articles) ## Built-in versus custom courses Your Academy can show courses from three sources: - **Public courses by SimplyPrint** - ready-made courses we provide, free to take. These appear in their own category and cover general 3D printing, slicing and design topics. You cannot edit these, but anyone can work through them. - **Your own custom courses** - courses your account builds and owns. This is where you put your internal procedures, machine-specific training, safety briefings and curriculum. - **Partner-shared courses** - if a SimplyPrint partner manages your account, courses they choose to share with you. You can take public courses on any plan that includes the Academy. Building your own courses needs the School or Enterprise plan (or grandfathered Print Farm). ## Categories and how courses are organized Courses live inside **categories**, which group them by topic. Categories can have **subcategories** for finer sorting within a topic. On the overview you pick a category, then see its courses as cards. To manage categories (with the "Manage courses" permission): - Click **Add category** to create one. A category can be **public** (visible to learners) or kept private while you build it out. - Drag categories and courses to reorder them. - Edit or delete a category from its card. ||| A category that is not public will not show its courses to anyone without the "Manage courses" permission. Make a category public once it is ready for learners to see. ## Creating a course With the "Manage courses" permission: 1. Open the **Academy** and select the category you want the course in (it must be one your account owns - you cannot add courses to SimplyPrint's public categories or partner-shared categories). 2. Click **Add course**. 3. Fill in the basics: name, short description, an optional image, and details like difficulty and estimated time. 4. Build out the slides (see below). 5. Publish when it is ready. ![Editing a custom course](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/f/f/2/2/ff22a914001c1000/academy-courses-academy-course_x3ilyt.png) ## Slides, quizzes and embeds A course is made of slides shown in order. Each slide can hold: - **Text, titles and images** - the core content, with options like full-width or rounded images. - **Animations and videos** - uploaded media to illustrate a step. - **Quizzes** - check understanding with single-answer, multiple-answer or true/false questions. Quiz results feed into your reports. - **Live embeds** - drop in interactive content from a wide range of supported services, including YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Tinkercad, Fusion 360, Kahoot, Mentimeter, Quizlet, Prezi, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms, and more. Reorder slides by dragging them. The slide count a learner sees reflects the slides in the course. ## Teacher notes and student materials Courses and individual slides can carry **teacher notes** - guidance that only shows in the teacher view, not to students. When viewing a course, teachers and admins can switch between **Student view** and **Teacher view** to see these notes. A course can also list **prerequisites** and attach files for teachers or for students to use before starting, plus an estimated print time if the course involves printing something. ## Publishing a course While you build a course it stays unpublished and only managers can see it. When it is ready, **publish** it to make it available to learners. || Publishing locks the course for editing. Publish only when the course is finished. If you need to make changes later, unpublish it first, edit, then publish again. ## Connecting courses to access Custom courses become much more powerful when you tie them to access: - Use a [course assignment](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/course-assignments-require-courses-for-your-students-or-team-18xc7co/) to require a course for specific people, optionally blocking printing until they finish. - Use feature locks (Settings > Organization > Feature locks) to unlock a feature, a higher user rank, or - for schools - move a student up a class automatically when they complete a course. This is how the Academy turns training into real, automatic access control rather than just a record of who watched what. ## Related articles - [The Academy overview](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/the-academy-built-in-training-and-courses-inside-simplyprint-jfi696/) - [Course assignments](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/course-assignments-require-courses-for-your-students-or-team-18xc7co/) - [Academy reports](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/academy-reports-track-course-progress-and-completions-1d4la7a/) - [Attendance tracking](https://help.simplyprint.io/en/article/attendance-tracking-in-the-academy-qtrady/)