Creating your first course is the fastest way to understand what TutorFlow can do. You describe what to teach, choose whether to start from the topic alone or from your own materials, set how long the course should be, and review the plan before any lesson is written.
Describe the course
Open Course in your classroom workspace and write what the course should cover, module by module. Specificity makes a real difference: a vague topic produces a generic structure, and a well-framed prompt produces content you can use.
Instead of: "Create a biology course"
Write: "Create a beginner-friendly biology course on photosynthesis for middle school learners. Include short lecture sections, comprehension questions, and one applied task per lesson."
The same box takes an optional reference file (.pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .doc, .docx, .png, .jpg, .webp, .txt, or .md, up to 20 MB). TutorFlow analyzes it before generation and shows how much of it was read: text PDFs up to 200 pages, scanned PDFs through OCR for the first 50 pages, and decks up to 60 slides. See Create a course and test from a PDF or PPTX for a sample file and a review checklist.
Choose how to start
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Quick start | Builds a flexible course from the topic you entered. The fastest path to a first draft. |
| Build from materials | Takes a syllabus, textbooks, articles, or slides, and plans the course from them. Mark one file as the syllabus; TutorFlow reads its goals, policies, and weekly schedule when it has one. The upload screen shows the file count and size limits that apply to your classroom. |
Both modes then ask a few questions about the audience, the objective, and the teaching approach. Answer them in a sentence each; they shape the lesson types the plan proposes.
Set the curriculum length
Pick Auto to let TutorFlow choose, or set the number of chapters and lessons per chapter yourself. With reference material attached, TutorFlow recommends a length from the structure or the volume of what you uploaded and lists the chapters it detected. A shorter first course is easier to review; you can add lessons later.
Review the plan
TutorFlow drafts the course plan: chapters, lessons, and the type of each lesson. This is the cheapest point to change your mind. Reorder or rename lessons, change a lesson's type, and turn off the assignments or slide drafts you do not need, then confirm the plan. Lesson generation starts after that.
The lesson types a plan can use:
| Type | What the learner does |
|---|---|
| Lecture | Reads explanation-first content with formulas, images, and code blocks |
| Coding Lesson, Coding Test | Writes and runs code in the in-lesson editor; a Coding Test checks the output automatically |
| Python Notebook | Works in a Jupyter-style notebook that runs Python, with pip packages |
| Chat with AI, AI tutor | Explores the topic in conversation with a model |
| Flashcard | Reviews terms and concepts card by card |
| Exam | Answers a graded set of questions |
| Dictation, Speaking, Roleplay, Reading, Translation | Practices a language skill; see Language courses |
| Web | Edits and previews HTML, CSS, and JavaScript live |
| Game, Simulation, Slides | Opens a game, simulation, or slide deck from your classroom, linked into the lesson. Edits to the original show up in the lesson. |
Edit what was generated
Every lesson is editable after generation. From the lesson editor you can:
- Regenerate a lesson with a changed instruction, or add images, quizzes, and problems to it.
- Translate a lesson into English, Chinese (Simplified or Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, French, German, Spanish, Mongolian, or Brazilian Portuguese. Each translation is a separate copy of the lesson, marked Needs update when the original changes.
- Attach reference material to one lesson, so a regeneration is grounded in that file rather than the whole course's references.
Course settings
Open Settings from the course header. The dialog has four tabs:
- Info: title, description, URL slug, thumbnail, and visibility. Visibility is Everyone, Private, Team, Classroom, or Course.
- Sharing: the public course page on your classroom site and, for a course visible to everyone, an embed code for another website and a SCORM package for an LMS. A classroom setting can limit embedding to the sites you list.
- Lessons: which lessons learners can open, and each lesson's reference material.
- Learning: a completion celebration, the language being taught for language practice lessons, and the Guided Learning defaults.
Guided Learning sets how the AI tutor behaves inside lessons and tests: Disabled, Assistant, or Coach. Coach gives hints in levels up to a maximum you set (0 to 5, default 4); from level 4, learners can reveal the full solution, never during exams or tests. The course default can be overridden per lesson and per test.
Collect learner work
Any lesson can take a submission: text, code, a file link, an AI conversation, or form answers. Turn Submit on in the lesson, and submitted work appears in the course's Submissions tab in the dashboard, where you grade it. File submissions need a Google Drive connected in the classroom; learners cannot submit files until it is. A one-credit AI draft of the feedback is available per submission, written for you to edit.
Credits
| Action | Credits |
|---|---|
| Course plan (curriculum, the first lesson, and its image) | 8 |
| Each further lesson | 3 |
| Regenerating or translating a lesson | 3 |
| A set of quizzes or problems | 1 |
| An image or an audio clip | 1 |
The estimate in the creation flow shows the total before you confirm the plan. See Pricing for your plan's balance.
Export and publish
From the course header you can download the course as a PDF (with a cover, table of contents, and chapter and lesson titles as options), a PPTX deck, or a DOCX file.
Learners see a course on the classroom site once its visibility allows it and the lessons are marked public. Before sharing, run a final check:
- Is the lesson sequence logical from start to finish?
- Does the activity difficulty match the intended learner level?
- Is terminology used consistently throughout?
- Do assessments reflect the stated learning objectives?
Next step
Once your first course is published, explore the specialized course formats that fit your program:
- Build AI Practice Courses: AI literacy and prompt engineering.
- Create Coding Courses: technical and programming education.
- Build Language Learning Courses: dictation, shadowing, roleplay, and translation.
- Build Employee Onboarding Courses: structured new-hire programs.
- Build Compliance Training Courses: regulated training with certification.
- Build Math and Science Courses: STEM content with formulas and diagrams.
- Tests Overview: assessment design across all course types.