Screens

What a screen is in a Coassemble course, how to add and build one, and how screens work differently in the Classic builder.

A screen is a single unit of learning in a course, like a page in a book but interactive. You add a screen by picking a layout, then build it up by adding blocks and arranging them on a six column grid.

Each screen works best holding one clear concept, idea or theme, which makes a course easier to follow and easier to come back to.

What screens does every course have?

Every course opens with a Start screen and ends with a Finish screen, with your content screens grouped into sections in between. Neither of them can be removed or hidden.

The Start screen is the course cover. It holds the course title, a description of what the course covers and who it's for, an image, and an estimated time to complete, with a Start course button for the learner. Its layout options are Image right, Image left, Banner image, Image behind and Radial gradient.

The Finish screen closes the course. It shows a completion message and asks learners how they found the course.

How do I add a screen?

There are four ways:

• Ask the agent. Ask it to add screens on a particular topic or concept and it builds them into the course for you.
• Add one yourself. Select the plus sign beside the screen you want the new one to sit next to, in either the Overview or the Editor, or select + Add screen at the bottom of the side navigation.
• Duplicate an existing screen. Hover over a screen thumbnail in the side navigation, select the three-dot menu, and select Duplicate. An identical copy will appear directly below it.
• Ask a connected AI assistant. If you've connected Coassemble to an assistant such as Claude, you can ask it to add screens without opening the builder yourself.

Adding a screen yourself opens the Screens picker, where layouts are grouped five ways:

• Content. Text, images and video. Layouts include Title + text, Title + text split (for adjacent text and image setups), Title + 2 columns, Title + 2 columns + image, Banner + 3 columns, Title + 3 columns (for side-by-side comparative steps), and Full image (for detailed infographics).
• Interactive. Content learners explore and reveal: Checklist, Accordion, Numbered list, Acronym, Flashcards and Process.
• Knowledge check. A single practice question on a screen. You pick the question type to start from: multiple choice, multiple response, true or false, short answer, match corresponding, match sequence and fill in the blank.
• Embed. Third-party content: Large embed left, Text + Embed right and Full document.
• Section intro. An emphasised cover screen that opens a section: Title, Title + image left, Title + image right, Image banner + title, Title + Image banner and Image behind.

Every screen starts from a layout, so there's no blank screen to begin with. A layout is a starting point rather than a fixed shape though: once the screen exists you can add, remove and reorder its blocks freely, and swap the layout itself with the Layout button in the screen toolbar.

How do I build up a screen?

Add the blocks the content needs: a heading, a paragraph, an image, an accordion, a question. You set how many columns wide each block should be and drag it where you want it. Any block can go on any screen, so a single screen can carry an explanation, an interactive element and a knowledge check together.

Once added, you can format individual blocks. Select directly on a paragraph block to open the text editor toolbar, where you can adjust text sizes, alignment, font weights, colours, and add lists. For media, select image placeholders to upload files or search the preset asset library for icons and imagery, then set their position (such as image left, right, above, below, or to the edge). You can also customise individual block backgrounds to draw attention to essential information.

The grid handles the design side for you. Spacing and alignment hold steady however you arrange things, so screens stay consistent across the course as you build.

A heading block gives a screen its title, and the structure that assistive technology relies on to navigate it. It isn't required, but it's worth having on any screen carrying real content.

Screens group into sections, which learners move through as chapters.

A scored quiz is its own section, not a screen type. It opens with a cover screen carrying the quiz title, the number of questions, a short description and a Start quiz button, then each question sits on its own screen, and it ends with a results screen. A single question block on an ordinary screen is an unscored knowledge check.

The screen toolbar sits under the screen you're editing and holds four controls: Add for a new block, Layout to change the screen's layout, Background to change its background, and Reading order to set the order blocks are read in by screen readers, narration and keyboard navigation. That last one matters when the visual arrangement isn't the order things should be read in.

Mobile. Every course adapts to narrow screens, and you can control how. Switch from Desktop to Mobile at the top of the builder to reorder how blocks stack, or hide a block from mobile entirely. Block content isn't editable there, so the words stay the same everywhere.

How do screens work in the Classic builder?

In the Classic builder you choose a screen type when you add a screen, and your content goes into the shape that type provides. There are 11 types available:

• Text and image: For standard content delivery.
• Video: To embed multimedia content.
• Slideshow: For interactive image galleries.
• Document: To attach downloadable resources.
• Embed: For external web content.
• Accordion / Process: For structured, step-by-step information.
• Flashcards / Checklist / Hotspot: For interactive visual learning.
• Quiz: For learner assessment.

When you hover over a category, select Start from scratch to insert a blank template of that type, or choose an automated generator option. The type decides what the screen can hold, so an Accordion screen is an accordion and nothing else.

Most types share a few elements:

• Title. The heading along the top of the screen, switchable between two sizes to show hierarchy.
• Description. Longer text such as paragraphs or bullet points. Toggled off by default on some types.
• Images. One or several depending on the type, either as a placeholder you edit or a container you add to.

Courses built this way carry a Classic badge in your course library.

How long should a course be?

Keep each screen to one clear idea and let the length follow the content. Sections give a long course a shape learners can handle: they move through it as chapters, with a sensible place to stop and pick up again.

Splitting a topic across several shorter courses grouped into a collection is still worth doing when the parts stand alone, or when different people need different parts of it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I reorder screens?

Yes. You can add, remove and reorder screens at any time while you build, and the same is true of Classic courses.

Can I start from a blank screen?

No. Every new screen starts from a layout. You can then add, remove and reorder its blocks, and change the layout, so the starting point doesn't limit what the screen ends up being.

Can one screen hold several kinds of content?

Yes. Add as many blocks as the content needs and arrange them on the grid. In a Classic course, a screen holds what its type allows.

What happened to Hotspot screens?

Hotspot isn't currently available as a block. Hotspot screens in courses you built in Classic are unaffected and keep working as they do today.