# Write a lesson

> Give a lesson its title and summary, decide whether it's required, and build its content from blocks.

Source: https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/lessons  
Plans: Academy  
Last checked: 2026-10-27

When you're done, the lesson has its title, a short summary and its content, and it counts toward
finishing the course if you want it to.

**Who can do this:** the account owner and editors, on the Academy plan.

## Open a lesson

Open the course, then click the lesson in the outline on the **Lessons** tab.

![The lesson Shaping, rising and baking open in the editor: its title, summary, the Required switch, the tutor menu, the start of its content, and the Save lesson bar at the bottom.](https://mjmtbasmrtksluvlnema.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/help-media/web-optimized/academy-educators/lessons/SS-ACAD-025-01__lesson-editor__academy__desktop__v01.webp?v=c79e8ffc44)

- **Lesson title** and **Summary (optional):** students see both at the top of the lesson.
- **Required** (1): on, students must complete this lesson to finish the course. Off, the lesson is
  optional: it's marked "optional" and never stops anyone opening the next one. A course needs at least
  one required lesson before you can publish it.
- **Tutor:** which Chirp answers questions on this lesson. See
  [Give a course an AI tutor](https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/tutors).

## Add the content

A lesson is made of blocks, which students see from top to bottom. Click a button under **Content** to
add one at the end.

![A lesson's Content section with one text block (arrows to move it and a bin to remove it) and the buttons that add a block: Text, Video, Audio, File or PDF, Link and Ask the tutor.](https://mjmtbasmrtksluvlnema.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/help-media/web-optimized/academy-educators/lessons/SS-ACAD-025-02__content-blocks__academy__detail__v01.webp?v=60764b2b43)

- **Text:** type the lesson. Markdown works for formatting: `**bold**` for bold, `#` at the start of a
  line for a heading, `-` for a list item, and `[link text](https://…)` for a link.
- **Video**, **Audio**, **File or PDF** and **Link:** see
  [Add videos, audio, files and links](https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/videos-files-links).
- **Ask the tutor:** suggested questions students can tap. See
  [Give a course an AI tutor](https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/tutors).

The arrows on a block move it up or down, and the bin removes it. A lesson can have up to 60 blocks, and
a text block can hold up to 50,000 characters. If a lesson gets too long altogether, Chirp Builder asks
you to split it into two lessons.

To add a quiz at the end of the lesson, see [Build a quiz](https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/quizzes).

## Save

Click **Save lesson** (2) at the bottom. **Discard** throws away the changes since you last saved. If you
open another lesson, another tab or another page before saving, Chirp Builder asks whether to leave
your changes behind.

Saved changes reach students when you publish the course again. See
[Publish a course and update it](https://www.chirpbuilder.com/help/academy-educators/publish).

## Delete a lesson

Open it and click **Delete** at the bottom. If the course is published, students keep seeing the lesson
until you publish again.