Teaching and learning on Notes Academy

Taking a course

• Open Notes Academy from the menu, or go to /academy. Courses on your interests come first, then the most viewed this week and the newest. Tap a topic to narrow the list (on a computer, the Topics list shows how many courses each topic and subtopic has), filter by level or by free and paid, or search by course or teacher.
• A course's page shows its level, format and language, who teaches it, and four tabs: Overview (what you'll learn, about the course, how it works, requirements), Curriculum (every lesson with its length, grouped in modules), Tutors and Reviews. Beside them: the price, what the course includes, Share (WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, Facebook or a link) and the course details. On a free course the first lesson is a free preview.
• A free course: tap Enrol — free. If you're not signed in, sign in (or join free) and you come straight back, already enrolled.
• A paid course: watch its free previews first, then tap Buy the course and pay by card, bank transfer or from your wallet. Have a code from the teacher? Choose Have a discount code? before you pay (Discount codes and coupons). It's yours for good and plays on up to 2 of your devices; to watch on a new one, remove an old one when it asks. Uploaded videos never download, and your @username and email drift faintly across them. The certificate is usually included in the price.
• Refunds: you can get a refund within 7 days of buying a paid course, as long as you haven't started it (opening a paid lesson counts as starting). Tap get a refund on the course's page; the money goes back the way you paid.
• Live classes and the course group: many courses have a course group on #NotesApp, a members-only Space in the teacher's community, where learners ask questions and help each other; some also run live classes, in a community audio room or through a meeting link, with recordings. Once you've enrolled or bought, Join the course group (it joins you in one tap and opens the Space) and Join the live class appear on the course's page. A few older courses still have a WhatsApp or Telegram group instead, shown the same way.
• Video lessons play in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, so you stay on #NotesApp. Under a YouTube video you'll see who made it, with a link to their channel, and the tutor's lesson notes when there are some. A video is ticked off by itself once you've watched most of it; you can always tap Mark as done yourself, or Mark as not done to undo it. Text lessons end with a Mark as done button. A quiz is ticked off when you pass it (see Quizzes below).
• Your progress and the Continue button are on the course page, and courses you've started are under Continue learning on Notes Academy.
• Certificates: once every lesson is done, tap Get your certificate on the course page. Check the name (it can't be changed once issued), then pay from ₦999 plus the teacher's margin, by card or from your wallet. It's issued straight away with an ID (NA-C-…) and a QR code; anyone can check it at /certificates. Add it to LinkedIn, share it, save it as a PDF or download it as a picture (PNG) from its page. To show the picture on LinkedIn, choose Add media → Add a link on the certificate there and paste the image link (Copy image link on the certificate's page). Shared links show the certificate itself. Claim within 7 days of finishing: after that a late claim fee of 1% of the price is added each week, up to 50% more.
• Like, save and review: tap ♥ on a course to like it and the bookmark to save it (it's kept under Saved → Courses; you can also save from the bookmark on any course card). Once you've done half the lessons, rate the course from 1 to 5 stars and say what you learned, in What learners say on its page. One review each, and you can edit it; the teacher can reply once. A course shows its stars once it has 2 reviews.
• Recommendations: on someone's profile, tap Recommend, choose how you know them, give 1 to 5 stars and write a few sentences. It appears only after they approve it: on their profile, beside their journals and on their site's About page.

Teaching a course

• Any publishing account can teach a free course, including the free Basic plan. If you don't publish yet, start at Rates & payouts. On an organisation's team (Business or Enterprise), choose Teach as your organisation when you start a course: it's published under the organisation's name, and its admins can edit it too.
• Go to Teach a course and tap New course. A working title is all you need to start.
• 1. Describe it: a clear title, a short summary of what learners will be able to do, up to 3 topics and a wide cover picture. The course's address follows the title until you first publish.
• About the course: the level, language and format (self-paced, or live classes with recordings), what learners will learn and the requirements (one per line), how long it runs and when classes are, and, for live classes, an optional meeting link. Hold live classes in an audio room in your course group, for up to 25 people (you, 4 speakers and 20 listening); for video, or a bigger class, paste a meeting link. Only learners who enrolled or bought see it.
• Course group: a place on #NotesApp for your learners, instead of a WhatsApp or Telegram group. Under About the course, link one of your communities and a Space in it, tap Add a members-only Space for this course to one you run, or tap Start a community for this course: it's joined only by invite link, and your learners get the link with a Join the course group button. No community yet? Start one on Community; see Spaces and Circles. If your community is open to anyone, its members-only Spaces are open to all its members, not only your learners. A WhatsApp or Telegram link saved on an older course keeps showing to its learners until you link a course group (which replaces it) or remove it; new outside group links can't be added.
• Price: free, or paid on Pro (text lessons, PDFs and YouTube) and on Business or Enterprise (your own uploaded videos too). You get the price less the same fee as your digital items, paid to your bank 7 days after each sale; add your bank account in Rates & payouts before you publish. Tick Certificate included to include it in the price.
• Tutors: teach alone, or invite up to 4 co-tutors by @username with what they can do (Can view, or Can view and edit the course's content and lessons) and their share of each sale. Each one reads the terms and agrees before they're listed, and is paid their share at their own plan's fee. The price, the shares, the tutors and publishing stay with the lead. See Co-teaching a course.
• Add lessons: paste a link to a video on your own YouTube and check the picture to make sure it's the right one (keep videos public or unlisted, not private, or they won't play), or write a text lesson in the journal editor. On a paid course you can also upload videos (Business and Enterprise, up to 200 MB each) and PDFs (up to 50 MB), and tick Free preview on the lessons anyone may open before buying. Group lessons in modules if you like. Add the minutes; they add up to the course's length. Use ↑ and ↓ to put lessons in order.
• Notes and credit on YouTube lessons: a YouTube lesson can have lesson notes under the video, written like a text lesson: a summary, steps or an exercise. When you save it, we fill in the video's title and creator from YouTube and show "Video: <title> by <creator>, on YouTube. Shared here with credit to the original creator." under the player, linking to their channel. If you use someone else's public video, introduce it in your notes in your own words ("In this video, … shows…").
• Publish: a course needs a title, a summary and at least one lesson. Use Preview first if you like; only its tutors can see a draft.
• You can keep editing after publishing. To remove the last lesson of a published course, unpublish it first. Deleting a course removes its lessons and its learners' progress; a course people have bought can't be deleted (unpublish it instead, and they keep it).
• Your academy (certificates): set it up once at Your academy: the name and logo on your certificates, who signs them (a photo of the signature on white paper; we remove the white), an accrediting institution if you have one (its logo shows once #NotesApp has checked it) and your margin on top of our ₦999. You receive the margin less our usual commission, and your share grows with any late claim fee. Courses our team has reviewed get the "#NotesApp Certified Course" seal.
• Add a quiz to check what learners have learnt (see Quizzes below).
• Up to 30 courses, each with up to 100 lessons. Your published courses show on your profile's Courses tab, on Trending, on your own site and in the weekly digest when they're popular.

Quizzes

• For tutors: tap + Add a quiz under Curriculum, on any course, free or paid, on every plan that can teach. Write each question, give 2 to 6 answers, tick the right one and, if you like, add a short explanation. Set the pass mark (70% unless you change it). A quiz can have up to 50 questions. Learners never see the answers before they submit; edit the quiz any time and your answers load with it.
• For learners: choose one answer for each question and tap Submit answers. Your quiz is marked straight away: you see your score, whether you passed, which questions you got right, the right answer for each and the tutor's explanation. Didn't pass? Tap Try again, as often as you like. A quiz lesson is ticked off only when you pass it (there's no Mark as done for quizzes), and once every lesson is done you can get your certificate.