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Core Concepts

CourseLayer is a headless learning management system (LMS) designed to offer flexibility in content management and delivery. Understanding its core structure and components is essential for effective utilization.

Hierarchy Overview​

CourseLayer's content is organized into a straightforward hierarchy:

Courses​

The top-level entity containing general information such as the course title and description. Courses can be published or set to draft status. Rules, including pricing, are defined at this level and apply to all associated lectures.

Each course is linked to instructors and categories. Notably, custom fields created within a course are unique to that course and aren't automatically inherited by others. To replicate a course's structure, you can duplicate it, preserving custom fields and data for use as a template.

Sections​

Serving as grouping entities, sections help organize content within a course. They primarily act as wrappers to divide extensive courses into manageable segments and contain only a title without additional content.

Lectures​

The primary content units within sections. Lectures can comprise videos, text, or a combination of both.

They support custom fields, enabling the creation of unique data models and interfaces on the front end. This feature allows administrators to manage content directly within CourseLayer, eliminating the need for codebase modifications.

While lectures are designed for educational content, they can also function as blog articles or text posts. However, some features typical of headless content management systems, like SEO meta fields, might not be available unless configured through custom fields.

Student Management​

Students can be managed globally or within individual courses. They can either purchase a course or be assigned to one—CourseLayer treats both scenarios equivalently.

Administrators can access a student's profile to monitor their course interactions and manage assignments.

Analytics​

CourseLayer provides analytics at both global and course levels.

Due to its headless nature, comprehensive reporting capabilities might be limited without integrating data from the front end back into the API. The platform focuses on events within the LMS, such as transactions, interactions with video content, and payouts.

Payments​

Payments are processed through your own Stripe account, which integrates natively. By adding your API keys, you can set up payments for your courses.

CourseLayer does not add additional markups to transactions, distinguishing it from many other platforms.

User Roles​

Currently, users are categorized as either administrators or students.

Future updates aim to introduce more granular administrative roles with varying read and write permissions, allowing for more tailored user roles.

API-First Approach​

As an API-first platform, CourseLayer does not include a native page builder. All functionalities are accessible through the API, requiring you to develop your own front end.

This design caters to the development community, with ongoing efforts to release tools that facilitate the creation of sophisticated training applications and provide an intuitive workflow for administrative users.