Tips to add content like worksheets, forums, and certificates of completion, to your Squarespace course.

Educate your visitors and share your expertise using course pages. To get started, add a course page to your site, then organize your information into lessons. 

This guide offers tips for building course content using Squarespace tools.

Build page content with blocks and sections

Highlight your course content and increase student engagement using blocks and page sections on your lesson page. With a variety of blocks and section options, you can mix and match elements to create compelling, visually-rich pages to make your expertise stand out. Here are a few page content ideas to help you get started:

• Use accordion blocks to break up large paragraphs, like an FAQ section or step-by-step instructions. You can build self-guided quizzes with accordion blocks, use the title text to pose a question and the description text to provide an answer.
• Use gallery sections to show examples, steps of a process, or as visual inspiration. Include titles and captions to clarify the purpose of each image.
• Use quote blocks to highlight important messages from a lesson.
• Capture interest and make a design statement by adding shapes to your page layout.

The example course page shown below includes a text block and a quote block placed over a shape block on the left and an accordion block for the FAQ on the right.

Tip: If your lesson doesn’t include a video, use a mix of blocks and page sections to add visual interest. Varying your course content helps your course cater to a wider audience of students. To learn how to create a lesson without a video, visit Course pages.

To review a list of block types and learn how to add them to your lesson page, visit Adding content with blocks.

Create lesson overviews

A lesson overview is a description of the topics covered in your lesson. You can use lesson overviews to help your students find information in your course. To write your lesson overview, add a page section to your lesson page, then add a text block. 

If your lesson includes a video, list the timestamps where each topic begins. This helps your students preview the lesson and skip to the content they’re most interested in. To add timestamps, add a text block to your lesson page and format the timestamp text as a list.

List terms and conditions

You may want to add terms, conditions, or policies students should know about your course. For example, if you teach an exercise course, you may want to encourage students to consult with their doctor before starting a new exercise routine.

You can list your terms and conditions for your course in a few different spots:

• Benefits or Description - Your paywall and digital product blocks display your policies in the course benefits or description section. Visitors review the terms and conditions when selecting the pricing plan. To learn more about editing your pricing plan’s benefits or description, visit Paywalls and pricing plans.
• Checkout settings - You can add policies customers can review before placing any order on your site, including when paying for your course. . To learn more about adding your terms and conditions to checkout, visit Customizing your checkout experience.
• Course overview page - Add a page section to your course overview page to share your policies using a text block. To share a downloadable document instead, add a button block that links to a file. Ensure your paywall is set to hide lessons only, keeping your course overview page visible to all of your visitors.

The example course overview page shown below uses a text block to list a disclaimer and a button block linked to a file that includes all of the course’s terms and conditions.

To learn more about adding your course terms and conditions, visit Sharing policies and terms on your site.

Offer a certificate of completion

Celebrate your students completing the course by offering a certificate of completion. While it’s not possible to automatically know when a student completes a course, you can share a certificate via email or as a download in the last lesson.

Add a form block to email certificates

On the final lesson page, add a form block and ask students to submit it when they complete the course. You can reply via email and include the certificate. This is a great way to personalize the certificates for each student.

Offer downloadable certificates

Create a .pdf of a general certificate of completion for the course. Then share it by adding a page section to your final lesson page that links to a .pdf.

Tip: To hide the certificate, build a separate password-protected page. Keep the link to the certificate on the hidden page. Share the password to the page in your course content.

Share worksheets and documents

You can add a worksheet or document to a lesson page by linking to a file. When students click the link, the file opens in a new window or downloads, depending on their browser settings.

To review your students’ work, ask them to submit their worksheets via a form block with a file upload field.

Share extra resources

Enrich your course by adding a list of resources to your lesson pages. Resources can include works from other experts or books and articles referenced in the course.

You can share resources in two ways:

• Text block - Use a text block with bulleted or numbered list formatting.
• Link to a file - Add a link to a .pdf with a list of resources.

Expand beyond your course content

Share your expertise and course curriculum outside your course content. These methods further your reach and keep your students in-the-know about what else you can offer.

Offer live coaching sessions

A live coaching session can be an upsell item for students seeking a deeper understanding of your course content. Use Acuity Scheduling to offer online booking for these sessions. You can add a scheduling block to your lesson page to encourage your students to book time with you.

To learn more about creating appointments, visit What is Acuity Scheduling?

Sell products

Promote products that tie into your course, such as books, exercise equipment, or beauty products. You can add a product block to a page section on either your course overview page or a lesson page. If you have several tie-in products, link to your store page where all of your products are listed.

To learn more about setting up a store, visit Getting started with Squarespace Commerce.

Link to a forum

Encourage your students to communicate with you and each other using a forum. It’s not possible to build a forum directly into your site. You can use a third-party service like Slack or Discord, and invite students to join with a link to your forum on your lesson page.

To learn more about adding a forum to your site, visit this Squarespace Forum post.

Next steps

As you build and market your course content, consider these additional resources:

• Hire ‌a Squarespace Expert to help you build your course.
• Watch our video series on course pages for inspiration and setup suggestions.
• Register for our Create and sell online courses with Squarespace webinar.
• Review posts on the Squarespace Forum about course pages, pricing plans, and paywalls.
• Follow our tips on how to market your course and site to customers.