01. Add richer lesson types: video, audio, PDF and links

Add richer lesson types: video, audio, PDF and links

This is for admins who want to build lessons from their own material instead of typing everything out. By the end you'll be able to turn a video, an audio file, a document or an external link into a lesson in your library, ready to add to a course.

Before you start

Finish Week 1 first, especially Lessons and courses: how content works, so you know how lessons sit inside courses. Have the file or link you want to use to hand.

Upload a video, audio or PDF lesson

🎬 Watch this as a short narrated video

Steps shown in this video

1. Content and Courses, then Upload content, is where every lesson type starts
2. Add a video for short training, updates or announcements
3. Audio for podcasts, briefings or voice notes
4. Or a document - a PDF, slides or a spreadsheet - and this one has a clever trick
5. Drop in your file - here, a fire safety PDF
6. Give the lesson a name
7. Now open the Quiz tab
8. Tick Generate AI Quizzes, and 5Mins reads your document and drafts a whole quiz from it
9. Publish, and the quiz is ready for you to review, approve or discard

You can turn your own files into lessons. Under Content and Courses, open Upload content and you'll see a card for each type - video, audio, document, flashcard or external link.

1. Open Upload content and pick the type you want. This walk-through uploads a document, but video and audio follow the same steps.
2. Click Select file and choose your file. Documents accept PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
3. Give the lesson a clear name so learners and admins can find it later.
4. Click Publish Lesson to save it to your library, ready to add to a course.

Turn a document into a quiz, automatically

🎬 Watch this as a short narrated video

Steps shown in this video

1. Once a document lesson is published, 5Mins can draft the whole quiz for you
2. Open the Quiz tab
3. Create With AI reads your document and writes the questions - give it a few seconds
4. Each question comes ready to check, with the correct answer already marked
5. Keep the good ones with Save, Discard any you don't want, and your quiz is done

This is the clever part. When you upload a document, tick Generate AI Quizzes on the Quiz tab before you publish. 5Mins reads your file and drafts a set of multiple-choice questions from it, so you don't write them from scratch.

1. Upload your document and tick Generate AI Quizzes on the Quiz tab, then Publish Lesson.
2. Open the published lesson and, on the Quiz tab, click Create With AI. Give it a few seconds to read the document.
3. Review your quizzes opens. Each question arrives with its answer options and the correct one already marked, plus a short explanation.
4. Go through them one at a time: click Save to keep a question, or Discard to drop it. You can always edit a saved question later.

Add an external link as a lesson

🎬 Watch this as a short narrated video

Steps shown in this video

1. Not everything has to be built in 5Mins - you can turn web content into a lesson
2. Add external link embeds YouTube, TikTok and more into any lesson
3. Pick it and the form is short
4. Name the lesson
5. Then paste a link, and 5Mins embeds it right there
6. Publish Lesson, and it behaves like any other lesson in a course

If your content lives somewhere else, like a YouTube video, a Loom or Synthesia recording, or a web article, you can turn it into a lesson in two ways.

As a lesson in your library (shown in the video): open Upload content, choose Add external link, name the lesson, paste the link, and click Publish Lesson. It sits in Your Content like any other lesson, ready to add to any course.

Straight into one course from the course builder:

1. In the course builder, open the Course Content tab.
2. In the Add Content menu, choose Embed Links.
3. Give the lesson a clear title.
4. Choose the type. Pick Video for a YouTube, Loom or Synthesia link, or Article for a web page, then paste the URL. 5Mins pulls in the title, thumbnail and duration where available.
5. Click Add link to add it to your course.

What you should see now

Your uploaded or linked lesson appears in Your Content, ready to add to any course. A link embedded from the course builder sits inside the course you added it to. Learners open it from inside the course, and completion is tracked in your reports.

Common questions

Do external links count towards completion? Yes. Learners open the link from inside the course, and their progress is tracked in your reports like any other lesson.

What if my file is too big? The upload limits are 1GB for video, 100MB for audio, and 25MB for documents. If your video is over 1GB, consider hosting it elsewhere and adding it as an embedded video link instead.

Next up

Next: Create flashcards, an interactive lesson type you build right inside 5Mins.