Your first class

Make a course, add one activity with an AI, share its link or QR code, and see your first learner in Progress.

3 min read · Updated Oct 30, 2026

This page takes you from nothing to a working class in about ten minutes. Use it the first time you teach with VIABLE.

Before you start

You need a project where you are an owner or editor, and a published agent in it: the AI your learners talk with. If you have none yet, start with Your first agent.

Make the course

  1. Start a course. Open Teach → Courses and press New course.
  2. Name it. Type a Name, such as "Biology 101 · Period 2 and 3".
  3. Choose what kind. Under What kind of course, pick A class over weeks, A one-off session or A course for research.
  4. Say who it is for. Choose Adults, Teenagers (13 to 17) or Children (under 13).
  5. Create it. Press Create course. It starts as a Draft, so its link doesn't open for learners yet.

Who it is for decides how learners get in. Children always get personal codes on printed cards. In a class over weeks, adults and teenagers type their name. You can change all of this later in the course's Settings.

Add an activity with the AI

  1. Pick a kind. On the Activities tab, choose Writing task.
  2. Check the AI. Learners talk with is already set to your most recently changed published agent. Pick another if you like.
  3. Write the task. Under Content, type The task, for example "Should school start later? Take a side and give two reasons."
  4. Add it. Leave Opens on Open and press Add activity.

A preview appears beside the form: "As a learner sees it · nothing here counts". It shows the Writing panel with your agent beside it, on Desktop or Phone.

Choose how it looks

In the course's Settings → Appearance, pick a look for its home and activities, and for the study's consent step if it has one. Clear is the default; Playground suits young learners. Under Color, keep the look's own or choose another; text on it turns dark or light so it stays readable. Press Preview to see it at full size, on a computer or a phone, in light and dark.

Clear Plain and calm: open lists, the next activity marked by a bar.

Notebook Ruled paper with a margin line; the next activity on a sticky note.

Field guide Graph paper and slab headings; each activity a tag.

Reading room A book page in one serif; the activities as its contents.

Playground Big tiles, thick outlines, rounded type: for young learners.

Route A transit line: each activity a stop, the next on the board.

The six looks, in each look’s own color; a course can use any color instead. Each example course uses a different one.

Open and share it

The Grade 4 Math course page, a draft, with Share, Copy link, Preview, Download as package and Open course buttons, a note that it is ready to open, and its Activities tab showing the unit Word problems with two activities and when each opens.
A course ready to open: its link, Share and Preview, and a unit’s activities with when each opens.
  1. Clear what's missing. Before it opens lists anything left. If it asks you to Choose the AI key that pays for its AI, pick one in Settings → The AI and press Save settings.
  2. Try it. Press Preview to go through the course as a new learner. Previews stay out of Progress.
  3. Open it. Press Open course.
  4. Share it. On the Link & QR tab, copy The course's link, or press Show to the class for a full-screen QR code that phones can scan.

Tip

In an LMS, add the course as a link that opens in a new tab. Inside a frame, some browsers forget who a learner is between visits.

See your first learner

A learner opens the link, types their name and starts. On the Progress tab, they appear with a dot under the activity once they start, and a check once they're done.

That's a working class.

This page is also plain Markdown at /docs/teach/first-class.md. Point your AI at /llms.txt to find every page.