Activities and panels

Choose an activity's kind, give learners panels to work in, show them in steps, and set what the AI sees.

2 min read · Updated Oct 29, 2026

An activity is one thing learners do in a course, with an AI beside it or none. Use this page when you add a lesson, a test or a survey.

Kinds of activity

On the course's Activities tab, press Add an activity and choose a kind:

  • Lesson: panels, a chat, or both. Start from Chat with an AI, Practice questions, Writing task, Reading or Embedded page.
  • Pre-test and Post-test: no AI, one try, no hints, results at the end or none. A pre-test stays open to learners who join after it closes.
  • Survey: your form's Survey address. The form receives the learner's ID or learner code under The ID goes in (pid by default).

Panels

Panels are what learners work in. An activity has up to six; with none, it is a chat.

  • Questions: a Question set, with your choice of feedback, tries and hints.
  • Writing: The task, an optional plan, a Rubric of up to 12 criteria, word limits and A Hand in button. Drafts save as learners write.
  • Reading: a PDF from your knowledge bases, or Upload a PDF. Learners can highlight and add notes.
  • Embedded page: The page's address, such as a simulation. It must allow https://page.viablelearning.org to frame it.
The activity editor’s Content part for Two-step word problems: a Writing panel with a sticker word problem as its task, a plan outline learners start from, and a three-row rubric.
Editing an activity’s content: a Writing panel’s task, the plan learners start from, and its rubric.

Showing panels in steps

With two or more panels, set How the panels are shown to In steps (up to four). Two ready patterns: Read, then answer and Read with the AI, then answer alone.

For each step, choose what it Shows, whether The AI is There or Not in this step, and how it Opens: When they're ready or On its own after some minutes. A later step's questions don't reach learners' browsers early.

Tip

A step without the AI is the sure way to keep it out of part of an activity, such as a final quiz.

What the AI sees

Each panel has What [agent] is shown of this panel:

Panel Choices
Writing All, Task only, Nothing, Custom
Questions The question, Nothing, Custom
Reading The page in view, The selection, The whole document, Nothing, Custom
Embedded page Its events, Nothing, Custom

Learners are told shows what learners read about it. Preview what [agent] reads shows exactly what the AI gets. Answer keys are never in it.

Voice and photos

Learners can speak if the agent's published version has a Transcribe step, and hear replies if it has a Speech step. Then turn on Learners may speak and choose Read replies aloud. Transcription is billed per audio minute.

Learners may attach photos and Learners may attach PDFs allow up to 4 files a message, 8 MB each. If they aren't offered, the editor names the agent step to change.

Every saved change makes a new version, which learners get the next time they open the activity.

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