PDF and Word documents to courses
How to turn a PDF or Word document into an interactive online course in Coassemble, and how to prepare the document so the course comes out well.
How do I turn a PDF or Word document into an interactive online course?
Upload the document to the Coassemble AI agent, choose how closely the course should follow your wording, and answer a few questions about your audience. The agent builds an interactive course of screens grouped into sections, which you can then edit, publish and share.
What file types can I use?
- PDF (.pdf)
- Word (.doc, .docx)
- PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
- Apple Keynote (.key)
- Plain text (.txt)
- Rich text (.rtf)
Files can be up to 50MB. For a Google Docs file, download it as .docx or PDF first.
How do I create the course?
- From your dashboard, select New course, then Create with agent.
- Upload your document by dragging it in or selecting it. You can upload more than one, and add a short prompt to give the agent context, such as who the course is for.
- Choose how closely the course should follow your document: Verbatim, Structured or Adaptive.
- Answer the agent's questions about your audience, depth, learning outcomes, tone, assessment and language. It skips anything it can work out from the document.
- Review the summary and select Build course. The course builds screen by screen while you watch.
- Edit anything you want to change, either directly or by describing the change to the agent, then publish.
How closely will the course follow my document?
You decide, using one of three options:
| Option | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Verbatim | Keeps your wording exactly as written | Policies, procedures and compliance content where the exact phrasing matters |
| Structured | Keeps your content and reorganises it into a clear learning flow | Manuals, guides and handbooks that are accurate but hard to learn from as written |
| Adaptive | Rewrites and expands your material into a fuller course, adding explanation and examples | Notes, outlines and short documents that need more depth |
This choice is offered when you upload a single document. When you upload several, the agent combines them into one course.
What makes the course interactive?
The agent builds screens from blocks rather than copying pages. Depending on your content and the choices you make, a course can include accordions, flashcards, process steps, checklists, images, tables, knowledge check questions and a scored quiz. Learners move through the course section by section on any device, and their progress is saved so they can come back to it.
How should I prepare my document?
- Use real text. A PDF exported from Word or Google Docs works well. A scanned PDF is an image of text, and is much harder to turn into accurate content.
- Use headings. Clear headings and subheadings help the agent work out where sections and screens should break.
- Keep lists as lists. Bulleted and numbered lists are easier to turn into interactive blocks than long paragraphs.
- Remove what learners don't need. Version histories, sign-off tables and appendices make the course longer without helping anyone learn.
- Split very long documents. A 100-page handbook usually works better as several shorter courses, one per topic, than as one long course.
Frequently asked questions
Can I edit the course after it's built?
Yes. Every screen is editable. Change text, images and layout yourself, or describe what you want changed and the agent makes the edit.
Will quizzes be created from my document?
They can be. The agent asks about assessment while it builds, and can add knowledge checks through the course, a scored final quiz, or no assessment at all.
Can I build one course from several documents?
Yes. Upload them together and add a prompt explaining how they fit together. The agent merges them into a single course.
Can I build a course in a language other than English?
Yes. The agent asks which language to build the course in, and the source document doesn't have to be in the same language.