Getting Started with StretchCode

What is StretchCode?

StretchCode is the StretchSuite app for building and running your own online learning academy. You author courses, organize them into a searchable catalog, enroll learners, quiz them, track their progress, and issue verifiable completion certificates — all inside your workspace. The same engine powers the public StretchCode coding academy, so anything you build inherits the same catalog, search, SEO, and certificate machinery.

Teams use StretchCode for employee onboarding and training, customer and partner education, product certification, and public course catalogs that drive adoption or leads.

StretchCode does not run code or execute anything for learners. It is a content platform: you write lessons, learners read/watch them, take quizzes, and earn certificates. Progress and grading are tracked server-side.

Key concepts

Everything is built from a small hierarchy. Learn these six terms and the rest of the app follows.

• Course — the unit a learner enrolls in. Has a title, URL slug, level, summary, images, tags, outcomes, and SEO fields.
• Module — an ordered section inside a course that groups lessons.
• Lesson — one learning unit inside a module, with a body (Markdown or HTML), a type (lesson, video, exercise, reading), an estimated duration, and an optional free-preview flag.
• Quiz (assessment) — a course-level, multiple-choice quiz with a pass threshold. Passing it is required to complete a course.
• Enrollment — a learner's registration in a course; it anchors their progress.
• Certificate — issued automatically the first time a learner finishes everything, with a unique verifiable serial.

Each course, module, and lesson is draft, published, or archived, and each course is public or internal. Levels are beginner, intermediate, advanced, or all levels.

Build and publish your first course

1. Open StretchCode from the workspace app launcher. The Overview shows your course, module, and lesson counts and your most recently updated courses.
2. Choose New course. Enter a title (for example, Onboarding: Your First Week), pick a level, and add a short card summary — the one-line description learners see on the catalog card.
3. Open the new course in the Course Builder and add your first module (for example, Getting oriented).
4. Inside that module, add lessons. Write each lesson body in Markdown. Mark the first lesson as Free preview so prospects can sample it without enrolling.
5. (Optional) Add a Final Quiz with a few multiple-choice questions and a pass mark (70% is the default).
6. Fill in the course Details — summary, learning outcomes, cover image, and topic tags — so the catalog card and course page look complete.
7. Click Publish. Nothing is visible to learners until this step. Publishing puts the course in your catalog and makes it enrollable.
8. Share the course link or enroll learners. As they complete lessons (and pass the quiz, if any), StretchCode tracks progress and issues a certificate on completion.

A realistic example

A coaching business builds Client Intake Mastery: three modules (Preparing, The intake call, Follow-up), twelve lessons, and a ten-question final quiz set to an 80% pass mark. The first lesson is a free preview. After publishing, the course appears in the catalog; a new client enrolls, works through the lessons, passes the quiz on the second attempt, and instantly receives certificate SC-9F3A1C7B22 with a public verification link they can share.

Tips

• Draft freely — a course, module, or lesson stays invisible to learners until it is published. Use draft status to build in private.
• Always mark at least one lesson free preview; it is your conversion hook for public courses.
• The learner's Continue button jumps to their first incomplete lesson, so order modules and lessons in the sequence you want people to learn.
• Keep the card summary short and benefit-led; keep the full summary and learning outcomes for the course page.

FAQ

Do learners need an account? Yes — to enroll, track progress, and earn certificates. Anonymous visitors can still read any lesson you mark as a free preview.

Can I change a course after publishing? Yes. Edits to a published course go live immediately, so make substantial rewrites while in draft or during quiet hours.

Where do learners actually take the course? On the public course page and lesson player. Your workspace Overview and Learners view show who is enrolled and how far they've progressed.

What's next? Read Understanding the StretchCode content model to go deeper, then Authoring courses, modules, and lessons to master the builder.