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Understanding the StretchCode content model

A deeper look at how courses, modules, lessons, quizzes, enrollments, and certificates relate — and what statuses and visibility mean.

Why the model matters

Every feature in StretchCode — the catalog, the lesson player, quizzes, progress tracking, and certificates — is built on one consistent hierarchy. Once you understand how the pieces relate and how status and visibility work, the whole app becomes predictable.

The hierarchy

Course
 └─ Module (ordered)
     └─ Lesson (ordered)
Course
 └─ Quiz (assessment) — course-level, gates completion
Course
 └─ Prerequisites — other courses required first
  • A course is the enrollable unit. Learners enroll in courses, not modules or lessons.
  • Modules are ordered sections that group lessons. They exist purely to structure the curriculum.
  • Lessons are the actual content. Their order within a module — combined with the module order — defines the linear path a learner follows.
  • A quiz attaches at the course level. A course can have a final quiz; passing it is part of completing the course.
  • Prerequisites link a course to other courses that should be completed first.

Status: draft, published, archived

Courses, modules, and lessons each carry a status:

  1. Draft — visible only to you in the builder. Learners never see draft items, even inside a published course. This lets you stage the next module while the rest of the course is live.
  2. Published — live. A published course appears in the catalog (if its visibility is public) and its published modules and lessons appear to enrolled learners.
  3. Archived — retired. Archiving hides an item from the catalog and the builder's active list without deleting its data or breaking existing certificates.

Because status is set per item, publishing a course does not automatically publish every lesson inside it. Only published lessons appear to learners. This is intentional: you can publish a course with the first three modules live and keep later modules in draft.

Visibility: public vs internal

Separate from status, each course has a visibility:

  • Public — eligible to appear in the searchable catalog, on learning paths, and in the sitemap. A course must be both published and public to show in the catalog.
  • Internal — usable within your organization but excluded from the public catalog and sitemap. Use this for training you don't want indexed or listed publicly.

Levels and lesson types

  • Course level is one of: beginner, intermediate, advanced, or all levels. Learners can filter the catalog by level.
  • Lesson type is one of: lesson, video, exercise, or reading. The type is a label that helps learners know what to expect and lets you mix formats within a module.

Enrollment, progress, and completion

  • An enrollment is created when a learner joins a course. It records when they enrolled, their status, and their last-accessed time.
  • Lesson progress is tracked per learner per lesson. Marking a lesson complete advances the progress percentage (completed lessons ÷ total published lessons).
  • Completion happens when a learner has completed every published lesson and passed every published quiz in the course. The moment both conditions are met, a certificate is issued.

A worked example

Suppose Data Basics has two published modules with five published lessons total and one published final quiz at 70%. A learner completes all five lessons — progress reads 100%, but the course is not yet complete because the quiz is unpassed. They take the quiz, score 80%, and the course flips to complete; certificate SC-1A2B3C4D5E is issued. If you later add a sixth published lesson, learners who hadn't completed will see their percentage drop until they finish it.

Tips

  • Use draft lessons inside a published course to release content in waves without republishing.
  • Keep a course internal while you pilot it with a small group, then flip it to public when it's ready for the catalog.
  • Remember completion requires the quiz to be passed, not just attempted — this is why certificates sometimes wait even when lessons show 100%.

Troubleshooting

A lesson I added isn't showing to learners. Confirm the lesson status is published, not draft. Draft lessons are hidden even inside a published course.

My course isn't in the catalog. The catalog only lists courses that are both published and public. Check both settings.

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