Create Custom Lessons (Teacher)

Custom lessons let you put your own content in front of your class - a passage from this week's reading, a spelling list, a set of questions - and have students type it. Every account can make them, free or PLUS. This article walks through it.

Note: there are three kinds of custom lesson. Free accounts can create a Typing Lesson and a Typing Test. A Written Prompt needs PLUS, and so does any lesson screen other than Standard.

📢 VIDEO: Creating Custom Lessons in Typing.com

Step 1: Log in to your Teacher Portal HERE.

Step 2: Click Custom Lessons in the left-hand menu.

Step 3: Click Create Custom Lesson, top right.

Step 4: Choose which kind of custom lesson to make.

(Note: a Written Prompt requires a PLUS subscription.)

Typing Lesson: one or more typing screens. Six screen types are offered - Standard, Advanced, Game, Falling Letter, Block Letters and Coding. Standard is available to every account; the other five require PLUS.

Typing Test: a single, timed typing screen between 30 seconds and 10 minutes. Free accounts can create these.

Written Prompt: free response prompts to prepare students for standardized testing. PLUS only. There is a walkthrough of this type in How to Create a Written Prompt.

Step 5: Fill in the lesson's details. Three are required and marked with a red asterisk - Lesson Title, Save As (Published or Draft) and Visibility - and three are optional: Lesson Introduction, Curriculum and On Screen Keyboard.

Visibility decides where students meet the lesson. Visible in Student Lesson List puts it in their lesson list, so they can start it whenever they like. Visible Only When Assigned keeps it out of the list until you include it in an assignment, which is what you want for an assessment; that setting requires PLUS. The two choices are what the Always Visible and Assignable Only tabs on the Custom Lessons page sort your lessons into.

Step 6: Pick a screen type from the Lesson Screens row, then type or paste what you want students to type into the screen that appears.

Step 7: Add more screens the same way if you want them, then click Create Typing Lesson at the foot of the form.

Pro-Tip: with more than one screen, drag a screen by the handle on its left to reorder it.

Step 8: Students see the lesson next time they log in. A student who is already logged in needs to log out and back in for it to appear.

• If your students cannot see a custom lesson you made, check that it is switched on for the class. Open the class, click Class Settings, go to the Lessons tab, expand Custom Lessons at the foot of the list, tick the lesson, and click Save All Changes. Hide Specific Content and Lessons covers this in full. Students already logged in need to log out and back in.

• A custom test is filed with your custom lessons, not with the typing tests. It appears in the Custom Lessons unit of the class's curriculum, alongside the lessons you have made; the Typing Tests page carries only the standard timed and page tests.

• Break lessons into multiple screens to keep students engaged and break up the monotony.

You can start a custom lesson from any page. Click the blue plus button in the top bar, to the left of your name, and choose Create Custom Lesson from the menu.

That is it. Anything you build shows up under Custom Lessons for the curricula you picked, and you can edit or reorder it from that page at any time.