Welcome
👋What is Learning Blocks?
Learning Blocks is a platform for building interactive, gamified courses , the kind that feel more like a game than homework: short lessons, instant feedback, XP, and a streak you don't want to break.
As a creator, you assemble each lesson from blocks, small, ready-made pieces for explaining, quizzing, and challenging your learners. You snap them together like puzzle pieces, and the platform handles the scoring, progress tracking, and rewards for you.
This guide walks through how a course is structured, what every block does, and how to publish and share your work. Each block below has a live demo you can play with right here on the page.
The big idea
🧩How it works
Snap blocks together
Add text, quizzes, flashcards, video and more to a lesson. Drag them into the order you want.
Make it a game
Interactive blocks award XP for correct answers. Learners keep a streak and climb as they go.
Publish & share
Flip your course to published, share the link, and watch people learn on web and mobile.
Structure
🗂️Anatomy of a course
Every course nests four layers. From biggest to smallest:
Course
The whole thing, a subject you're teaching, e.g. “Intro to Astronomy”.
Unit
A major chapter within the course, e.g. “The Solar System”.
Section
A node on the course map, a small cluster of related lessons.
Lesson
A single, finishable session a learner plays in a few minutes.
Block
The smallest piece, one explanation, question, or activity.
In short: Course → Units → Sections → Lessons → Blocks.
Layer 2
📦Units
A unit is a major chapter of your course. Most courses have a handful of units, each covering a big theme. They appear as labeled bands running down the course map.
- • Give each unit a clear title and an emoji icon so learners can tell chapters apart at a glance.
- • Order units from foundational to advanced, learners move down the map top to bottom.
- • A unit can be marked as a checkpoint to signal a milestone in the journey.
Layer 3
📍Sections
Inside a unit, content is grouped into sections, the circular nodes you tap on the winding course map. Each section holds one or more lessons on a single focused topic.
- • Think of a section as “one idea, taught well”. Keep them tight, a few lessons each.
- • Each section gets its own icon emoji, which shows on its map node.
- • Sections unlock in order as learners earn enough XP, so the path always feels like progress.
Layer 4
🎓Lessons
A lesson is what a learner actually plays, a short stack of blocks they move through one at a time, finishing with a celebration screen and their XP for the session.
You give each lesson a title and fill it with blocks, the platform handles the rest: stepping the learner through one block at a time, scoring the interactive ones, and tallying the XP at the end.
There's no lesson “type” setting, but the way you mix your blocks naturally shapes a lesson into one of these roles:
Standard
Mostly teaching blocks with a few checks, your everyday lesson that introduces new material.
Practice
Stack interactive question blocks with little new theory to reinforce a skill.
Challenge
Lean on the tougher blocks to stretch learners who want more.
Review
Revisit questions from earlier sections to lock material into memory.
Aim for lessons a learner can finish in 2–5 minutes. Short lessons feel achievable, and finishing one is what keeps streaks and momentum alive.
Layer 5, the building blocks
🧱Blocks
Blocks are the heart of the platform. There are 14 types, grouped by what they're for. Mix teaching blocks with interactive ones so every lesson both explains and checks.
Teach
Set up an idea before you test it.
Check understanding
Quick questions with right / wrong answers.
Make them think
Drag, sort, match, and build for deeper recall.
Engage & review
Self-test and gather opinions, no pressure.
Text
Learners read a passage of formatted text, perfect for teaching a concept before you quiz on it.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the explanation in the body field.
- 2.Use it to set up the blocks that follow.
Try it 👇
Concept
Photosynthesis 🌿
Plants turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. The green pigment chlorophyll captures the light that powers the whole reaction.
Multiple Choice
Learners pick one correct answer from a list of options and get instant right/wrong feedback.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the question prompt.
- 2.Add 2-4 answer options.
- 3.Mark exactly one option as correct.
Try it 👇
Which pigment captures light for photosynthesis?
True / False
Learners judge a single statement as true or false, then see if they were right.
How to set it up
- 1.Write a clear statement.
- 2.Set whether it is true or false.
Try it 👇
Whales are mammals, not fish.
Fill in the Blank
Learners type the missing word or phrase to complete a sentence.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the sentence and mark the blank.
- 2.Enter the accepted answer(s).
Try it 👇
The capital of France is ______.
Matching Pairs
Learners connect each item on the left to its matching item on the right.
How to set it up
- 1.Add pairs of related items.
- 2.Each left item maps to its correct right item.
Try it 👇
Match each animal to its sound.
Sort List
Learners drag items into the correct order, great for sequences, steps, or rankings.
How to set it up
- 1.Add the items.
- 2.Arrange them in the correct order.
Try it 👇
Put the plant life cycle in order.
Flashcard
Learners see a prompt, think, then flip the card to reveal the answer.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the front (prompt).
- 2.Write the back (answer).
Try it 👇
Tap the card to flip
Word Bank
Learners build a sentence by tapping words from a bank in the right order.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the target sentence.
- 2.Add distractor words to make the bank challenging.
Try it 👇
Build the sentence: tap the words in order.
Slider
Learners drag a slider to pick a numeric value, scored against a target range.
How to set it up
- 1.Set the min and max range.
- 2.Set the correct value and an acceptable margin.
Try it 👇
What percent of Earth's surface is water?
Reveal Steps
Learners tap to reveal each step one at a time, ideal for walking through a process.
How to set it up
- 1.Add each step in order.
- 2.Learners reveal them sequentially.
Try it 👇
How to make scrambled eggs 🍳
Poll
Learners vote on an opinion question, there's no right answer, just aggregate results.
How to set it up
- 1.Write the question.
- 2.Add the response options.
Try it 👇
When do you study best? (no wrong answer)
Image
Learners view an image with an optional caption.
How to set it up
- 1.Upload or link an image.
- 2.Add an optional caption.
Try it 👇
A labeled diagram or photo, with an optional caption underneath.
Video
Learners watch an embedded video inline in the lesson.
How to set it up
- 1.Paste a video URL (e.g. YouTube).
- 2.Add an optional caption.
Try it 👇
Embed a YouTube or video URL, it plays right inside the lesson.
Hotspot
Learners tap labeled regions on an image to explore or answer.
How to set it up
- 1.Upload the image.
- 2.Place hotspots and label each region.
Try it 👇
Tap the parts of the car 🚗
Make it discoverable
🏷️Course details
A course's details decide how it looks in Explore and how the right learners find it. Set these in the course metadata panel:
Cover image
The first thing people see. Use a bold, on-topic image.
Title & description
Say plainly what learners will be able to do by the end.
Category
Science, Language, Math, Coding, Art, Business, or Other.
Difficulty
Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced, set expectations honestly.
The reward system
⚡XP & rewards
XP (experience points) is the fuel of the platform. Learners earn it by completing interactive blocks, and it drives streaks, progress, and unlocking the next section.
You don't set XP by hand. A lesson's reward is the sum of its blocks, each block type is worth a fixed amount, so harder, more interactive blocks naturally pay out more. The more meaningful practice you pack into a lesson, the more XP it's worth.
XP is awarded server-side and can't be gamed by learners, you can trust the numbers on your course.
Go live
🚀Publishing & sharing
While you build, your course stays a private draft, only you can see it. When it's ready, flip it to published from your courses page.
Draft
Work in progress. Edit freely; nobody else sees it.
Published
Live and discoverable in Explore for everyone.
Share code
Every course has a link you can send directly, even before going fully public.
Changed your mind? You can unpublish any time. That stops new learners from discovering the course while keeping everyone who's already enrolled exactly where they are.
Teach live
🏫Classrooms
A class is one of your courses taught to a real group - a school class, a tutoring group, a cohort. You get a join code, a live roster, pacing controls, and a class leaderboard. Classes need the Classroom plan (which includes everything in Premium); your students always join free - your plan covers them, up to your plan's seat limit across all your running classes.
Start from the Classes page: pick a course, name the class, and choose a pacing mode. You can change settings any time.
Self-paced
Every unit is open. Students move as fast as they like.
Scheduled
Units unlock on dates you set - plan a whole term in advance.
Teacher-gated
You unlock each unit live, right when the class is ready for it.
In every mode the first unit is always open, and you can manually unlock any unit early - a manual unlock always wins. Inside an unlocked unit, lessons still open in order as students progress.
Students join with a code
Every class has a short join code. Share it however you like - students enter it in the app and they're in. Want a say in who joins? Turn on approval and new joiners wait for your OK. You can rotate the code at any time if it leaks, and remove or block anyone from the roster.
The class lifecycle
A class starts as a draft, opens for enrollment, then runs. When the term is over, end it: students keep their results and the leaderboard stays visible, but lessons stop counting for the class. You can also set start and end dates and let the class move through these stages on its own.
Class XP & the leaderboard
Students earn class XP for lessons they complete in your class - a separate tally from their lifetime XP, so someone who already finished the course once still competes fairly. Perfect scores earn a bonus, and finishing the whole course earns a big one.
The roster is live
See each student's progress and class XP at a glance, approve pending joiners, and keep the class tidy. Students see the leaderboard; only you see the full roster.
Good to know: if your Classroom subscription lapses, your classes pause - students keep their results but can't continue lessons until you resubscribe, and everything picks up exactly where it left off. Ending or archiving a class frees up its seats for your next one.
Before you publish
✅Creator checklist
- ✓Each lesson finishes in 2–5 minutes.
- ✓Every teaching block is followed by a question that checks it.
- ✓Wrong answers in your quizzes are plausible, not throwaway.
- ✓Units and sections are ordered foundational → advanced.
- ✓Title, description, category, difficulty, and a cover image are all set.
- ✓You played through the whole course yourself at least once.