The Basics: Load Material
Your materials library is where you store everything you want to teach with — documents, videos, ebooks, images, and SCORM packages.
Go to the Materials tab.
Click Add Files and select one or more files from your computer or cloud storage.
To add a URL, you will first need to create a course.
To keep your library organized, create a Folder to group materials by topic or subject.
Honor recognizes almost any file format. See this Which file types does Honor Create support? for more information.
The Basics: Build a Framework
Once your materials are loaded, create a course and lay out your topic structure.
Go to the Courses tab and click Create a Course.
Enter a course name. Optionally, add a course code, course dates, or category. Then click Create.
Double-click into your course to open it.
Once in your course, select Add Course Image at the top of the page. Horizontal images at approximately a 3:2 aspect ratio work best.
Click the plus button and select Topic to add your first topic. Give it a name, set its Visibility level, and optionally a Due Date.
Repeat to add all your topics. You can drag topics to reorder them and change their details any time.
Topics can be used as standalone self-guided experiences or to complement in-person sessions.
If you need royalty-free images, unsplash.com is a great free resource.
The Basics: Create a Topic
Topics are where you sequence your materials into a guided learning experience.
Open a topic, click the Plus Button, and add Narrative. Use this to introduce the topic — set learning objectives or explain its purpose.
Select Material to pull items from your library into this topic. You can add documents, videos, and images.
Select Link to add a website URL. If you add a YouTube link, you will be prompted to add it as a link or as an embedded video.
You can also add Exercises to your course. Choose from four Exercise types:
- Short Answer — learners type a response.
- Quick Poll — learners select from options you define.
- File Upload — learners attach a file.
- Knowledge Check – multiple-choice exercises that provide immediate feedback to learners
Exercises default to Public, meaning learners see each other's responses after submitting their own. Uncheck this setting if you want responses to remain private.
Public Exercises contribute to social learning by letting learners see how their peers responded.
Engagement: Add Context
Activating a material means adding your voice and context to it so learners know why it's in the course and what to focus on.
Open any material in a topic.
Add a Title and a Description. Use the description to introduce the material and explain why you've included it in the curriculum.
Use Trim to limit the material to only the section you want learners to engage with — a specific chapter, page range, or video segment.
Click Add Commentary to add your voice directly into the material at any point. You can leave Audio or Text commentary.
Adding Commentary
Commentary is how you insert your voice into a learning material, providing learners with additional context or guidance.
For videos, navigate to the timestamp where you want to leave your comment. For readings, select the text you want to comment on.
Click the Add Commentary button to open the commentary panel.
Choose Audio or Text, then type or record your comment.
If recording audio, click the Stop icon to stop recording before saving.
Click Save.
Access all your comments at any time by clicking Commentary in the right-hand Details sidebar.
Commentary is most valuable at moments where learners commonly get stuck, or where you want to highlight something specific.
Engagement: Understand Learner Engagement
Reactions let learners actively engage with materials — highlighting what matters to them and why.
Learners highlight any portion of a material and select a reaction type:
Important · Interesting · Unclear · Debatable
After reacting, learners can add a note and start a Conversation. Peers and instructors can join Learner Conversations directly in the material. Reactions and Conversations are saved to their Notebook.
You can view and join in on Conversations directly from the Course page under the Conversations tab.
Encourage learners to make reactions and conversations early and often at the start of a course. This habit significantly improves engagement.
Engagement: Add an Assessment
Use Assessments when you want to collect and track student submissions in a structured way — for example, to assign a grade or participation credit.
Inside a Course, click the plus button to add an Assessment.
Give the assessment a name and set a Due Date.
Add instructions or details in the Prompt field.
Optionally, you can select Related Topics and Materials.
Select a submission type:
- File Upload — learners attach a file.
- Short Answer — learners type a written response.
- External Submission — learners submit through another tool, such as a separate LMS.
Once submissions come in, you can accept them directly or send them back to learners with comments.
Engagement: Contextual Analytics
Honor's analytics are presented right next to the content they relate to, so you never lose context.
The Engagement Sidebar appears at every level of your course: the course overview, individual topics, and inside each material.
Course Level
- Course Progress shows how coursework is being completed across all topics up to this point.
- Course Time Spent shows average and median time per topic.
- Course Reactions shows the total number of reactions made by your class across all topics.
Topic Level
- Topic Progress breaks down completion at the material and prompt level.
- Topic Time Spent shows average and median time per material and prompt.
- Topic Reactions shows the total reactions made across all materials in the topic.
Material Level
- Progress shows how far each learner has gotten through the material.
- Time Spent shows how much time learners have spent engaging with the material.
- Reactions breaks down reactions by location within the material and reaction type.
Exercise Level
- Responses shows the total number of submissions. Click in to see each learner's individual response.
- Progress shows how many learners have completed the prompt.
- Time Spent shows summary statistics for how long learners spent on the prompt.
Use analytics to gauge participation, prepare for live sessions, and identify learners who may be falling behind in real time.
Need Help?
If you have any questions about the course creation process or run into any issues, submit a support request and we will get back to you shortly.