# Build a syllabus: stages, lessons and tasks

> Add stages, then lessons inside them, then the graded tasks inside a lesson. The control that matters most is Credits toward, because a lesson with nothing ticked credits no hours at all.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/build-a-syllabus
Section: Training and curriculum. For: Owners, Admins, Instructors.

Open the course and go to **Syllabus**. Add a stage, then lessons inside it, then the graded
tasks inside a lesson. The control that matters most is **Credits toward** in the lesson
dialog: a lesson with nothing ticked can be flown, graded and signed, and will credit no
hours anywhere.

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins, holders of the Configure training grant

## Before you start

Two things save you a rebuild.

- **The version has to be a draft.** A published version is shown as a plain read-only page
  with no pencils and no Add buttons at all. That is on purpose, not a loading failure. See
  [Publish a syllabus version](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/publish-a-syllabus-version).
- **Add your requirements first.** Until the version has requirements, the Credits toward
  box in the lesson dialog is empty and shows an amber warning, so lessons added early
  credit nothing until you go back and fix them.
  [Add hour and landing requirements](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/add-hour-requirements)

Once a course has more than one version, a version dropdown appears in the course header.
Check it before you edit anything: it silently governs the Syllabus, Requirements and
Students sections below it.

![Course detail, Syllabus tab (draft)](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/syllabus-stages-lessons.png)

## Add a stage

A stage is an ordered block of lessons: "Stage 1, Presolo", "Stage 2, Cross-country and
night".

1. **Course → Syllabus → Add stage**

2. **Give it a Name and an Objective**

   The objective is what the student reads on the record and on the phone.

3. **Click Add stage**

   It saves immediately. There is no separate Save for the page.

## Add a lesson

1. **Click Add lesson inside the stage**

2. **Fill in the lesson**

   Name, **Type** (Flight, Ground or Simulator), **Flight hrs**, **Ground hrs**, Objectives and
   Completion standards.

   The hours are a prefill, not a floor. They fill the hour boxes in the grading dialog so the
   common case is open, confirm, sign. Nothing refuses a lower number on the day.

3. **Tick Credits toward**

   Beside each requirement this lesson should feed, click **flight time**, **ground time** or
   **per lesson**. Read the next section before you skip this.

4. **Click Add lesson**

The **Type** you choose here decides which bookings can grade the lesson at close-out: dual
and solo bookings offer flight lessons, ground bookings offer ground lessons, sim bookings
offer sim lessons. See
[Grade a lesson when you close out the flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/grade-a-lesson-at-close-out).

## Tick what the lesson credits

**Credits toward** is the fan-out. When a lesson record is signed, its hours are added to
every requirement ticked here, from the clock you chose:

| Choice      | What is posted                                                     |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| flight time | The flight hours on the record                                     |
| ground time | The ground hours on the record                                     |
| per lesson  | One event, for a requirement measured in a count rather than hours |

One flight can credit several requirements at once, which is the whole point: a night
cross-country feeds total time, dual received, night training and cross-country time from a
single signature.

![Lesson dialog, Credits toward box](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/syllabus-lesson-dialog-credits.png)

> **Careful:** A lesson with nothing ticked under Credits toward is fully flyable, gradeable and signable,
> and contributes zero hours to every requirement, silently. The expanded lesson row shows an
> amber **Credits nothing** line, and nothing else warns you.
>
> If a school's hour bars are not moving, this is almost always why. Expand every lesson in
> the syllabus and look for that line.

## Add tasks and ACS codes

A task is one graded item inside a lesson: one maneuver or one knowledge area, optionally
carrying its ACS code, for example `PA.VII.B`.

1. **Expand the lesson row**

2. **Click Add tasks (or Edit tasks)**

3. **Click Add task for each item**

   Give it a name and, if you have it, the ACS code.

4. **Click Save tasks**

> **Note:** Tasks are graded wherever you grade: each one gets its own row with the ACS code beside it
> and your course's marks as buttons, on the phone, in the grading dialog and in the flight
> close-out. Marking them is optional, and a task left unmarked stays unmarked rather than
> being recorded as a pass.

## Edit, delete and reorder

- **Edit** anything with the pencil on its row, while the version is still a draft. Name,
  objectives, hours and the other lesson fields stay editable after a student has a record
  on that lesson. **Credits toward** does not: once a record exists, changing what the
  lesson credits is refused, because it would rewrite what already-signed hours counted
  toward. Make a new version instead.
- **Delete** with the trash icon. Deleting a stage deletes the lessons inside it, and the
  confirmation names how many. If the syllabus already has training records, delete is
  refused and the page tells you why.
- **Reorder** is the one thing you cannot do. There is no drag to reorder, and a lesson
  keeps the position it had when it was added. Add lessons in the order you teach them, and
  if the order is wrong, delete and re-add rather than hunting for a handle.

## Two lesson settings worth knowing

- **Notes required** refuses the signature while the Notes box is empty ("This lesson needs
  notes before it can be signed."), on every surface: the app, the grading dialog, the flight
  close-out and the API. Set it on the lessons where a narrative matters. On a lesson that
  still requires sign-off, Save draft is unaffected, so a half-written record can still be
  parked. On a sign-off-optional lesson a passing Save draft is the signature, so notes are
  required then too. Once a record exists on the lesson, this switch, **Requires sign-off**,
  and **This is the stage check** freeze with the credit map: flipping them would rewrite
  whether an unsigned grade already counts as complete.
- **Requires sign-off** defaults on. Turn it off for a self-study module or a written quiz:
  a passing grade finishes the lesson without a student countersignature, and saving that
  passing grade also stamps the instructor and posts the hours. The console hides Sign once
  the lesson is complete, so those hours have to post on Save draft or they never would.
- **Flight hrs** and **Ground hrs** prefill the grading dialog, as above.

## Next

- [Add hour requirements](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/add-hour-requirements): The amounts a student has to accumulate, and the caps that discount them.
- [Set the grading scale](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/set-the-grading-scale): Which marks the course uses, and which of them complete a lesson.
- [Publish the version](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/publish-a-syllabus-version): What publishing locks, and how to revise it afterwards.
- [Enroll a student](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/training/enroll-a-student): Check the version first, then enroll from the course page.