Documentation

LearnBuild is a full-stack Learning Management System (LMS) for instructors who want to create and sell courses, and students who want to learn through structured, high-quality content.

What you can do

• As a guest — browse the public catalog, view course details, and read curriculum without signing in.
• As a student — enroll in free and paid courses, watch video lessons, track progress, take notes, and earn downloadable certificates.
• As an instructor — create multi-section courses with video, text, and quiz lessons; set pricing; and track student enrollments.
• As an admin — manage all users, courses, and categories across the platform.

Platform highlights

• HLS video streaming via Bunny.net CDN with signed URLs
• Paystack payment integration for paid course enrollment
• Downloadable PDF certificates on course completion
• Secure authentication with httpOnly JWT cookies
• Dark and light mode support

Registering

Click Get started in the navigation bar (or visit /auth/register). Fill in your first name, last name, email address, and a password of at least 8 characters. A welcome email is sent once your account is created.

Signing in

Click Sign in in the nav (or visit /auth/login). Authentication uses secure httpOnly cookies — no tokens are stored in local storage.

Forgot your password?

1. Click Forgot password? on the sign-in page.
2. Enter your registered email address and submit.
3. Check your inbox for a reset link — it expires in 1 hour.
4. Click the link and enter your new password.
5. You will be redirected to sign in automatically after 3 seconds.

Signing out

Click Sign out in the navigation bar. You will be redirected to the login page. All active sessions and refresh tokens are invalidated on logout.

Navigation bar

• LearnBuild logo — returns to the homepage.
• Catalog — the public course catalog with search and filters.
• Teach — visible to Instructors only; links to the instructor dashboard.
• Theme toggle — switches between dark and light mode. Your preference is saved across sessions.
• My Learning — your student dashboard with enrolled courses and certificates.
• Sign in / Get started — shown when you are not logged in.

Key pages at a glance

• / — Landing page with featured courses and platform overview.
• /catalog — Browse all published courses.
• /catalog/[slug] — Course detail page with curriculum, instructor bio, and enroll button.
• /dashboard — Your personal learning dashboard (requires login).
• /learn/[slug] — The in-course learning interface (requires enrollment).
• /instructor — Instructor dashboard (Instructor only).
• /docs — This documentation page.

LearnBuild uses four roles to control what each user can see and do.

Guest

• Browse the full course catalog without an account.
• View course detail pages: title, description, curriculum, instructor bio, and reviews.
• Watch preview lessons marked free by the instructor.
• Cannot enroll in any course.

Student (default for all new accounts)

• Everything a Guest can do.
• Enroll in free and paid courses.
• Access the full learning interface for enrolled courses.
• Track progress, take notes, and mark lessons complete.
• Leave reviews on enrolled courses.
• Earn and download completion certificates.
• Access the personal dashboard at /dashboard.

Instructor

• Everything a Student can do.
• Create, edit, and publish courses.
• Build course curriculum with sections and lessons.
• Upload video lessons, write text lessons, and create quizzes.
• Access the Instructor dashboard at /instructor.

The course catalog at /catalog is publicly accessible — no account required. It lists all published courses with search, filter, and sort options.

Searching

Type into the search bar in the left sidebar to filter courses by keyword. The search matches against course titles and descriptions.

Filtering

• Category — filter by subject area (e.g. Design, Development, Business). Categories are managed by admins.
• Level — filter by Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced.

Sorting

• Newest — most recently published first.
• Most popular — highest student enrollment.
• Highest rated — best average review rating.
• Price: Low to High / High to Low — sort by course price.

Course cards

Each card shows the cover image, title, instructor name, average star rating, total students, duration, and price. Click any card to open the full course detail page.

Pagination

The catalog shows 9 courses per page. Use the numbered pagination controls at the bottom to navigate. Active filters and search terms are preserved across pages.

You must be signed in to enroll in any course. Open a course detail page and click the Enroll button in the right sidebar.

Free courses

Clicking Enroll on a free course immediately grants you access. The button changes to Go to course and the course appears in your dashboard.

Paid courses

1. Click Enroll — ₦X,XXX on the course detail page.
2. You are redirected to the Paystack checkout page.
3. Complete payment using your card, bank transfer, or other supported method.
4. On successful payment, Paystack sends a webhook to LearnBuild which automatically enrolls you.
5. You are redirected back to the course detail page where the button now reads Go to course.

After enrolling, click Go to course (or Continue from your dashboard) to enter the learning interface at /learn/[slug].

Layout overview

• Top bar — shows the course title, your progress (e.g. "3 / 12 completed"), and buttons to toggle the lesson sidebar and notes panel.
• Lesson sidebar (left) — lists all sections and lessons. Click any lesson to jump to it. Completed lessons show a teal checkmark.
• Main content (centre) — displays the current lesson: video player, text content, or quiz.
• Notes panel (right) — collapsible panel for personal notes tied to each lesson.

Lesson types

• Video — streamed via Bunny.net HLS. Supports playback controls, fullscreen, and adaptive quality.
• Text — rich formatted content: headings, lists, code blocks, and images.
• Quiz — interactive questions to test your understanding.

Marking lessons complete

Click Mark complete below the lesson content. The lesson gets a checkmark in the sidebar and your progress counter updates. Click Next lesson to advance automatically.

Notes panel

Click the sticky-note icon in the top bar to open the notes panel. Notes are per-lesson and saved automatically.

Mobile

On mobile, the lesson sidebar and notes panel open as full-screen overlays. Tap the backdrop or the close button to dismiss them.

Your student dashboard at /dashboard gives you a full overview of your learning activity.

Stats overview

• Courses enrolled — total number of courses you have access to.
• Certificates earned — courses you have fully completed with a certificate issued.
• In progress — courses you have started but not yet finished.
• Completed — courses where all lessons are marked complete.

My Courses

Each enrolled course card shows a progress bar and three possible action states:

• Start — no progress yet.
• Continue — resumes from where you left off.
• Review — all lessons complete.

LearnBuild issues a completion certificate when you mark all lessons in a course as complete.

Earning a certificate

1. Enroll in any course (free or paid).
2. Work through each lesson and click Mark complete on each one.
3. When the progress counter shows all lessons done, a Get certificate button appears at the top of the learning interface.
4. Click it to generate and issue your certificate.

Downloading your certificate

Once issued, your certificate appears in the Certificates section of your dashboard. Click Download certificate to save the PDF.

The certificate includes your full name, course title, instructor name, and the date of completion.

After enrolling in a course, you can leave a star rating and written review on the course detail page.

How to leave a review

1. Go to the course detail page (/catalog/[slug]).
2. Scroll to the Reviews section at the bottom.
3. Select a star rating (1–5) and write your review.
4. Click Submit review.

Where reviews appear

Reviews are displayed publicly on the course detail page. The average rating and total review count appear in the course stats row and on catalog cards.