Cognito
Leverage artificial intelligence to create course content faster and more effectively
Cognito is your intelligent co-author, helping you create high-quality course content, generate assessments, and improve existing lessons. This guide covers all AI-powered features.
Cognito is available on Creator and Professional tier plans. Upgrade to unlock AI-powered content generation.
What Cognito Can Do
Content Generation
- Complete course outlines
- Lesson content from topics
- Code examples with explanations
- Practice exercises
- Summaries and key takeaways
Assessment Creation
- Quiz questions from content
- Multiple question types
- Answer explanations
- Difficulty adjustment
- Learning objective alignment
Content Improvement
- Clarity enhancement
- Grammar and style fixes
- Tone adjustment
- Accessibility improvements
- Translation to other languages
Smart Suggestions
- Missing prerequisites
- Additional examples needed
- Better learning progression
- Engagement opportunities
- Assessment gaps
Accessing Cognito
Three Ways to Use AI:
Click the "Cognito" button in the top toolbar to open the side panel. Use it for course-wide generation and planning.
Right-click any content block and select AI options for targeted improvements and transformations.
Select text and use the floating toolbar to get instant AI suggestions and improvements.
Generating Course Structure
Creating from Scratch
- Open the Cognito panel
- Click "Generate Course Structure"
- Describe your course topic and goals
- Specify difficulty level and target audience
- Set estimated total duration
- Review generated structure
- Accept, edit, or regenerate
"Create a beginner-level course teaching Python web development with Flask. Target audience is programmers new to Python who know HTML/CSS. Course should be 10-12 hours total, covering Flask basics, databases with SQLAlchemy, user authentication, and deployment."
Generating Lesson Content
From Scratch
To generate a complete lesson:
- Create a new lesson or select an empty one
- Click "Generate Content" in the Cognito panel
- Describe what the lesson should teach
- Specify any requirements (examples, exercises, etc.)
- Choose content style and length
- Review and edit generated content
From Outline
If you have bullet points or a rough outline:
- Paste or type your outline in the lesson
- Select the outline text
- Right-click → "Expand with AI"
- AI will flesh out each point with full explanations
Improving Existing Content
Enhancement Options
Make Clearer
Simplifies complex sentences and improves readability without changing meaning
Make More Detailed
Expands brief explanations with more examples and depth
Make More Concise
Removes unnecessary words while preserving key information
Change Tone
Adjusts writing style (formal, casual, technical, beginner-friendly, etc.)
Fix Grammar & Style
Corrects grammatical errors and improves writing quality
Generating Quizzes
From Lesson Content
- Complete your lesson content
- Open the Cognito panel
- Click "Generate Quiz"
- Specify number of questions (5-10 recommended)
- Choose question types to include
- Select difficulty level
- Review questions and answer feedback
- Edit or regenerate individual questions
AI-generated quizzes are excellent starting points, but always verify that questions are accurate, clear, and aligned with your learning objectives. Check that correct answers are truly correct!
Smart Suggestions
Proactive Recommendations
Cognito continuously analyzes your course and suggests improvements:
"This lesson uses concepts not covered in previous lessons. Consider adding prerequisite content."
"This concept is complex. Adding 1-2 more examples would help clarify."
"This lesson is significantly harder than previous ones. Consider breaking it into multiple lessons."
"This module has no quiz. Students would benefit from a knowledge check."
Working with AI Responses
Iterative Refinement
You can continue the conversation with Cognito to refine outputs:
"Generate an introduction to Python variables"
[Generates content]
"Make this simpler for complete beginners"
[Generates simplified version]
"Add a real-world analogy"
Accepting or Rejecting
For each AI suggestion, you can:
- Accept: Insert directly into your lesson
- Edit First: Modify before inserting
- Regenerate: Get a different version
- Reject: Discard and keep original
AI Customization
Setting Your Voice
Teach Cognito your style preferences:
- Go to Course Settings → AI Preferences
- Describe your teaching style
- Set preferred tone (formal, casual, conversational)
- Specify any terminology preferences
- Add example content showing your voice
Content Guidelines
Set rules for AI-generated content:
- Avoid certain terms or phrases
- Always include specific elements (objectives, summaries)
- Preferred example types
- Length constraints per lesson
- Required accessibility features
AI Usage Limits
Creator Tier
- 500 AI generations per month
- Standard response speed
- All generation types
- Basic customization
Professional Tier
- Unlimited AI generations
- Priority response speed
- Advanced customization
- Custom AI training on your content
Best Practices
- Be specific in your prompts - more detail = better results
- Use Cognito to overcome writer's block, not replace your expertise
- Always add your personal insights and experiences
- Fact-check technical information, especially for specialized topics
- Review and edit all AI content before publishing
- Use iterative refinement rather than accepting first results
Common Use Cases
Rapid Prototyping
Generate a full course outline in minutes to validate your idea. Share with stakeholders before investing time in full content creation.
Overcoming Writer's Block
When stuck on how to explain a concept, ask Cognito for multiple approaches. Use one as-is or combine ideas from several.
Content Refresh
Update old courses by asking Cognito to modernize examples, add recent developments, or adjust tone for current audiences.
Multilingual Content
Generate course content in one language, then use Cognito to translate and localize for other markets while maintaining your teaching style.
What's Next?
Learn about different content block types to structure your AI-generated content effectively, or explore assessment features to create comprehensive quizzes.