How to Create and Publish a Course on Skilljar Step by Step Guide

If you’re tasked with getting a training course online and you’ve landed on Skilljar, this guide is for you. Maybe you’re an educator, a customer enablement lead, or just the “techy one” on your team who drew the short straw. Either way, you want to get a course live—without getting bogged down in never-ending settings or endless content tweaks.

Skilljar isn’t magic. It’s a solid platform, but it won’t suddenly turn your slides into an engaging course. What it will do is give you a straightforward way to organize, publish, and track your training. Here’s how to actually do it, step by step, with some real talk about what’s worth your time (and what isn’t).

Step 1: Get Your Content Ready Before You Touch Skilljar

Let’s be honest: Skilljar (what’s that?) is a tool for delivering training, not creating it from scratch. If you’re still tinkering with your outline or you haven’t nailed down your content, don’t even log in yet.

Have this ready: - A clear course outline (modules, lessons, objectives) - Videos, slides, PDFs, quizzes, or whatever you’re using to teach - Branding assets (logo, colors) if your company cares about that stuff

Pro tip: Don’t overthink the polish. You can swap out assets later, but getting the basic flow right up front saves you headaches.

Step 2: Set Up Your Course Shell in Skilljar

Now you’re ready to start clicking buttons.

  1. Log in to your Skilljar dashboard.

  2. If you don’t have access, you’ll need to bug your company’s admin. Permissions matter here.

  3. Go to the “Courses” tab.

  4. Look for a big “+ New Course” button. Click it.

  5. Fill in the basics:

  6. Course Title: Keep it clear and direct. Skip the jargon.
  7. Description: One or two sentences is fine. This shows up in your catalog.

  8. Thumbnail: Optional, but it helps your course look less like a placeholder.

  9. Save. Now you’ve got an empty shell. Don’t worry about every setting yet.

What not to worry about right now: Don’t get lost in details like pricing, certificates, or if you need to tag every lesson. Focus on the skeleton first.

Step 3: Build Out Modules and Lessons

Skilljar splits content into “modules” (sections) and “lessons” (individual pieces). Think of modules like chapters and lessons like pages.

  1. Add your first module.

  2. Name it something logical—“Getting Started,” “Overview,” etc.

  3. Inside the module, add lessons.

  4. For each lesson, you’ll pick a lesson type:
    • Video
    • Text
    • Quiz
    • PDF/Download
    • Web Link

  5. Upload your content or paste text as needed.

  6. Reorder as you go.

  7. Drag-and-drop works, but it’s not perfect. Sometimes you’ll need to refresh to see changes.

A few honest takes: - Don’t stress about making every lesson a multimedia extravaganza. Most learners just want clear, actionable info. - Quizzes are easy to set up but tend to be basic. If you need complex branching or fancy scoring, Skilljar isn’t the tool for that. - Use text lessons for quick instructions or context. Don’t upload a wall of text—people will bail.

Step 4: Add (Optional) Engagement Features

Now’s the time to sprinkle in the extras—but only if they actually add value.

  • Quizzes: Good for a quick knowledge check, but keep them short.
  • Surveys: Useful if you want feedback, but don’t expect deep insights—most people skip them.
  • Prerequisites: You can require learners to finish one module before starting the next. Only use this if it’s actually necessary; otherwise, it just annoys fast learners.
  • Certificates: Skilljar can auto-generate certificates on completion. Nice for some audiences, but don’t expect learners to frame them.

Skip: Gamification, badges, and other “engagement” fluff—unless you know your audience actually cares.

Step 5: Configure Course Settings That Matter

Skilljar has a lot of options. Most of them you can ignore, but a few are important.

  • Visibility: Set your course to “Published” only when you’re ready for people to see it.
  • Enrollment: Decide if users self-enroll, or if you’ll manually add them. For employee training, you’ll probably do bulk enrollments.
  • Access: Public vs. private. If your course is for paying customers or internal staff only, set it to private.
  • Course expiration: If you want access to expire after a certain time, set it here. Most people don’t need this.

What usually isn’t worth fussing over: - SEO settings (unless your course is public and meant to show up in Google) - Tags and categories (handy for big course catalogs, but not essential if you have just a few offerings) - Fancy theme customizations—stick to out-of-the-box unless your marketing team twists your arm

Step 6: Preview and Test Your Course

Before you unleash your course on real learners, check everything.

  • Preview every lesson. Make sure videos load, links work, and formatting isn’t wonky.
  • Take the course like a learner. Use an incognito or different browser profile if you can.
  • Check progress tracking. Mark lessons complete and confirm everything unlocks as it should.

Pro tip: Ask a colleague who wasn’t involved to take the course and give honest feedback. You’ll spot issues you missed.

Step 7: Publish and Share Your Course

When you’re happy with the content and the flow, it’s time to go live.

  1. Set the course status to “Published.”
  2. Add it to your Skilljar catalog.
  3. You can have multiple catalogs for different audiences (employees, customers, partners).
  4. Share the enrollment link.
  5. Email it, post it in Slack, whatever works for your audience.

Don’t: Announce your course with fireworks and a 10-step launch plan. Just get it out there, then tweak as needed.

Step 8: Track Learner Progress and Make Improvements

Skilljar’s reporting is built for managers, not data scientists. Here’s what you actually get:

  • Completion rates: Who started, who finished, where folks drop off
  • Quiz scores: Basic pass/fail, not deep analytics
  • Exportable reports: CSV files you can open in Excel

What to do with this info: - If everyone bails after lesson 2, rethink that section. - If no one passes your quiz, maybe it’s too hard (or unclear). - If completion rates are low across the board, your course might be too long or not relevant.

Iterate: Don’t wait for perfection. Update your course as you get real feedback.

A Few Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Overcomplicating your structure. If you need a flowchart to explain your course outline, it’s too much.
  • Uploading giant videos. Keep file sizes reasonable—Skilljar will compress, but slow networks will struggle.
  • Ignoring accessibility. Use captions for videos, alt text for images, and don’t color-code things without text.
  • Thinking Skilljar will “engage” your learners. Good content is what matters, not the platform.

Keep It Simple — and Ship It

Skilljar is a solid platform for getting training online, but it won’t do the work for you. Build your course in the simplest way that gets the job done, hit publish, and improve as you go. Most learners just want clear instructions and easy access—don’t let “perfect” get in the way of “done.”