---
title: "Welcome"
description: "What Open Learning Studio is, what you can build with it, and the few words you need to know before you start."
canonical_url: "https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/start/welcome"
---
# Welcome

> What Open Learning Studio is, what you can build with it, and the few words you need to know before you start.

Open Learning Studio is a free tool for making online courses. You build slides with text, pictures, videos, buttons and quiz questions right in your browser. At the end you download one file and upload it to Moodle (or another learning platform), where your learners take the course. You need no account and no programming skills.

What you get:

- **My courses**: your list of courses, stored in this browser.
- **The editor**: where you design slides, much like in a presentation program.
- **The preview**: plays your course exactly as learners will see it.
- **Publish**: packs the course into a file for Moodle or for a normal website.

## Get going in 3 steps

<procedure>

### Open My courses

Open the Studio in your browser and click **My courses** at the top. This page lists every course stored in this browser.

### Create a course

Click **New course**, give it a name and pick a template. If you just want to look around, choose **Example: IT basics**: a finished sample course with 7 chapters.

### Try it out

The editor opens. Click **Preview** at the top right to play the course like a learner. Close the preview and change something on a slide. Everything is saved automatically.

</procedure>

<hint-box kind="tip" title="Step by step">

The page [Your first course](https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/start/first-course) walks you through a whole course, from the empty list to the file for Moodle.

</hint-box>

## What you can build

<bench-grid cols="2">
<bench-card icon="i-lucide-presentation" title="Slides with content">

Text, shapes, lines, pictures, video, tables, charts, buttons and input fields, placed freely on a slide.

</bench-card>

<bench-card icon="i-lucide-git-branch" title="Branching and logic">

Buttons that jump somewhere, pop-ups that open, content that reacts to what learners do.

</bench-card>

<bench-card icon="i-lucide-list-checks" title="Quizzes with scoring">

Graded questions, surveys and drag-and-drop tasks, plus a results slide with a passing score.

</bench-card>

<bench-card icon="i-lucide-package" title="Packages for Moodle">

SCORM 1.2 (recommended for Moodle), SCORM 2004 or a plain web page for any web server.

</bench-card>
</bench-grid>

## Five words you will meet

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Word
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What it means
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Scene
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      A chapter of your course. Every scene holds slides.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Slide
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      One screen of your course, like a slide in a presentation.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Object
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Anything on a slide: a text box, a picture, a button, a question.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Layer
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      An extra sheet on top of a slide, for example a pop-up with details or the feedback "Correct!". The slide itself is the bottom layer, called <strong>
        Slide
      </strong>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Trigger
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      A rule of the form "when this happens, do that", for example "when the button is clicked, go to the next slide". Triggers belong to the slide, a layer or the whole course.
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

One more: **SCORM** is a standard file format for online courses. Moodle and other learning platforms read it and remember who finished the course and with which score.

## Where your courses are stored

Your courses are stored in this browser only. There is no cloud and no account. That keeps your data private, but it also means: if the browser data is deleted, the courses are gone.

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Element on My courses
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What it does
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Browser storage
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Shows how much space your courses use.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Protect data
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Asks the browser to keep your courses even when space runs low. Until the browser agrees, the box says <strong>
        Not protected
      </strong>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Workbench
      </strong>
      
       menu
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        Back up everything (.olsw)
      </strong>
      
       saves all courses in one file. <strong>
        Restore backup
      </strong>
      
       brings them back, for example on another computer.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Course menu (right-click a course)
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <strong>
        Export
      </strong>
      
       saves a single course, for example <strong>
        As .olsx archive
      </strong>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<hint-box kind="warning" title="Back up regularly">

Clearing the browser data deletes your courses. Make a workbench backup now and then and keep the file somewhere safe. More in [Versions and backup](https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/ship/versions-and-backup).

</hint-box>

<hint-box kind="privacy" title="No tracking">

The Studio has no telemetry, no cookies and no ads. Icons and fonts are part of the app. Learner progress goes only to your learning platform. Details: [Privacy and offline use](https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/ship/privacy-and-offline).

</hint-box>

## Work with AI if you like

You can let an AI app such as Claude or ChatGPT help you. It can read, build, check and export courses, even live in the course you have open. Every AI change is one step you can undo. See [Working with AI](https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/ai/three-ways).

## If something doesn't work

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Problem
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What to do
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      My courses are gone
    </td>
    
    <td>
      You are probably in another browser, another browser profile or a private window. Courses only exist where you created them. Restore a workbench backup with <strong>
        Workbench
      </strong>
      
      , <strong>
        Restore backup
      </strong>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      The Studio cannot open the course storage
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Private windows and some privacy settings block the browser storage. Open the Studio in a normal window.
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      I don't know where to start
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Create the sample course <strong>
        Example: IT basics
      </strong>
      
       and click through it in the preview. Then read the <a href="https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/start/editor-tour">
        Editor tour
      </a>
      
      .
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## Next step

<bench-grid cols="2">
<bench-card icon="i-lucide-rocket" title="Build your first course" to="https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/start/first-course">

From an empty list to a file for Moodle in about ten minutes.

</bench-card>

<bench-card icon="i-lucide-map" title="Take the editor tour" to="https://docs.ols.yonn.online/en/start/editor-tour">

What every part of the editor is for.

</bench-card>
</bench-grid>


## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://docs.ols.yonn.online/sitemap.md) for all pages.