Uploading Lesson Videos & Captions
How to upload videos to your course lessons, set thumbnails, and add captions in different languages.
Uploading Lesson Videos & Captions
Once your course structure is set up, you'll want to add video content to your lessons. This quick guide walks you through uploading a video, choosing a thumbnail, and adding captions.
Uploading a video
Open the lesson you want to add a video to and click the video upload area. Watch this step (0:00)
Click to add a video
Click the video upload area and select your video file from your computer. Watch this step (0:11)
Wait for processing
The video needs to upload and then get transcribed by the system. This can take a few minutes depending on the file size — be patient and don't navigate away from the page while it's processing. Watch this step (0:22)
Choose a thumbnail
Once the video is fully uploaded and transcribed, you can select a thumbnail — this is the preview image clients see before they hit play. You have two options:
- Use a video frame — play the video to the moment you want, pause, and click "Use current frame as thumbnail"
- Upload a custom image — upload your own designed thumbnail (recommended size: 1280x720 or larger, 16:9 ratio)
Keep your video files as small as practical. Shorter, focused lessons (5-15 minutes) tend to perform better than long recordings. If you have a 60-minute session, consider splitting it into 4-5 shorter lessons.
The thumbnail you select applies to both the lesson tile (what clients see in the course overview) and the video player (the image shown before they hit play). If you want different images for each, you can set the video frame as the player thumbnail and upload a separate custom image as the lesson thumbnail.
You can also import videos you've already uploaded to your media storage instead of re-uploading them. This saves time if you use the same video across multiple lessons or courses.
Adding captions
Captions make your courses accessible to more people — including those who are hard of hearing, watching without sound, or speak a different language. Watch this step (2:19)
Go to the captions section
Below the video, you'll find the captions area. Select the language for your captions.
Generate captions using an external tool
The system doesn't auto-generate captions yet, so you'll need to use a third-party tool to create them. Upload your video to one of these services and download the caption file (only .srt format is supported):
- YouTube — upload your video as unlisted, wait for auto-captions, download the subtitle file
- Descript — transcribes and lets you edit captions
- Otter.ai — fast transcription with export options
- Rev — professional captions if you want higher accuracy
Upload the caption file
Upload the .srt file. It will sync with your video based on the timestamps in the file.
Review and fine-tune
After uploading, you can use the built-in subtitle editor to fix any errors. The editor shows each caption line with its timestamp — click any line to jump to that moment in the video. If you spot overlapping lines or timing issues, warning icons will appear so you can fix them. There's also a Raw Mode for manual editing if you prefer working with the .srt format directly.
You can add captions in multiple languages by repeating the process for each language. This is great if you have international clients — for example, adding both English and Dutch captions for your Belgian and Netherlands audience.
The quickest free method: upload your video to YouTube as an unlisted video, wait for the auto-generated captions (usually takes a few minutes), then download the subtitle file from YouTube Studio and upload it here. The quality is surprisingly good for most spoken content.
Quick reference
| What you want to do | How |
|---|---|
| Upload a lesson video | Open lesson → click video area → select file |
| Set a thumbnail | After upload completes → choose a frame |
| Add captions | Captions section → select language → upload .srt/.vtt file |
| Add captions in another language | Repeat the caption upload for each language |
What to read next
Creating Courses
The full guide to building your course structure, modules, and lessons.
Automations
Set up automatic notifications when new lessons are published.
This feature is part of our Growth Tools package. Interested in adding it to your setup? Send Korneel a message on Slack and we'll walk through whether it's a good fit for your business.
Need help? If you get stuck, send Korneel a message on Slack and we'll sort it out together.
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