Platform access level: Org Admins, Managers, and Writers (anyone who builds courses).
Previewing lets you take your own course as a learner would, before anyone is enrolled, on a clock measured in minutes instead of days. This guide walks through starting a preview, moving through it quickly, and testing the real delivery experience before launch.
1. Start a preview
A preview sends the course to a real recipient over a real delivery method, so you see exactly how lessons, questions, and images appear on a device. Most of the time, that recipient should be you.
Open the course you want to test in the content editor.
Open the Actions dropdown and select Preview.
In the Send a course preview window, pick the Delivery method you want to test on.
Select one or more learners under Select individuals, or pick a cohort, then select Send now.
Send the preview to a cohort when a few reviewers should see the course at once. For a quick self-check, pick only yourself and the test stays contained.
Note: A preview overrides any active enrollment the tester already has on Microsoft Teams, Slack, or the specific SMS Channel it sends through, so use a tester who isn't mid-course, or expect their current course to be interrupted.
2. Take the preview course
The preview compresses the course's whole cadence, so a multi-day course takes minutes to review end to end. Previews send immediately on an instant cadence, and from there you control the pace.
What you want | What to do |
Jump straight to the next lesson | Reply NEXT to the current one. |
Let the course advance on its own | The next lesson sends within 15 minutes of completing the current one. |
Move through a multi-question lesson | Answer each question. After the last answer, the next lesson sends automatically. |
As you move through, read each lesson the way a learner would. Check that questions make sense on their own, that images arrive with their lessons, and that links go where they should. What each question type expects from a learner is covered in Using Question Types and AI Assessment, and the limits that govern what sends cleanly per delivery method are in Understanding Formatting and Content Limits.
Try it: Open a course you're building, select Preview, and send it to yourself. Reply NEXT through the first two lessons and check how your questions and images read on your phone.
3. Test the real delivery experience
A preview runs on an accelerated clock, so the rhythm learners will feel is set by the schedule rather than by the preview. That rhythm comes from the cadence, the delivery times, and the reminders between lessons. To experience those exactly as your learners will, add yourself to the course's schedule before you launch it. That path is part of setting up delivery, and it's covered in Scheduling and Delivering Courses.
Note: The two checks catch different problems. A preview catches content issues fast, before a schedule exists, and the schedule self-test confirms the timing feels right at the real pace.
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Note: Need help at any point? Reach out to your Arist Customer Success contact, or email support@arist.co.