course-builder

name

course-builder

description

A full production pipeline where an agent team collaborates to design online courses all at once — curriculum, lesson plans, quizzes, and hands-on labs. Use this skill for 'create an online course,' 'design a curriculum,' 'write lesson plans,' 'course design,' 'syllabus,' 'learning course development,' 'curriculum development,' 'course design,' 'create lab assignments,' and all other course development tasks. Also supports lesson plan writing or quiz creation when an existing curriculum is provided. Note: actual LMS construction, video recording/editing, student management, and certificate issuance are outside this skill's scope.

Course Builder — Online Course Full Production Pipeline

Collaboratively produce an online course's curriculum, lesson plans, quizzes, and hands-on labs through an agent team, all in one pass.

Execution Mode

Agent Team — Five agents communicate directly via SendMessage and cross-validate each other's work.

Agent Roster

Agent	File	Role	Type
curriculum-designer	.claude/agents/curriculum-designer.md	Learning objectives, curriculum structure	general-purpose
content-writer	.claude/agents/content-writer.md	Lesson plans, slides, instructor notes	general-purpose
quiz-maker	.claude/agents/quiz-maker.md	Formative assessment, summative assessment, feedback	general-purpose
lab-designer	.claude/agents/lab-designer.md	Hands-on labs, projects, rubrics	general-purpose
course-reviewer	.claude/agents/course-reviewer.md	Learning objective alignment, coverage validation	general-purpose

Workflow

Phase 1: Preparation (Performed Directly by the Orchestrator)

1. Extract from user input:
   • Course Topic: Subject/field the course covers
   • Target Learner: Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced, background knowledge
   • Course Scale: Total learning time, number of modules
   • Lab Environment (optional): Tools, languages, platforms to use
   • Existing Files (optional): Curriculum, lesson plans, etc.
2. Create the _workspace/ directory at the project root
3. Organize input and save to _workspace/00_input.md
4. If existing files are available, copy to _workspace/ and skip the corresponding phase
5. Determine execution mode based on scope

Phase 2: Team Assembly and Execution

Order	Task	Owner	Dependency	Deliverable
1	Curriculum design	curriculum-designer	None	_workspace/01_curriculum.md
2a	Lesson plan writing	content-writer	Task 1	_workspace/02_lesson_plans.md
2b	Quiz creation	quiz-maker	Task 1	_workspace/03_quizzes.md
2c	Lab design	lab-designer	Task 1	_workspace/04_labs.md
3	Course review	course-reviewer	Tasks 2a, 2b, 2c	_workspace/05_review_report.md

Tasks 2a (lessons), 2b (quizzes), and 2c (labs) run in parallel. All depend only on Task 1 (curriculum).

Inter-agent communication flow:

• curriculum-designer completes -> delivers per-lesson objectives and concepts to content-writer; Bloom's level ratios to quiz-maker; lab environment and scenarios to lab-designer
• content-writer completes -> delivers key concepts and examples to quiz-maker (as item material); lesson content to lab-designer (for lab alignment)
• course-reviewer cross-validates all deliverables. On RED Must Fix findings, sends revision requests -> rework -> re-validate (up to 2 cycles)

Phase 3: Integration and Final Deliverables

1. Verify all files in _workspace/
2. Confirm all RED Must Fix items have been addressed
3. Report final summary to user

Execution Modes by Scope

User Request Pattern	Execution Mode	Agents Deployed
"Create an online course," "full course design"	Full Pipeline	All 5 agents
"Just design the curriculum"	Curriculum Mode	curriculum-designer + reviewer
"Write lesson plans for this curriculum" (existing file)	Lesson Plan Mode	content-writer + reviewer
"Just create quizzes"	Quiz Mode	quiz-maker + reviewer
"Just design lab assignments"	Lab Mode	lab-designer + reviewer

Using Existing Files: If the user provides a curriculum, lesson plans, etc., copy to _workspace/ and skip the corresponding agent.

Data Transfer Protocol

Strategy	Method	Use Case
File-based	_workspace/ directory	Store and share major deliverables
Message-based	SendMessage	Real-time key information delivery, revision requests
Task-based	TaskCreate/TaskUpdate	Progress tracking, dependency management

File naming convention: {order_number}_{deliverable}.{extension}

Error Handling

Error Type	Strategy
Insufficient domain expertise	Supplement with web search; note "External verification recommended" in report
Lab environment unclear	Default to free cloud tools (Google Colab, etc.)
Agent failure	Retry once -> proceed without that deliverable; note in review report
RED found in review	Send revision request -> rework -> re-validate (up to 2 cycles)
Learning objective gap discovered	Request supplementary content from the relevant agent

Test Scenarios

Normal Flow

Prompt: "Design a 10-hour online course for Python web development beginners, focused on the Flask framework." Expected Result:

• Curriculum: 3-4 modules, 3-5 lessons each, Bloom's-based learning objectives
• Lesson plans: Per-lesson teaching flow, slide outlines, code examples
• Quizzes: Formative (3-5 items per lesson) + Summative (10 items per module)
• Labs: Per-lesson coding labs + Capstone project (simple web app)
• Review: Learning objective coverage matrix with full mapping

Existing File Flow

Prompt: "Create quizzes and lab assignments from this curriculum" + attached curriculum file Expected Result:

• Copy existing curriculum to _workspace/01_curriculum.md
• Combined quiz + lab mode: deploy quiz-maker + lab-designer + reviewer
• Skip curriculum-designer and content-writer

Error Flow

Prompt: "Just design a quick curriculum on data analysis" Expected Result:

• Switch to curriculum mode (curriculum-designer + reviewer)
• Target learner unclear; default to "beginner (non-specialist)" and note in report
• Review report notes "Lesson plans/quizzes/labs not generated"

Agent Extension Skills

Agent	Extension Skill	Knowledge Provided
curriculum-designer, content-writer	/learning-design	Bloom's Taxonomy, Backward Design, Gagne's 9 Events, Cognitive Load Theory
quiz-maker	/assessment-engineering	Item type design, distractor psychology, rubric construction, feedback formulas
lab-designer	/lab-scaffolding	5-level pyramid, starter code design, capstone structure, hint systems