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Welcome to Courseasaurus

Learning Outcomes​

By the end of this guide, you will be able to:

  • Understand what Courseasaurus is and its core capabilities
  • Identify when to use Courseasaurus for course management
  • Navigate the instructor manual effectively to find the guidance you need

What is Courseasaurus?​

Courseasaurus is a modern CourseOps platform that streamlines the entire lifecycle of curriculum development and dissemination. It combines three powerful technologies:

  1. Docusaurus - A modern static site generator that manages all your course content as markdown files
  2. Courseasaurus Plugin - Custom content generation that manages course metadata, schedules, assignments, and learning objectives
  3. RevealJS Integration - In-app rendering of beautiful presentation slides, also written in markdown

Think of it as "infrastructure as code" for your course—everything from lecture notes to assignment schedules lives in version-controlled markdown files that can be collaboratively edited, reviewed, and deployed.

What Problems Does Courseasaurus Solve?​

Traditional Course Management Challenges​

  • Scattered Content: Lecture notes in Google Docs, slides in PowerPoint, schedule in Excel, assignments in Canvas
  • Version Control Chaos: "final_v2_REALLY_FINAL.docx" naming conventions
  • Collaboration Friction: Email attachments, lost feedback, unclear ownership
  • Schedule Updates: Manually updating dozens of places when one lecture shifts
  • Learning Objectives Tracking: No systematic way to ensure content aligns with goals

The Courseasaurus Approach​

Courseasaurus centralizes everything into a single, version-controlled repository where:

  • All content is in markdown (portable, readable, git-friendly)
  • Schedules are defined once and automatically propagate throughout the site
  • Changes are tracked, reviewed via pull requests, and deployed automatically
  • Learning objectives are extracted from frontmatter and can be aggregated
  • Slides are created from the same markdown as lecture notes
  • The entire site can be cloned, adapted, and reused semester after semester

Key Features​

📝 Markdown-Based Content​

All course materials—lecture notes, labs, assignments, slides—are written in markdown. This means:

  • Human-readable source files
  • Easy version control with Git
  • Portable across platforms
  • Focus on content, not formatting

📅 Automated Schedule Management​

Define your course schedule once in course.config.json:

  • Meeting patterns (e.g., "Monday/Wednesday 10:30-11:35")
  • Holidays and breaks
  • Lecture-to-date mappings
  • Assignment due dates

The plugin automatically generates a complete course schedule, handling:

  • Holiday conflicts
  • Multi-section courses
  • Date calculations
  • Schedule visualization

🎓 Learning Objectives Tracking​

Define learning objectives in document frontmatter:

---
learning_objectives:
  - Understand Git branching strategies
  - Create effective pull requests
---

The plugin can extract and aggregate these across your entire course.

🎬 RevealJS Slides (In-App!)​

Create presentation slides in markdown using RevealJS:

  • Animations and transitions
  • Code highlighting
  • Speaker notes
  • All rendered directly in the browser—no separate PowerPoint files

🔄 GitOps Workflow​

Leverage Git best practices:

  • Branch-based development
  • Pull request reviews
  • Automated CI/CD
  • Private/public repository patterns for managing solutions

Who Should Use Courseasaurus?​

Courseasaurus is ideal for instructors who:

  • Are capable of installing NodeJS and running commands in a terminal
  • Want to embrace modern software engineering practices for course management
  • Collaborate with co-instructors and TAs
  • Teach the same course multiple semesters and want easy adaptation
  • Manage large courses (100+ students) with extensive content
  • Value version control and transparency in curriculum development

This instructor manual is organized into four focused sections:

1. 🏗️ Foundations & Setup (You are here!)​

Learn the basics:

  • Overview (this page) - Understanding Courseasaurus
  • Installation - Setting up your development environment
  • GitOps Workflow - Version control and collaboration fundamentals
  • AI Philosophy - Principles for effective AI-assisted course management

2. 🔧 AI-Assisted Site Management​

Master the technical operations:

  • Managing document collections (adding new content types)
  • Refactoring and reorganizing content
  • Schedule management and transformations
  • Learning objectives extraction and alignment

3. ✍️ AI-Assisted Content Development​

Create high-quality course materials:

  • Developing assignments and projects
  • Expanding lecture notes
  • Creating presentation slides
  • Maintaining teaching skills while using AI

4. 📊 AI-Assisted Operations Planning​

Plan and manage large-scale courses:

  • Schedule impact analysis
  • Staff planning and management (40+ TAs)
  • Resource utilization analysis
  • Comprehensive operations planning
  • Discord server setup and management

The Meta-Example​

Throughout this manual, we use creating this very site as a running example. When you see "Meta-example" sections, they'll show actual code, configurations, and decisions from building the Courseasaurus documentation site you're reading right now. This provides concrete, real-world illustrations of the concepts being taught.

For instance, the course.config.json you'll see in the next section is the actual configuration file used to generate the schedule for this documentation project.

Next Steps​

Ready to get started? Head to Installation to set up your development environment and create your first Courseasaurus site.

Or, if you want to understand the philosophy behind AI-assisted course management first, jump to AI Philosophy to learn the principles that will guide your work throughout this manual.

Remember: Courseasaurus is a tool to enhance your teaching, not replace your expertise. The goal is to automate the tedious parts of course management so you can focus on what matters most—helping students learn.