Creating a Course from a PDF Document with AI

Modified on Mon, 7 Apr at 12:25 PM

Creating e-learning courses from existing PDF documents can be an efficient way to convert learning materials, technical documentation, brochures, manuals, or guides into an interactive self-learning format. In this article, you'll learn how to use the AI assistant KAI to automatically generate courses from PDF files in Knowledgeworker Create.

Before you start

PDF documents are typically text-heavy and contain detailed information. The clearer the document is structured, the better KAI can derive an outline and content for the course. KAI also takes into account additional structures commonly found before and after the main content in written publications and transforms the text from the PDF into a structure suitable for e-learning. Elements such as the table of contents are typically omitted.

Step 1: Upload PDF file

Upload the PDF file from your computer to Knowledgeworker Create.

Select Create new course.
Click Uploading a document.
Upload the PDF document
- Drag the PDF file from your computer into the marked field, or
- Click the link Choose a file to browse and select the file from a directory.
Select the degree of fidelity to the original file and then click Next.
- Free: Didactically optimized e-learning content, even if the document wasn't designed for e-learning—for example, technical documentation.
- Balanced: A good mix of structure and original text with creative adaptations.
- Stay close to original: Course content creation based on existing documents aiming to retain the original wording as much as possible.
Finally, click Next.

Step 2: Enter course information

Enter the topic of your course and add further settings if necessary.
Add a description of the target audience to give KAI additional context.
Adjust the formality setting to define how readers should be addressed in the instructions.
Choose a tonality to define the overall mood of the generated content.
Use the course length setting to tell KAI how much content to create. Then click Next.
Define where the new content should be saved by selecting a domain. Choose the language in which the content should be created. Click Next, and KAI will suggest a title and description for the course.
Adjust the title and description to your liking or let KAI generate a new suggestion by clicking the generate icon.Click Next.

KAI will then propose an outline based on the content of the PDF document. Creating the outline may take a few minutes.

Step 3: Adjust the outline

You can tailor the outline created by KAI to meet your needs.

Adjust the outline
- Add additional chapters and subchapters
- Rename chapters and subchapters
- Remove unnecessary chapters or subchapters
- Generate a completely new outline by clicking the generate icon.
Finally, click Next.

Step 4: Generate course content

Choose which content should be generated by KAI.

Select Text generation to let KAI write the text for the course chapters. If you don’t select text generation, an empty course structure will be created for you to fill in manually.
Click Create course.

The desired content will be created based on your input and the PDF document. This step may take a few minutes.

Once creation is complete, you’ll be taken directly to the Content Editor. There, you can add further interactions or let KAI generate questions.