Adding Content

The Instructions tab is where you create and manage the learning content that guides users through your lab. This is the instructional material that appears in the Instructions panel of your layout, providing step-by-step guidance, explanations, and embedded activities.

Content Structure

Your lab’s instructional content — the content learners read — follows a hierarchy of Lab → Chapters → Pages. Chapters group related pages, and pages hold the markdown.

You can organize your content in two ways:

• Simple labs: Use pages directly without visible chapter organization
• Structured labs (recommended): Group related pages into named chapters for better navigation

Content Hierarchy

The content structure provides two organizational levels:

• Chapter level: Logical grouping of related pages
• Page level: Individual learning steps containing markdown content

This hierarchy gives you both the flexibility to start simple and the structure to scale as your lab grows more complex.

Note

When you create your first chapter, any existing pages automatically move into a chapter called “Default”. Once you have chapters, all pages must belong to a chapter.

How a lab comes together

Content is only one piece of the experience. Building a lab is a short sequence of steps:

1. Set up your sandbox — the containers, VMs, and networks your lab runs on, created in the Sandbox tab. Tabs like terminals and services attach to these resources.
2. Write your content — organize it as Lab → Chapters → Pages. Pages hold the markdown learners read.
3. Add activities — embed tasks (hands-on steps with automated validation) and quizzes (knowledge checks) in your pages to make the content interactive. You create these in the Activities area.
4. Create your tabs — the interactive tools that sit alongside the instructions: terminals, editors, services, notes, and more, added in the Tabs area.
5. Build your layouts — arrange the instructions panel and those tabs on screen, choosing which tabs appear and where, in the Layouts area.
6. Assign your layouts — a default layout applies to the whole lab, and you can override it for a specific chapter or page where you want something different.

Layouts

Your instructional content appears to learners through the Instructions panel in your layout. The layout controls where instructions appear on screen relative to terminals, editors, and other tools. You can assign different layouts to different chapters or pages to customize the learner experience.

For details on layout configuration, see Designing Layouts.

Activities

Within your instructional content, you can embed interactive activities that challenge learners and verify their understanding. These activities include:

• Tasks: Validation checks that verify learners have completed specific actions
• Quizzes: Knowledge assessments with Single select, Multi select, Text input, or Number input questions

The editor toolbar provides quick access to insert these activities directly into your content.

For details on creating activities, see Activities Overview.

Next Steps

• Managing Chapters & Pages: Learn how to organize and structure your content
• Using the Markdown Editor: Master the editor interface and formatting tools

Summary

The Instructions tab is your content creation hub for Instruqt labs. You organize content into chapters and pages, write markdown-formatted instructions, and embed interactive activities to create engaging learning experiences.

Key points:

• Content follows a Chapters → Pages structure
• Pages can exist within chapters or standalone if there are no chapters
• Content appears to learners in the Instructions panel of your layout
• You can embed tasks and quizzes directly within your instructional content