Edit Mode is designed to be your personal assistant when creating engaging content for online courses. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining existing material, the Edit Mode streamlines the process, making content creation more intuitive, collaborative, and effective. It also supports file uploads, so you can use existing material such as PDFs, SCORM packages, or images as the basis for your
courses.
Introduction to the Edit Mode in Sana
What can the Edit Mode do?
The Edit Mode is your co-creator, offering real-time support and suggestions as you build your course. With its functionality, you can:
Create courses from existing resources: Edit Mode supports file uploads so you can build and refine courses from existing material
Ask questions about your course: Unsure about how to structure a lesson or phrase a concept? The Edit Mode is ready to answer your questions, drawing on the context of your course to provide relevant, actionable insights.
Get suggestions on improvements: Receive instant feedback and recommendations to enhance your content, from clarity and engagement to structure and flow.
Assistive help while editing: As you write and edit, the Edit Mode offers contextual assistance, helping you overcome creative hurdles and polish your material.
Co-creating with AI has never been easier. With the Edit Mode, you have access to your own Create Assistant directly inside the editor, without leaving your workflow.
How does the Edit Mode work?
The agent is seamlessly integrated into the course creation environment. As you develop your course, the assistant remains readily available, providing support whenever you need it. Whether you’re brainstorming, drafting, or revising, the Edit Mode adapts to your needs and context, ensuring your content is both engaging and effective.
Where can I find the Edit Mode?
Go to Create > Create New Course - and you will see the Edit mode directly in the editor.
When editing a course, click the
icon on the bottom right to access edit mode again The conversation panel will appear on the right and can be opened anytime while editing, so help is always just a click away.
When to use edit mode: | When to use a different approach: |
Co-creating with AI: Brainstorm course outlines, apply instructional design frameworks, and refine content. | One-off tweaks: Adding a single image or changing font size on one card is quicker to do manually. |
Building from multiple sources: Pull together PDFs, documents, and materials into one cohesive course. | Highly personal content: When content needs your specific judgment or organizational context. |
Bulk editing: Adjust tone of voice, review grammar, update outdated content, or apply consistent formatting across your course. | Studio cards: Edit mode can't edit studio cards directly, but it can help improve your prompts for better results. |
Just-in-time creation: Turn source material into interactive courses when deadlines are tight. |
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Uploading and using files in Edit Mode
Edit Mode supports file uploads so you can build and refine courses from existing material and keep everything aligned with your organization’s resources. You can use uploads to add more context to a course with supporting documents, to generate full courses from existing files, and to cross-reference multiple files as you create content.
Supported file types include PDFs, SCORM files, and images. You can upload a single file or multiple files at once.
There are two ways to add files in Edit Mode:
Drag and drop
Drag one or more files from your computer directly into the Edit Mode window.
The files are uploaded and appear in the interface once they are ready.
2. Using the + button
Click the + icon in Edit Mode.
Select Upload.
Choose one or more files from your computer.
After you upload files, you can refer to them in your prompts. For example:
“Convert my SCORM file into a course.”
“Turn my PDF into an assessment.”
“Add key takeaways from the PDF to the end of my course.”
“Make sure my course matches the tone of voice guidelines that I uploaded.”
Edit Mode processes the files and generates content based on your instructions. You can accept the suggested changes directly into your course or send follow-up messages to iterate on the content, such as asking to make it shorter, adjust the tone, or add a short knowledge check. You can continue chatting as usual afterwards; your uploaded files remain available as context while you work in Edit Mode.
Best practices
Start conversations, not commands: When building a course from scratch, use the outline prompt and let edit mode ask you questions about your target audience, proficiency level, and learning objectives. This back-and-forth creates better courses than one-shot prompts.
Be specific with your instructions: The more detail you provide in your prompts, the better your results.
Use it for analysis and planning: Give edit mode targeted instructions to analyze parts of your course and suggest improvements. For large-scale changes like outlines or module plans, have it create a plan first for you to review before implementing.
Iterate in small steps: Design small parts of your plan and build on them quickly through rapid prototyping rather than trying to create everything at once.
Apply consistent changes efficiently: Use edit mode for bulk actions like adjusting tone of voice, reviewing grammar, updating multiple cards with the same content change, or using find and replace across your entire course.
Build reusable design systems: Have edit mode analyze specific card or course designs to apply to other courses, creating templates and patterns you can reuse.
Create complex interactive cards: Prompt edit mode to build scenario-based questions or other interactive elements with detailed specifications. For example: "Create a scenario-based multiple choice question with 4 answers, of which 2 are correct and 2 incorrect, with corresponding feedback for each option about a scenario where a manager is coaching a struggling employee, and the learner needs to choose the right behavior."
Create from multiple sources: Upload all your PDFs, documents, and source materials at once. Edit mode can synthesize them into a cohesive course, saving you hours of manual work.
Build assessments tied to learning outcomes: Prompt edit mode to create comprehensive assessments based on your course content or source materials.
Share what works: The edit mode prompt library keeps growing. Try different approaches, see what works, and share successful prompts with your team through the Knowledge Hub.
Use cases
Subject matter experts can become instructional designers
You don't need formal instructional design training to create effective learning content with edit mode. Subject matter experts can apply best practices, structure content pedagogically, and create engaging courses that follow their organization's guidelines. The AI handles the instructional design framework. You bring the expertise.
Decentralize content creation across teams
Smaller content creator teams can move faster without sacrificing quality. Edit mode lets anyone create professional learning content, which means you can distribute course creation across departments instead of bottlenecking everything through a central L&D team. Onboard new creators faster by having edit mode guide them through the process.
Turn "that'll take too long" into "done"
The biggest time savings come from eliminating the "we don't have time to create that" barrier. Edit mode handles the heavy lifting of converting source material into interactive content, applying formatting consistently, and structuring courses according to best practices. What used to take days now happens in hours.