Welcome! This page explains how to edit and add lessons on the Maritime South Studies Africa website. No technical knowledge needed — just follow the steps. Where something says ask the webmaster, please do exactly that rather than guessing.

How the site fits together

Every piece of course content is a Lesson. Each lesson belongs to a Subject (Maritime Economics or Nautical Science) and a Grade (10, 11 or 12). When learners visit the site, the lesson sidebar, the “Next Lesson” buttons and the course landing pages are all built automatically — you never need to edit menus or navigation yourself.

The golden rule You only ever edit the lesson itself. Navigation, ordering and the sidebar take care of themselves.

Editing an existing lesson

This is what you will do most of the time — fixing a typo, updating text, replacing an image.

  1. Log in to the website admin. In the left menu, click Lessons → All Lessons.
  2. Find your lesson using the search box (top right of the list). Searching part of the title works best, e.g. “fog and mist”.
  3. Click the lesson title to open it.
  4. Make your changes in the large text area — it works much like Word. Use the toolbar for bold, lists, links and headings.
  5. To add a picture, click Add Media, upload or choose the image, then click Insert into post.
  6. When you are done, click the blue Update button on the right.
  7. Click View Post (top bar) to check your change on the live page.
Nothing saves until you click Update. If you make a mess, simply close the page without clicking Update and nothing changes.

Adding a brand-new lesson

  1. In the left menu, click Lessons → Add New Lesson.
  2. Type the lesson title exactly as it should appear to learners.
  3. Write or paste the lesson content into the large text area.
  4. On the right-hand side, tick the correct Subject (one only) and Grade (one only).
  5. In the Categories box, tick the one category that matches where this lesson sits in the curriculum — see the next section.
  6. In the Position in course box (right-hand side), open the dropdown and pick the lesson your new one should come after — for example “After: Cloud formation”. Tick Subject and Grade first, then give the list a second or two to fill.
  7. Click Publish (or Save Draft if it is not ready for learners yet).
Don’t skip the Position step! If the dropdown is left on “— Keep current position —”, a new lesson is published but does not appear in the course sidebar or landing page — it has no place in the course yet. Choosing an “After:…” option is what puts it on the map. (Forgot? Just reopen the lesson, pick a position, and click Update.)
That’s it — navigation updates itself. The moment you publish with a position chosen, the lesson appears in the course sidebar, the landing page and the Next/Previous buttons, exactly where you placed it. Saving as Draft keeps it hidden from learners until you publish.

Choosing the right category

Categories tell the site which chapter of which course a lesson belongs to. Every category name now starts with a course code so you always know which course you are looking at:

CodeMeaning
NS10 / NS11 / NS12Nautical Science — Grade 10 / 11 / 12
ME10 / ME11 / ME12Maritime Economics — Grade 10 / 11 / 12

The list is indented like a family tree: main sections on the left, chapters and topics nested underneath. To categorise a lesson:

  1. Check the course code matches your lesson’s subject and grade — e.g. a Grade 11 Nautical Science lesson always uses an NS11 category.
  2. Tick the most specific category that fits — the deepest item in the tree that matches the lesson’s topic. For example, a lesson about fog belongs in NS10 - Weather signs at sea, not just NS10 - 3 Meteorology.
  3. Tick one category only, unless the webmaster has told you otherwise.
Already-ticked boxes appear at the top of the list when you open an existing lesson, so you can see its current category at a glance.

Things to please leave alone

These are managed by the webmaster — changing them can break the site’s navigation:
  • The permalink / slug (the lesson’s web address shown under the title). Never edit it.
  • The Categories, Subjects and Grades screens in the Lessons menu — don’t add, rename or delete items there.
  • The Snippets, Plugins, Appearance and Settings menus.
  • Deleting lessons. If a lesson should go, switch it to Draft instead (Quick Edit → Status → Draft) and tell the webmaster.

Quick answers

I want to…Do this
Fix a typo in a lessonLessons → All Lessons → search → edit → Update
Add a pictureOpen the lesson → Add Media → upload → Insert into post → Update
Add a new lessonAdd New Lesson → content + Subject + Grade + Category + Position in course → Publish
Hide a lesson from learnersQuick Edit → Status: Draft → Update — it disappears from navigation automatically
Move a lesson in the course orderOpen the lesson → Position in course → pick a new “After:” lesson → Update
My new lesson isn’t in the sidebarYou skipped the Position step — open the lesson, pick an “After:” option in Position in course, click Update
Something looks brokenDon’t try to fix it — note the page address and tell the webmaster

Questions? Contact the webmaster before changing anything you are unsure about — a two-minute question is always faster than an afternoon of repairs.