What is a full-length AI generated course?

The definition

Each clause of the definition does work. Complete means the course covers the subject start to finish, not one idea. Planned means the syllabus, the module count and the order are decided before any module is taught. From one request means you type a sentence or name a document; you do not write the outline.

Hours rather than minutes is the differentiator. The ceiling in ZUQ is 30 hours, delivered as many short modules rather than a handful of long ones, and a shorter course keeps the same structure at a smaller size.

A full-length course versus a short AI clip

A short AI clip is one prompt turned into one video of a few minutes. It has no syllabus, no level, no order to follow and no test. It explains one thing and stops.

A full-length AI course starts with a plan. The subject is broken into modules, each with one job, and the modules are put in the order they should be learned. It knows what you already know, it works examples, and it closes on consolidation rather than stopping mid-topic. A 30-hour course is many such modules, not one long clip.

What a full-length AI course is made of

In ZUQ every course, from 30 seconds to 30 hours, has the same parts. A longer runtime adds modules; it does not add new kinds of part.

• Modules: a numbered sequence, each with one job that it states before it starts. A longer course gets more modules, not longer ones.
• Narration: each module has a script, written and taught to the level you set.
• Worked examples: on a whole subject, worked problems and extended practice are modules of their own.
• A close on consolidation: recall, and the judgement calls that only make sense once the mechanics are known. The deterministic plan names that last module Recall and self-test.
• A level: beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert, fixed before anything is built.
• A runtime: chosen by you, from 30 seconds to 30 hours, priced in minutes only at any level.
• A watch page: one per finished build, private until you open it.

How ZUQ plans one

A request runs on one of three tracks: one concept, a whole subject, or your content - a document you name: a business document, a contract, a deck, a policy, a paper, a spec, a pile of notes. Each track has its own arc. The whole-subject arc the deterministic plan runs is orientation and prerequisites, foundations, core mechanics, worked problems, common failure modes, deeper structure, derivations and proofs, applications, edge cases, extended practice and synthesis, then recall and self-test.

No step asks you to approve a module list before you commit. The runtime you pick is the lever that decides the shape: no module may run longer than 30 minutes, so a longer runtime is split into more modules rather than longer ones, and the deterministic plan for a 30-hour course is 225 modules of 8 minutes.

The chapter titles themselves are decided when the build starts, by a model that reads the whole brief - your own words, every answer you tapped, the track, the level, the runtime, and each file you attached with the line you wrote on it. If that model cannot be reached or answers unusably, the deterministic plan is used instead. Either way the plan lands on the build card in your library, and the event log on that build names which of the two decided it. If particular chapters matter to you, say so in the notes box in your own words.

What a course can be built from

A request can carry reference files, and the Files step is where they go. It is optional - the default answer is no and it costs one tap. The picker offers PNG, JPEG, WebP and GIF images, PDF, plain text and Markdown, and nothing else: there is no DOCX, PPTX or EPUB path, and a file dragged past the picker is refused with the same sentence.

You can attach up to 5 files, each with your own one-line note. An image is resized in your browser and uploaded to storage only our build worker can read. A PDF or a text file is never uploaded - its text is read in your browser, and only that text travels with your request, where the model that plans your course reads it.

Each file has to be under 10 MB, at most 20000 characters are read out of a PDF or a text file, and what you attach is material to work from rather than an instruction that must be obeyed: the pipeline decides whether each one fits the video it is building.

The "Your content" track asks for the document by name, and the name is what travels into the brief: that picker reads nothing and sends no bytes. If the text of the document itself has to reach the build, attach the document at the Files step.

What changing one costs

A change to a finished video is a NEW BUILD, not an edit inside the file you already have. You type the change in plain words, a confirm strip names the cost before anything is spent - the full runtime of that video in minutes, so a 30-hour course is 1800 minutes again - and the new build appears in your library beside the first one.

Nothing in the product edits inside an existing file, so there is no way to ask for one stretch of a video to change and leave the rest alone. The build you have is kept exactly as it is, with its own event log, and the new one is a build of its own.

Early build: an update request spends real minutes and hands back another sample file, not your rendered course. The video you have now is kept exactly as it is, and we will tell you the day real rendering begins.

Who can watch a finished one

Every finished build gets a watch page of its own. It is private to begin with - you, and the team on your account - and you can open it to people you name by email address, or make it public, in which case anyone holding the link can watch it and only then can it be embedded on another site or posted to a social network.

What this early build does and does not do yet

ZUQ is an early build, and the part of it that is live is the part that costs money. A request is saved, minutes really are debited, the build runs and its chapter list is decided - and then it hands back a sample file rather than your rendered video. We will say so on this page the day real rendering begins.

Until then, read every description of narration and video on this site as the product being built, not as a file you can download today.