Schedule, Start, End, and Reopen an Online Lesson
A teacher schedules a live lesson against their own class and course assignment, then starts, ends, and — if still the same day — can reopen it from the Online Lessons list.
For School administrators, Teachers. Updated 2026-09-18.
Overview
Online Lessons is an opt-in feature that must be enabled for the school before it appears under Sidebar > Online Lessons. Only a teacher with an assignment to the chosen class and course can schedule a lesson against it (an admin can schedule on behalf of any class that has an assigned teacher).
A lesson moves through a simple lifecycle: Scheduled, then Live once the owning teacher or an admin starts it (which notifies enrolled students), then Ended. A lesson can only be cancelled while it is still Scheduled — once started, it can only be ended, not cancelled.
Reopen brings an Ended lesson back to Live, but only if its scheduled/started date is today or in the future; a lesson from a past day cannot be reopened. Only the lesson's owning teacher, or an admin, can start, end, reopen, or cancel it — another teacher opening someone else's lesson cannot manage it.
Before you start
- The Online Lessons feature must be enabled for the school
- Have the “add online lesson” permission permission to schedule a lesson, and the “manage online lesson” permission to start/end/reopen/cancel one
- A teacher must have an assignment to the class and course being scheduled
Steps
- Open Sidebar > Online Lessons
- Select New Online Lesson
- Choose the class and course, add a title and optional description, and set a scheduled date/time if not starting immediately
- Save to schedule the lesson
- When ready, open the lesson and select Start Lesson — enrolled students are notified
- Use Copy Join Link to share the lesson if needed
- Select End Lesson when the class is finished
- Select Reopen Lesson if needed later the same day (or before the day passes)
Common problems
New Online Lesson button is missing
Either the Online Lessons feature isn't enabled for the school, the account lacks the “add online lesson” permission, or (for a teacher) there's no class+course assignment to schedule a lesson against.
Can't start or manage a lesson someone else created
Only the lesson's owning teacher or an admin can start, end, reopen, or manage a lesson — this is by design, not a bug.
Reopen isn't available for an older lesson
Reopening only works if the lesson's scheduled or started date is today or in the future; a lesson from a past day cannot be reopened.
Cancel option has disappeared
Cancel only works while the lesson is still Scheduled. Once it has been started, it can only be ended, not cancelled.