Lesson Planning Guide

Welcome to our updated Lesson Plan creation feature! This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of the Lesson Planning process, enabling you to efficiently create and customize assignments for your students utilizing our extensive content library of Tutorials, Mastery Lesson Categories, and Simulations. You can also upload a PDF of your Syllabus and have our AI assistant convert it into a Lesson Plan automatically.

AI Powered Syllabus Import (Beta)

SIMVANA’s AI-assisted Lesson Planning streamlines the process of building structured training content from your existing syllabus. Upload a syllabus document, and our AI analyzes its sections, learning objectives, and sequencing to automatically generate a draft Lesson Plan mapped to SIMVANA’s content framework. The generated plan includes sections, titles, and due dates aligned to your curriculum. Once complete, you can review, edit, and customize the plan directly within the interface before saving it to your course.

Accessing AI Powered Lesson Planning

To access the AI-powered lesson planning feature, click “Syllabus Import” located under the AI Tools (Beta) section in the LMS sidebar.

You can also navigate directly to the tool by visiting:

https://portal.simvana.com/lesson-planning/assistant

Using AI Powered Lesson Planning

Upload a PDF of Your Syllabus

The first step is to upload your syllabus. You can either click “Upload Syllabus PDF” or simply drag and drop your PDF into the upload area. Once the file is uploaded, its name will appear on the screen so you can confirm that the correct document was selected. If you need to replace it, click “Upload New Syllabus PDF” to choose a different file.

Note: At this time, the feature only supports PDF files. Support for DOC and DOCX formats is planned for a future update. If your syllabus is saved in one of those formats, you’ll need to convert it to a PDF before proceeding.

Convert Your Syllabus into a Lesson Plan

Turning your uploaded syllabus into a structured lesson plan is as simple as clicking a button. Select “Process Syllabus into Lesson Plan”, and the AI assistant will get to work. Once processing is complete, your new lesson plan will appear in the Assignments Panel.

The AI automatically analyzes your syllabus to:

Create a Section for each distinct part of your syllabus.
Preserve section names and due dates exactly as they appear in the original document.
Match relevant SIMVANA content by selecting the five most applicable categories for each section.

From there, you’ll be ready to review and fine-tune the generated lesson plan before saving it to your course.

Review, Edit, and Save the Generated Lesson Plan

You maintain full control over your lesson plan—even after the AI generates a draft. Creating a plan from your syllabus does not automatically save it or assign it to your cohort.

Take time to review the generated draft and make any edits you need to ensure it aligns with your instructional goals. Once you’re satisfied, you can save the plan or continue refining it using the same editing tools available in the traditional lesson planning feature.

If you’re unfamiliar with the standard lesson planning workflow, continue reading for a step-by-step guide on using those tools.

Traditional Lesson Planning

Access the Lesson Planning Feature

Start by logging in to the User Portal and locating the Lesson Planning entry in the sidebar. Selecting this option will direct you to the assignment creation page. Alternatively, you can go directly to https://portal.simvana.com/lesson-planning.

Getting to Know the Layout

The Lesson Planning page consists of 3 main elements you will interact with: the Cohort Selector, the Assignments Panel, and the Learning Content Panel. Let's break each of those down a little bit before getting into the process of creating a Lesson Plan.

If you need to reference this tutorial at any point during your Lesson Planning, click the "?" icon in the bottom right of the page to immediately open this page in a new tab.

The Cohort Selector

The dropdown menu in the top right of the page will contain a list of all cohorts in your institution, and defaults to the first one alphabetically. The students in the cohort selected here are who the Lesson Plan will be assigned to when it is saved. Whenever the selected cohort is changed, the Assignments Panel will be updated to display the Lesson Plan for that cohort, and will be empty if a Lesson Plan does not exist for that cohort yet.

The Assignments Panel

This panel is where your Lesson Plan data is displayed. Lesson Plans are divided into multiple groups of content, which can be referred to as Sections. Each Section inside your Lesson Plan will contain a title, a due date, and a selection of content from the Learning Content panel.

The Assignments Panel has a row of buttons in its header to assist you in the creation of your lesson plan:

Sort Sections by due date
Undo
Redo
Add Section
Copy Lesson Plan to a different cohort
Save Lesson Plan

These buttons will become enabled and/or disabled as you take actions to create your Lesson Plan, and if you ever forget what a button does or wonder why it is disabled, just hover over it for an explanatory tooltip!

The Learning Content Panel

Opposite the Assignments Panel is the Learning Content Panel which contains all of the content in SIMVANA. Content is grouped by Module, starting with Tutorials and Simulations. Modules can be clicked which will expand them and show the Categories the Module consists of. The search bar in the Learning Content Panel header will allow you to search for any assignable content.

Anything in the Learning Content Panel with the symbol next to it is content that you can drag into a Section of your Lesson Plan.

Creating an Assignment

Now that you are familiar with the page layout, let's walk through creating a new Section in your Lesson Plan.

Adding a New Section

Start by clicking the "+" icon at the top of the Assignments Panel. This will open the Edit Section Dialog.

After you give the Section a title and a due date, you can click the "Save" button on the bottom right of the dialog to finish creating your section. That will cause the Section to now appear in the Assignments Panel. Expand the Section by clicking on it, and then drag any assignable content from the Learning Content panel into the Section.

Removing Content From a Section

If there is content in the Section that you wish to remove, drag it out of the Section and drop it back into the Learning Content Panel. Alternatively, you can open the Edit Section Dialog by clicking the "Edit Section" button on the top of the card, and then click the delete icon next to the content you wish to remove.

Deleting a Section

To delete a Section, simply click the delete icon in the Section header. This will open a deletion confirmation menu which requires you to select delete again so that no Sections are accidentally deleted. If you delete a Section and then realize that it was a mistake, click the "Undo" icon in the Assignments Panel header to bring your Section right back.

Saving a Lesson Plan

You may save your Lesson Plan via the Save icon on the Assignments Panel header. If the icon is disabled, hover it with your mouse for a tooltip explaining why it is disabled and what you need to do to enable it. Once you click the Save icon, it will show a progress spinner while your Lesson Plan is saving and then turn into a green checkmark informing you that the Lesson Plan saved successfully.

Copying a Lesson Plan

Copying a Lesson Plan works just like saving one. You may copy your Lesson Plan via the Copy icon on the Assignments Panel header. If the icon is disabled, hover it with your mouse for a tooltip explaining why it is disabled and what you need to do to enable it. Once you click the Copy icon, it will open a dialog that allows you to select which cohort to copy this Lesson Plan to.