Anatomy of a package

A package is your whole course in one place. Here is everything it can hold, and what each part is for — grouped by the lines that matter: the plan you write, the course it produces, and what stays yours.

Two sides, one course

The public side is the course students receive. The private side, under lock, never reaches them.

Every package has a public side and a private side, kept physically apart. You author both in the same workspace; Alembic guarantees that private material can never appear on the public side, even by accident. Where a document lives decides who can see it.

You won’t use every part below in every course. A package can be as small as one study guide, and grow from there.

The blueprint — what you plan

Concise, plain-text documents where you set the framework. This is the layer you work in most.

Concept map: Your plan — the concepts you'll teach, how they connect, and the learning objective for each. Plain text, concise.
Assessment guide: Your plan for assessment — how each concept should be judged across homework, quizzes, and exams. Instructions, not a question bank.

The course — what students receive

The polished, public-facing documents, assembled from the blueprint — centered on the study guide.

Study guide: The center of the course materials — the core reading students receive, assembled from the blueprint.
Slides: A lecture deck per chapter, assembled from the study guide and yours to refine.
Practice: Worked examples and practice questions students can try on their own.
Quizzes & exams: Assessments built from the assessment guide. Public where appropriate; exam content and answer keys stay private (below).

Shared across the course

Assets: Reusable figures, chemical structures, plots, and media you insert into documents.
This term: Announcements and assignments for the class you are teaching right now, kept apart from the timeless materials.
Course info: The package's title, description, license, and instructor details.

The private side — what stays with you

Answer keys: Full solutions to practice sets and assignments — never shown on the public side.
Instructor notes: Teaching tips, pacing, and private planning that stays with you.
Exam content: Assessment material students shouldn't see before it's used.

When in doubt about whether something is student-facing, keep it private — you can always share a piece later, but the separation is there to protect you by default.