Use Cases and Integrations

Why Expose Your Curriculum as Data?

A curriculum website is valuable. A curriculum that machines can read is powerful.

When your content is available as structured data:

AI agents can learn your material and help students
Automation can spread the word when you publish
Custom tools can build on top of your content
Other systems can integrate without manual work

The APIs are already built. This lesson shows you what to do with them.

Use Case 1: AI Tutoring Assistant

The Concept

Imagine an AI assistant that knows your curriculum deeply—not just the text, but the structure. It can:

Recommend which lesson to read based on a question
Explain how topics connect across clusters
Quiz learners on key concepts
Suggest what to study next

How to Build It

With Claude Projects:

Go to claude.ai and create a new Project
In Project Knowledge, add a new file
Fetch your curriculum: curl https://yoursite.netlify.app/api/curriculum.json > curriculum.json
Upload curriculum.json to the project
Start chatting—Claude now knows your entire curriculum

Example prompts to try:

"What topics does this curriculum cover?"
"I want to learn about [topic]. Which lesson should I start with?"
"Summarize the key concepts from the Getting Started cluster"
"Create a quiz based on lesson 2 of cluster 1"

With Custom GPTs:

Go to ChatGPT and create a new GPT
In the configuration, under Knowledge, upload your curriculum JSON
Or configure it to fetch from your API URL
Set instructions like: "You are a tutor for this curriculum. Help students navigate and understand the material."

Why This Works

The JSON structure tells the AI:

What clusters exist and how they're ordered
What lessons belong to each cluster
Titles, descriptions, and slugs for linking
The overall scope and progression

This is far better than the AI just reading your website—it understands the structure.

Use Case 2: Social Media Automation

The Concept

Every time you publish a new lesson, automatically:

Tweet about it
Post to LinkedIn
Send a newsletter
Notify a Discord server

How to Build It

With Zapier:

Create a Zapier account (free tier works)
Create a new Zap
Trigger: Choose "RSS by Zapier" → "New Item in Feed"
Feed URL: https://yoursite.netlify.app/feed.xml
Action: Choose your destination (Twitter, Slack, Email, etc.)
Configure: Use the feed item's title, link, and description

Example Zap: RSS → Twitter

When: New item in RSS feed
Post to Twitter:
  "New lesson published: {{title}}
   {{link}}
   #learning #curriculum"

With Make (Integromat):

Similar flow—RSS module as trigger, social media as action. Make offers more complex branching if you want different actions for clusters vs. lessons.

With IFTTT:

Create an IFTTT applet
"If RSS feed has new item" → "Then post to Twitter/Slack/etc."
Simple but effective for basic notifications

Pro Tips

Filter by category to only announce lessons (not clusters)
Add a delay so you can catch mistakes before auto-posting
Include hashtags relevant to your curriculum topic

Use Case 3: Progress Tracking App

The Concept

Build a companion app where learners:

See all available lessons
Mark lessons as complete
Track their progress through clusters
Get suggestions for what to learn next

How to Build It

Simple Browser-Based Tracker:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>My Learning Progress</title>
  <style>
    .completed { text-decoration: line-through; opacity: 0.6; }
    .lesson { cursor: pointer; padding: 4px; }
    .lesson:hover { background: #f0f0f0; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Progress Tracker</h1>
  <div id="curriculum"></div>

  <script>
    const STORAGE_KEY = 'curriculum_progress';

    // Load saved progress
    const progress = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem(STORAGE_KEY) || '{}');

    fetch('https://YOURSITE.netlify.app/api/curriculum.json')
      .then(r => r.json())
      .then(data => {
        const html = data.clusters.map(cluster => `
          <h2>${cluster.title}</h2>
          <ul>
            ${cluster.lessons.map(lesson => `
              <li class="lesson ${progress[lesson.id] ? 'completed' : ''}"
                  onclick="toggleLesson('${lesson.id}', this)">
                ${lesson.title}
              </li>
            `).join('')}
          </ul>
        `).join('');

        document.getElementById('curriculum').innerHTML = html;
        updateStats(data);
      });

    function toggleLesson(id, element) {
      progress[id] = !progress[id];
      localStorage.setItem(STORAGE_KEY, JSON.stringify(progress));
      element.classList.toggle('completed');
    }
  </script>
</body>
</html>

This saves progress to the browser's local storage. Click a lesson to mark it complete.

More Advanced Options:

Add a backend to sync progress across devices
Build a React Native app for mobile
Integrate with a learning management system
Add spaced repetition for knowledge checks

Use Case 4: Embedding on Other Sites

The Concept

Display your curriculum on another website—a blog, documentation site, or partner page.

How to Build It

Embeddable Widget:

<!-- Add this where you want the curriculum to appear -->
<div id="curriculum-embed"></div>
<script>
  fetch('https://YOURSITE.netlify.app/api/curriculum.json')
    .then(r => r.json())
    .then(data => {
      document.getElementById('curriculum-embed').innerHTML = `
        <h3>${data.site.name}</h3>
        <p>${data.stats.totalClusters} modules, ${data.stats.totalLessons} lessons</p>
        <ul>
          ${data.clusters.map(c =>
            `<li><a href="${c.url}">${c.title}</a> (${c.lessons.length} lessons)</li>`
          ).join('')}
        </ul>
        <a href="${data.site.url}">View full curriculum →</a>
      `;
    });
</script>

Anyone can add this snippet to their site to display your curriculum structure with links back to your site.

Use Case 5: Analytics and Visualization

The Concept

Visualize your curriculum's structure and growth over time.

Ideas

Curriculum map: D3.js visualization showing clusters and lessons as a network
Growth chart: Track how many lessons you've added over time
Coverage analysis: See which topics have the most/least content
Complexity metrics: Analyze lesson lengths, concept counts, etc.

Simple Stats Dashboard

fetch('https://YOURSITE.netlify.app/api/curriculum.json')
  .then(r => r.json())
  .then(data => {
    console.log('Curriculum Stats:');
    console.log(`Total Clusters: ${data.stats.totalClusters}`);
    console.log(`Total Lessons: ${data.stats.totalLessons}`);
    console.log(`Average lessons per cluster: ${(data.stats.totalLessons / data.stats.totalClusters).toFixed(1)}`);

    data.clusters.forEach(c => {
      console.log(`  ${c.title}: ${c.lessons.length} lessons`);
    });
  });

Use Case 6: Content Syndication

The Concept

Feed your curriculum into other platforms:

Learning Management Systems (Moodle, Canvas): Import course structure
Documentation generators: Pull content into docs
Email courses: Drip lessons to subscribers
Podcast show notes: Link to relevant lessons

How It Works

Most platforms that import content accept:

RSS for sequential content
JSON for structured data
OPML for outlines (you could generate this from the API)

The key is that your curriculum is the source of truth. Other systems read from it rather than duplicating content.

Best Practices

Rate Limiting

The API caches for 1 hour. If you're building a high-traffic application, cache responses on your end too.

Error Handling

Always handle fetch errors gracefully:

fetch(url)
  .then(r => {
    if (!r.ok) throw new Error('Failed to fetch');
    return r.json();
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error('Could not load curriculum:', err);
    // Show fallback UI
  });

Attribution

If you build something cool with someone else's curriculum API, consider crediting them and linking back.

What Will You Build?

The APIs are ready. The use cases are endless:

A study buddy AI that knows your material
Automatic social posting when you publish
A mobile app for learning on the go
A dashboard to track your curriculum's growth
Integrations with tools your audience already uses

Start with one simple integration. Once you see how easy it is, you'll think of many more.

Assignment

Choose one integration to explore:

Option A: AI Assistant Setup

Copy your curriculum JSON from /api/curriculum.json
Create a new Claude Project or Custom GPT
Paste the JSON as knowledge/context
Test by asking "What topics does this curriculum cover?" or "Which lesson should I read to learn about X?"

Option B: RSS Automation

Sign up for Zapier (free tier) or Make
Create a new automation with RSS as the trigger
Use your /feed.xml URL as the feed source
Configure an action (email, Slack, etc.)
Test by adding a new lesson and watching the automation trigger

Option C: Simple Dashboard

Create an HTML file with the starter code shown below
Replace YOURSITE with your actual domain
Open the HTML file in a browser

AI Integration

AI assistants can consume your curriculum via the JSON API:

Claude Projects: Add your curriculum JSON as project knowledge for a curriculum-aware assistant
Custom GPTs: Upload curriculum data to build a "curriculum guide"
Tutoring bots: Point any AI at /api/curriculum.json and it instantly understands your content

The structured format makes it easy for AI to understand relationships between clusters, lessons, and concepts.

Automation & Syndication

The RSS feed integrates with automation platforms like Zapier, Make, and IFTTT. When you publish a new lesson, automatically tweet about it, notify a Discord channel, or send a newsletter.

The API also enables syndication—pull your curriculum into documentation sites, learning management systems, or partner sites. Your API is the single source of truth.

Custom Applications

Build custom tools on top of the JSON API:

Progress trackers: Track which lessons a user has completed
Embeddable widgets: Show a lesson list on another website
Mobile apps: Create a native app that fetches your curriculum

Since the API supports CORS, client-side JavaScript can fetch data directly from any domain.

Why is structured JSON better than scraping HTML for AI integrations?

Hint: Think about reliability, clarity of relationships, and maintenance.

What's a practical automation you could build with the RSS feed for your curriculum?

Hint: Consider how you'd want to notify your audience about new content.

Claude Projects Documentation

Anthropic

How to create Claude Projects with custom knowledge.