Auto-Populating Your CMS

The Case for Batch Generation

Many curriculum creators stall at content creation. Defining the domain is exciting. Finding readings feels productive. But sitting down to write 20+ lessons? That's where projects die.

Batch generation solves this by giving you something to edit instead of a blank page. A mediocre first draft you can improve beats no draft at all.

The Lesson Generation Prompt

Use this prompt for each cluster of readings:

I'm building a self-directed research curriculum on [YOUR DOMAIN].

Here are readings for the "[CLUSTER NAME]" cluster:

1. [READING 1 - Author, Title, Year]
2. [READING 2 - Author, Title, Year]
3. [READING 3 - Author, Title, Year]

For each reading, generate a complete lesson with:

## Lesson: [Title]

**slug**: [url-friendly-version]

**description**: [1-2 sentences on why this reading matters]

**key_concepts**:
- name: "[Concept 1]"
  explanation: |
    [2-3 paragraphs explaining this concept]

- name: "[Concept 2]"
  explanation: |
    [2-3 paragraphs explaining this concept]

- name: "[Concept 3]"
  explanation: |
    [2-3 paragraphs explaining this concept]

**assignment**:
  instructions: |
    [Clear instructions for engaging with the reading]
  url: [Link to access the reading, if known]
  reading_title: "[Full citation]"

**knowledge_check**:
- question: "[Reflection question 1]"
  hint: "[Hint to guide thinking]"
- question: "[Reflection question 2]"
  hint: "[Hint to guide thinking]"

**body**: |
  [2-4 paragraphs introducing the reading, its context,
  why it matters for the curriculum, and what to pay attention to]

---

Make explanations accessible to someone new to the field.
Focus on what makes each reading foundational, not just what it contains.

Entering Content into the CMS

Step 1: Create Your Clusters First

1. Go to your-site.netlify.app/admin/
2. Navigate to "Clusters" in the sidebar
3. Create each cluster with title, slug, description, and order
4. Save each one before moving on

Step 2: Add Lessons to Each Cluster

For each generated lesson:

1. Click "Lessons" → "New Lesson"

2. Fill in basic fields:

   • Title: From your AI output
   • Slug: URL-friendly version (e.g., social-construction)
   • Cluster: Select from dropdown
   • Order: Position within cluster
   • Description: 1-2 sentence summary

3. Add key concepts:

   • Click "Add key concept"
   • Paste name and explanation
   • Repeat for each concept

4. Add assignment:

   • Paste instructions
   • Add reading URL if available
   • Add reading title

5. Add knowledge check:

   • Click "Add question"
   • Paste question and hint
   • Repeat for each question

6. Add body content:

   • Paste the introduction/context paragraphs
   • This appears at the top of the lesson page

7. Save → Triggers automatic deployment

Step 3: Batch Your Work

Don't try to perfect each lesson as you enter it. Instead:

• First pass: Enter all content quickly
• Second pass: Review and fix obvious errors
• Ongoing: Refine individual lessons over time

A complete curriculum with rough edges beats three perfect lessons and seventeen empty placeholders.

Example: Generated Lesson

Here's what AI-generated content might look like for a social theory curriculum:

Input: "Berger & Luckmann - The Social Construction of Reality (1966)"

Output:

title: The Social Construction of Reality
slug: social-construction-reality
description: "The foundational text on how societies create and maintain shared reality through ongoing interaction."

key_concepts:
  - name: "Externalization, Objectivation, Internalization"
    explanation: |
      Berger and Luckmann describe a three-step process by which human activity becomes social reality...

  - name: "Institutional Facts"
    explanation: |
      Some facts exist only because we collectively agree they do...

assignment:
  instructions: |
    Read Part I of The Social Construction of Reality, focusing on the dialectical relationship between humans and social reality...
  url: "https://archive.org/details/..."
  reading_title: "Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. Anchor Books."

knowledge_check:
  - question: "How does 'objectivation' transform human activity into something that feels external and given?"
    hint: "Think about how habits become institutions."

body: |
  Published in 1966, The Social Construction of Reality became one of the most influential works in sociology...

This output is ready to paste into your CMS fields.

Handling Multiple Readings

For efficiency, generate 3-5 lessons per prompt. More than that and quality drops. Structure your session:

Time	Activity
10 min	Generate lessons for Cluster 1
15 min	Enter Cluster 1 into CMS
10 min	Generate lessons for Cluster 2
15 min	Enter Cluster 2 into CMS
...	Continue for remaining clusters

A 5-cluster curriculum with 3 lessons each takes roughly 2-3 hours to fully populate.

What Comes Next

Your curriculum is now live but imperfect. That's exactly right.

The next lesson covers how to refine AI-generated content over time—fixing explanations, adding your perspective, improving based on feedback. The goal was never to publish AI content directly. It was to have something real to improve.