You open your course the way a member would. The header says 6 sections, 14 lessons. Except your program isn’t built in sections. It’s built in weeks. Or phases. Or, if it’s your Start Here course, it isn’t really lessons at all. It’s a handful of things you want new members to do before they post.
So the first words on the screen quietly tell members the wrong thing about what they signed up for.
You don’t have to live with that. You can customize course labels in Circle, renaming sections and lessons to words that match how your course actually works.
By the end of this, you’ll know every label on the menu, which pair fits your course, and exactly where to change them, for every course at once or just one.
What Are Course Labels in Circle?
Course labels are the names Circle uses for the two layers of every course: the sections that group your content and the lessons inside them. You can rename both.
By default, Circle calls them Section and Lesson. Those words work fine for a traditional course. They work less well for almost everything else people build in a course space.
And people build a lot in course spaces. A coaching program. A challenge. A tiered curriculum. An onboarding sequence that walks new members through your guidelines and first steps. Each has its own shape, and the label is the first thing that tells a member which shape they’re in.
That’s what this setting gives you: more control over how your content is organized, and a clearer picture for members of how the lessons flow. A member who sees Week 3 knows something a member who sees Section 3 doesn’t.
Which Course Labels Can You Choose in Circle?
Circle offers 11 section labels, from Chapter and Module to Week, and 12 lesson labels, from Activity and Lesson to Workshop. Section and Lesson stay the defaults.
You pick from a set list rather than typing your own, so it helps to see the whole menu before you decide.
Section labels
These name the big groupings in your course, the containers your lessons sit inside.
What’s on the list:
- Chapter: book-style courses
- Level: tiered learning
- Module: structured courses, and a popular choice for good reason
- Part: breaking up key content
- Path: step-by-step journeys
- Phase: phased training programs
- Section: the default, and still a favorite
- Stage: milestone-based programs
- Track: specialized content paths
- Unit: academic-style courses
- Week: time-based courses
If your course runs on a calendar, Week is hard to beat. If it doesn’t, skip it. Members will read it as a schedule and feel behind the moment they miss one.
Lesson labels
These name the individual pieces inside each section.
What’s on the list:
- Activity: interactive content
- Assignment: action items
- Challenge: accountability-driven programs
- Class: structured teaching sessions
- Day: daily learning paths
- Exercise: hands-on practice
- Lecture: traditional course content
- Lesson: the tried-and-true default
- Session: coaching programs
- Topic: discussion-based content
- Tutorial: step-by-step guides
- Workshop: hands-on learning experiences
The lesson label does more work than it looks like. Lecture tells a member to sit and absorb. Assignment tells them to go do something. Pick the one that matches what you’re actually asking of them.
How Do You Pick the Right Labels for Your Course?
Pick the pair that describes how members move through the course: Week and Day for time-based programs, Level and Challenge for tiered ones, Module and Topic for structured teaching.
The mistake is choosing labels one at a time. Section and lesson labels show up together, so read them as a pair. “Module 2, Topic 4” says one thing. “Week 2, Lecture 4” says something else entirely.
A few pairings that hold together:
- Structured course: Module and Lesson, or Module and Topic
- Book-style course: Chapter and Lesson
- Coaching program: Phase and Session
- Time-based program or challenge: Week and Day
- Tiered or milestone program: Level or Stage, with Challenge or Assignment
- Academic-style course: Unit and Lecture, or Unit and Class
- Hands-on training: Track and Workshop, or Track and Exercise
Then say it out loud the way a member would. “I’m on Phase 2, Session 3.” If it sounds like something a person in your program would actually say, you’ve got it. If it sounds like a textbook, try another pair.
How Do You Change Course Labels in Circle?
Change labels for every course from the three-dot menu in your Courses area, or for one course from the three-dot menu next to Edit Lessons. Choose your labels and save.
There are two places to do this, and the difference matters.
Change labels for every course at once
This is a global change. It updates the labels on every course in your community.
What that looks like:
- Go to the Courses area of your community
- Click the three dots to open the options menu
- Choose the option to customize course labels
- Pick a section label and a lesson label from the lists
- Click Save Changes
Use this when most of your courses share the same structure. If they don’t, this is the wrong tool.
Change labels for one course
This touches only the course you’re in, which is what you want when one program is built differently from the rest.
What that looks like:
- Open the course
- Click the three dots next to Edit Lessons
- Choose Edit labels
- Pick the section and lesson labels for this course
- Click Save
Check what members see
Open the course with View course and look at the header. After I switched my Start Here course, it read six modules and 14 topics instead of sections and lessons. That’s the line members see first, so it’s the one worth checking.
If you change the global setting later, open your individually labeled courses afterward and confirm they still say what you meant them to.
How Should You Label a Start Here Course?
Label your onboarding course so it reads like a path, not homework. I use Module and Topic on my Start Here course. Unit and Activity work well for a lighter, hands-on walkthrough.
If you run your Start Here space as a course (I do), this is the most useful place to use custom labels. Onboarding is where the words matter most, because it’s where a new member is still working out what kind of place this is.
Section and Lesson make onboarding sound like school. That’s not how you want someone to feel on their first visit.
I switched mine to Module and Topic. Each module covers one piece of getting settled, and each topic is a single, small thing to read or do.
Unit and Activity is another good option, especially when most of your onboarding asks members to take an action: fill in a profile, introduce themselves, find their way around. Activity tells them up front they’ll be doing, not reading.
If your onboarding still lives in pinned posts, build the course first. A start here space that onboards members gives new people an order to follow, and a confusing first week is often why new members leave your community without ever saying so.
Once the course is in place, you can automate onboarding with Circle member tags so finishing it actually means something. Labels are one small piece of a community onboarding process that sticks, but they’re the piece members see on every screen.
What Can’t Course Labels Do Yet?
Each course uses one section label and one lesson label throughout. You can’t mix labels inside a single course, so plan your structure around one consistent pair.
That’s the main limit worth knowing before you build. A course can’t have some sections labeled Week and others labeled Bonus. Whatever pair you choose applies to the whole thing.
I’d love the ability to mix and match labels within one course, and I’m hoping it comes. For now, if one part of a program genuinely works differently from the rest, that’s often a sign it belongs in its own course, with its own labels.
Try This Prompt
If you’re not sure which pair fits, this helps you pressure-test the choice against your real course outline.
“I run a [type of community] on Circle, and I’m setting up a course called [course name] for [who it’s for]. Here is the outline: [list the sections and the lessons inside each]. Members move through it [at their own pace / week by week / in levels]. Circle lets me choose one section label from: Chapter, Level, Module, Part, Path, Phase, Section, Stage, Track, Unit, Week, and one lesson label from: Activity, Assignment, Challenge, Class, Day, Exercise, Lecture, Lesson, Session, Topic, Tutorial, Workshop. Recommend the three best label pairs for this course, with one line on what each pair signals to a member. Give me the output as a short table.”
Then read the top pick out loud as a member would. You make the call.
Two Words Set the Expectation
A course label is two words. It’s easy to leave them on the default and never think about them again.
But members read those words before they read anything else. They tell someone whether they’re in a program with a schedule, a set of levels to climb, or a few things to get done before they join the conversation.
Get them right, and the course explains itself before you have to.
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Listen: How to Build a Community Onboarding Process That Sticks. The full system your onboarding course sits inside, from first email to first post.
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Listen: Engage Mode: Activated! Crafting a Welcome Series That Captivate. What to send new members while they work through the course.
Watch: How to Create Member Tags and Automate Onboarding in Your Circle Community. Reward the members who make it to the last topic.
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coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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