Cognito AI Overview

Cognito is CourseForge's AI-powered co-author that helps you create, improve, and enhance your course content. Think of it as a teaching assistant that never gets tired and always has creative ideas.

What You'll Learn

• What Cognito can do for your courses
• How to access Cognito's AI features
• Which features are available on your plan
• When to use AI vs. manual content creation

What Cognito Can Do

Cognito offers powerful AI features across five main areas:

Content Generation

Create course materials from scratch or expand existing content:

• Complete course outlines with modules and lessons
• Full lesson content from topics or brief descriptions
• Code examples with detailed explanations
• Practice exercises and activities
• Lesson summaries and key takeaways

Assessment Creation

Generate quizzes and knowledge checks automatically:

• Quiz questions based on your lesson content
• Multiple question types (multiple choice, true/false, short answer)
• Detailed answer explanations
• Difficulty-adjusted questions
• Questions aligned to learning objectives

Media & Visual Content

Add professional images and custom visuals:

• Stock photo search (Pexels and Pixabay integration)
• Stock video search and integration
• AI-generated custom images using Gemini
• Context-aware image selection
• Minimal, unobtrusive attribution

Content Improvement

Enhance existing course content:

• Improve clarity and readability
• Fix grammar and style issues
• Adjust tone (formal, casual, technical, beginner-friendly)
• Add accessibility improvements
• Translate content to other languages

Smart Suggestions

Get proactive recommendations:

• Identify missing prerequisites
• Suggest additional examples where needed
• Flag better learning progressions
• Highlight engagement opportunities
• Detect assessment gaps

How to Access Cognito

There are three ways to use Cognito's AI features:

1. Cognito Panel

Click the "Cognito" button in the top toolbar to open the side panel. This is best for:

• Course-wide generation and planning
• Creating entire modules or lessons
• Major structural changes
• Working with the Knowledge Library

• Keyboard Shortcut*: Press Shift+Tab to toggle the Cognito panel

2. Context Menu

Right-click any content block and select AI options. This is perfect for:

• Targeted improvements to specific content
• Quick transformations (make clearer, more detailed, etc.)
• Adding quizzes based on existing content
• Finding relevant images

3. Quick Actions

Select any text to see the floating toolbar with instant AI suggestions:

• Grammar and style fixes
• Tone adjustments
• Clarity improvements
• Quick translations

• 💡 Tip*: Choose the method that matches your task. Use the panel for big changes, context menu for moderate edits, and quick actions for rapid tweaks.

Feature Availability

Cognito features vary by plan tier:

Creator Tier

• ✓ All basic AI features
• ✓ 500 AI chat messages/month
• ✓ 200 content generations/month
• ✓ 20 image generations/month
• ✗ No Agent Mode

Professional Tier

• ✓ All Creator features, plus:
• ✓ 2,000 AI chat messages/month
• ✓ 1,000 content generations/month
• ✓ 100 image generations/month
• ✓ Agent Mode (autonomous multi-step execution)
• ✓ 100 Agent Mode operations/month
• ✓ 1,000 Agent Mode steps/month

Enterprise Tier

• ✓ All Professional features, plus:
• ✓ 10,000 AI chat messages/month
• ✓ 5,000 content generations/month
• ✓ 500 image generations/month
• ✓ 500 Agent Mode operations/month
• ✓ 5,000 Agent Mode steps/month
• ✓ Custom limits available

• ℹ️ Usage Tracking*: When you approach 80% of any limit, you'll see a warning. View detailed usage statistics in Settings → AI Usage.

Best Practices

Get the most out of Cognito by following these guidelines:

• Be Specific: More detailed prompts = better results. Instead of "create a lesson," try "create a beginner lesson about Python variables with 3 examples."
• AI Augments, Not Replaces: Use Cognito to overcome writer's block and speed up creation, not replace your expertise
• Add Your Voice: Always add personal insights, experiences, and your unique perspective
• Fact-Check: Verify technical information, especially for specialized topics
• Review Everything: Edit all AI content before publishing
• Iterate: Use conversational refinement rather than accepting first results

What's Next?

Ready to create content with AI? Start here:

• Generate Course Content with AI - Create courses and lessons from scratch
• Improve and Enhance Content - Make existing content better
• Advanced AI Features - Agent Mode and Knowledge Library

• Last updated: October 19, 2025*