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Handhold courses combine lessons (watch and learn) and labs (practice and build). Each course is a linear sequence that guides you through concepts with narrated animations, then reinforces your learning with hands-on exercises.

Course Structure

Courses in Handhold follow a step-by-step progression:
  • Lessons: Narrated, animated presentations that explain concepts visually
  • Labs: Interactive coding environments where you apply what you’ve learned
Each course step appears in the sidebar, showing your progress as you advance through the material.

Starting a Course

When you open a course, Handhold automatically begins with the first step. You can:
  • Follow the linear progression by completing each step in order
  • Jump to any step by clicking it in the sidebar
  • Resume from where you left off—Handhold tracks your progress

Completing Steps

Handhold tracks which steps you’ve completed:
  • Lessons: Marked complete when you finish the narration
  • Labs: Marked complete when you pass all tests
Completed steps show a filled indicator in the sidebar
You can move through course steps using:
  • Next/Previous buttons in the status bar (labs only)
  • Sidebar navigation: Click any step to jump directly to it
  • Keyboard shortcuts: Use arrow keys to navigate lessons
The status bar in labs displays your current position (e.g., “2 / 5”) and step title

Viewing Progress

Your course progress is visible in multiple places:
  • Sidebar: Shows completed steps with filled indicators
  • Current step: Highlighted in the sidebar with a pulsing indicator
  • Status bar: Displays step position (labs only)

Playback Speed

For lessons, you can adjust the narration speed:
1

Open the speed selector

Located in the lesson controls at the bottom of the screen
2

Choose your preferred speed

Available speeds: 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x
Faster playback speeds are useful for review, while slower speeds help with complex topics

Audio Generation

Handhold generates high-quality narration for lessons using text-to-speech:
  • Audio is synthesized on first playback (may take a few seconds)
  • Generated audio is cached for instant replay
  • An overlay appears during initial audio generation
  • If generation fails, a retry button appears
The first time you play a lesson, audio generation can take several seconds. Subsequent plays are instant.

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