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A template sets the structure every course in an institution — or one program — should share: which modules and lessons are required, which blocks inside them are required, with starter text (for example, instructor contact or how to get help), a default tutor mode per activity kind, and an accessibility floor at or above the institution’s own minimum score.

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Institution and program templates

A template belongs either to the institution as a whole or to one program. A program groups courses under a shared template and an optional brand accent, chosen from Tessera’s set of accent colors. A course that belongs to a program uses the program’s template; a course with no program uses the institution’s template; a course can also have no template at all.

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Applying a template

Creating a new course in a program, or under the institution with no program, gives it the template’s required modules, lessons, and blocks immediately, as a starting skeleton. Applying a template to an existing course is always previewed first: Tessera shows exactly what would change — for example, “Adds 2 lessons and 3 blocks. Renames nothing. Removes nothing.” — before anything is written. A template only adds what’s missing. It never deletes, renames, or reorders content that’s already there, so applying one to a course you’ve already built is safe.

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Deviations

If a required lesson is deleted, or a required block is left empty, that shows up as an issue in the course’s readiness report with a link straight to what’s missing — not as something templates silently re-add. Structure is matched by a stable key, not by title, so renaming a required module or lesson is always allowed and never counts as a deviation.