Organizing Your Courses

You know the feeling — a parent calls and asks "What English levels do you offer?" and you have to think for a moment, check a notebook, or ask someone else. The course list lives in the owner's head, scribbled on a whiteboard, or buried in a WhatsApp group description that hasn't been updated since last year.

When you have five subjects across three levels, that's already fifteen things to keep track of. Add different instructors, different schedules, and different branches — and suddenly nobody agrees on what you actually offer. One receptionist says you have a "Math Basics" course, another calls it "Math Foundation." A parent asks about pricing for a course that was discontinued two months ago.

This lack of structure doesn't just cause confusion — it makes your center look unprofessional. And the bigger you grow, the worse it gets.

In Centerly, a course represents what you teach — it's the subject, the program, the offering. Think of it as the answer to "What classes do you run?"

Every course has a clear identity:

- Title — The name students and parents see, like "English Beginner" or "Quran Memorization"
- Code — A short reference like ENG101 or MATH-G9 that makes internal communication crisp
- Level — Whether it's beginner, intermediate, advanced, or tied to a school grade
- Duration — How many weeks the course runs
- Instructor — The teacher responsible for this course
- Branch — Which location offers it

This isn't a form you fill out and forget. It becomes the foundation that everything else — your classes, your schedules, your enrollment numbers — builds on. When a new receptionist joins, they don't need to memorize anything. They open Centerly and see exactly what you offer, who teaches it, and how long it runs.

Here's a concept that makes Centerly powerful: a course can have multiple groups (classes) under it.

Imagine your English department has three levels — Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each level is a course. Under "English Beginner," you might have Group A that meets Sunday and Tuesday at 4pm, and Group B that meets Monday and Wednesday at 6pm. Both groups teach the same material, but at different times for different students.

This structure means you can see at a glance that "English Beginner" has 45 students across both groups — without opening a spreadsheet or counting names. You know Group A has 25 students and Group B has 20. You know Mr. Ahmed teaches both groups, and both happen in Room 2.

The beauty is in the clarity. Instead of a flat list of "classes" with no hierarchy, you have a structured catalog: Courses define what you teach, Groups define when and where you teach it. Parents browse courses, students enroll in groups.

When you open any course in Centerly, you get a complete picture on a single page. No digging, no cross-referencing.

You'll see the course name, code, level, and how many weeks it runs — the basics. Below that, the assigned instructor with their contact information. But the real power is in the groups section: every class running under this course, with the number of enrolled students, the maximum capacity, and the weekly schedule.

At the bottom, you see the total enrollment across all groups. So when the owner asks "How many students are in our Math program?" — you have the answer in two clicks, not two hours.

This view transforms how you think about your center. Instead of managing a chaotic list of classes, you're managing structured programs. You can spot which courses are thriving (English Beginner is at 90% capacity!) and which need attention (Science Advanced has only 4 students across two groups — maybe consolidate?).

The courses list page is designed to give you the information you need without clicking into each course individually.

Every course in the list shows:

- How many students are enrolled across all its groups
- Total capacity — so you can see which courses have room and which are nearly full
- Number of groups — at a glance, you know "Math Grade 9" has 3 active groups
- Schedule — a summary of when classes run
- Instructor — who's teaching it
- Branch — which location it belongs to

This means you can scan your entire catalog in seconds. When a parent walks in and says "I want to enroll my son in something on Tuesdays," you can filter and find the right course immediately. When the owner wants a report of what's being offered at the Maadi branch, it's right there — no phone calls, no guessing.

Let's walk through a real example. Your center teaches English at three levels, and you want to set them up properly in Centerly.

You create three courses: English Beginner (code: ENG-BEG), English Intermediate (code: ENG-INT), and English Advanced (code: ENG-ADV). Each is assigned to Ms. Sarah, your English instructor, and runs for 12 weeks at your Heliopolis branch.

Under English Beginner, you create two groups — Group A meets Sunday/Tuesday at 4pm in Room 1, and Group B meets Monday/Wednesday at 6pm in Room 3. You set the capacity to 25 for each.

Now when you open the "English Beginner" course, you see: 45 students across 2 groups, 50 total capacity, 90% full. Ms. Sarah can see her teaching load. The receptionist can tell walk-in parents that Group B still has 5 spots. And the owner can see that English is the most popular department — maybe it's time to add a third group.

That level of visibility used to require an hour with Excel. Now it's just there, always up to date, always accurate.