A Jekyll-based static course website template, open-sourced and maintained by P2PU
JekyllCorporate Website
course-in-a-box — Jekyll Business Template
By p2pu
An open-source online course website template from P2PU, built on Jekyll; publish course pages by forking the repository.
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Recorded 2026-10-01View source
What stands out
A quick read of the recorded project description.
Officially positioned as usable without programming experience: fork the repository and delete the CNAME file to get started
Layouts and styles are concentrated in the _layouts, _includes, and css directories, making the template easy to modify
Provides a Docker-based local run method, previewing via jekyll serve on port 4000
Code is licensed under MIT, and course content under CC BY-SA 4.0
Template Details
Course-in-a-Box is an open-source project maintained by Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) for building and publishing online course websites, based on the Jekyll static site generator. According to the official description, it is aimed at users without programming experience: to create your own course, you only need to fork the repository and delete the CNAME file, with detailed documentation published at course-in-a-box.p2pu.org.
The template's layouts and styles are concentrated in the _layouts, _includes, and css directories; if you want to modify the template itself, you can start with these directories. Running it locally requires installing Docker first, then using the docker run command given in the README to execute bundle install and jekyll serve, previewing on port 4000.
Regarding licensing, the code uses the MIT license, allowing free use, modification, commercial use, and distribution, provided that the copyright and license notice are retained when distributing; the course content (Modules) is separately licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Third-party assets such as demo images, fonts, and icons must be checked against their respective licenses, and external services such as domains and hosting may incur additional charges.
JekyllCorporate website
Is it right for your project?
Use Cases
- An individual or small team publishing a structured online course
- Educational institutions quickly building course introduction and module content pages
- A starting point for learning and modifying a Jekyll static site
- Launching a course site by forking the repository without programming experience
Suitable For
- Educators who want to publish course content using a static site
- Developers who need an open-source course template that can be freely modified and used commercially
- Technical users familiar with or willing to use Jekyll and Docker
Getting started & customization
Use these recorded setup notes alongside the repository instructions for your chosen version.
- 1
To create your own course: fork the repository and delete the CNAME file
- 2
Running locally requires installing Docker first, then executing the docker run command in the README to complete bundle install and jekyll serve
- 3
The local preview address is port 4000
- 4
To modify the template itself, start with the _layouts, _includes, and css directories
- 5
Before use, check the licenses of third-party assets such as demo images, fonts, and icons yourself
License & source material
Usage conditions & limitations
Free to use · keep license noticeThis entry covers the free version under the MIT license in the public repository; the free scope is the code of that version and does not mean that external services or third-party assets are free.
Must comply with when using
- The code of this version may be used, modified, used commercially, and distributed free of charge.
- When distributing copies or substantial portions of the code, retain the original author's copyright notice and the complete MIT license notice.
- The code is provided as is; warranties and limitations of liability are governed by the original license and applicable law.
Additional costs & items to verify
- The course content (Modules) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, which differs from the MIT license for the code: when distributing or adapting course content, you must attribute and share alike (CC BY-SA 4.0), whereas the code portion only requires retaining the MIT copyright and license notice.
- Demo images, fonts, icons, and other third-party assets must be checked against their respective licenses and cannot be judged solely by the code's MIT license.
- External services such as domains, hosting, databases, payments, or AI may incur additional charges.
View Original Text Basis
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge
Original License Text
https://github.com/p2pu/course-in-a-box/blob/gh-pages/LICENSEhttps://github.com/p2pu/course-in-a-box/blob/gh-pages/README.mdCourse content ("Modules") are shared under a [CC BY-SA 4.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
Original README
Compiled by DeepSeek based on repository license and README ·2026-10-01. Results only cover the materials read; dependencies, images, fonts, and subsequent term changes are subject to their respective original texts.
Project checks & description sources
Template Information
- Source platforms
- GitHub
- Documentation and maintenance reference score
- More documented · 85 / 100
- Technologies
- Jekyll
- Website type
- Corporate Website
How this score is calculated
Our heuristic uses license records (up to 30), a demo link (12), a preview (10), stars (15), recorded maintenance (15), description completeness (8), feature records (5) and classification data (5). It is not a code, security or performance test, or a Google score. A link does not establish tested functionality.
What to verify for this project
- Repository update recorded
- 2025-04-22
- Screenshot last checked
- 2026-10-01
A demo link is listed. Check it with your own content and viewport sizes; its presence does not confirm that forms, authentication or payments work.
The catalog identifies Jekyll as the primary stack. Check the actual dependency manifest and lockfile for versions and hosting requirements. These notes use recorded metadata, not a code audit or a deployment test.
Use a selection guide →How this description was prepared
AI-assisted description based on catalog records and repository material. Repository authors are not automatically the reviewers of this description.
Automatically checked against source and license rules; no manual editorial review.
Inspect the recorded source material
SHA-256: 53fceb75de884c47e177e450b648bc23a2434efba5490be8048b11ac14db50e2
2026-10-01T15:25:33.248Z
Source file / repository# An open-source project for creating online courses, built by P2PU
Course-in-a-Box is a free tool for building and publishing online courses — no prior coding experience required.
To create your own course, simply fork this repository and delete the CNAME file. Detailed documentation is available at [course-in-a-box.p2pu.org](https://course-in-a-box.p2pu.org).
To make changes to the template itself, a good place to start is the [`_layouts`](/_layouts), [`_includes`](/_includes) and [`css`](/css) directories. These directories contain all the layout and style files used.
Questions? Ask on P2PU's [Community Forum](https://community.p2pu.org/c/tech/course-in-a-box/78).
# Running locally
- [install docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/)
- Run ```docker run -i -t --rm -u 1000:1000 -p 4000:4000 -v `pwd`:/opt/app -v `pwd`/.bundler/:/opt/bundler -e BUNDLE_PATH=~/opt/bundler -w /opt/app ruby:2.7 bash -c "bundle install && bundle exec jekyll serve --watch -H 0.0.0.0"```
---
Course-in-a-Box is built by [Peer 2 Peer University](https://www.p2pu.org) and shared under an MIT License.
Course content ("Modules") are shared under a [CC BY-SA 4.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
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