1. The brief

The videos already existed on Vimeo, in isiXhosa, with isiXhosa titles. Nothing new had to be filmed and nothing had to be translated. The work was to give those videos a home on s2l.online so an isiXhosa-speaking learner can find them, take them in order, and be marked as having completed the course.

2. Why isiXhosa, and why now

S2L's mission is digital literacy across South Africa, in the languages people actually speak at home. There is already a SARS course in English on the site, and the isiXhosa recordings have been ready for a while. Putting them up costs nothing more than the data structure they need; leaving them off the site costs every isiXhosa learner who would otherwise use them.

The decision to keep the course free was easy. SARS is a public-service topic, and a paywall on a public-service topic in a second language sends the wrong signal. Other languages and other topics may be paid in time; the isiXhosa SARS series is not the place to start charging.

3. The shape of the course

Six lessons, in this order, all hosted on Vimeo:

• Isifundo 01 Intshayelelo
• Isifundo 02 Ukukhuphela kunye nokuseta
• Isifundo 03 Ubhaliso
• Isifundo 04 Ukusombulula Iimpazamo Zokubhalisa
• Isifundo 05 Imbuyekezo yeRhafu yeNgeniso
• Isifundo 06 — Ukuhlawula i-SARS

Total runtime is about twenty-one minutes — long enough to be useful, short enough that a learner on a budget smartphone can take it in a single sitting. Each lesson title was kept in isiXhosa exactly as supplied. There was no temptation to bolt on an English subtitle: the audience is isiXhosa, and the course directory will eventually carry equivalents in other languages.

4. Wiring up the course record

The EP Courses plugin already has the right shape: a course row in pm_ep_courses, with title, slug, level, price, lesson count and total duration, and a separate pm_ep_lessons table for the lessons themselves. So the work was data, not code.

One new course row was added:

• Title: SARS2isiXhosa
• Slug: sars2isixhosa (so the public URL is /sars2isixhosa/)
• Level: free
• Price: 0
• Status: published
• Lesson count: 6
• Duration: 21 minutes

The slug was chosen to match the English version's pattern (sars2s2l) so that the SARS family of courses reads as a coherent set.

5. Adding the six lessons

Each lesson row carries the Vimeo id, the Vimeo title (kept identical to the lesson title), the lesson's own duration, and the sort order. The plugin already knew how to render Vimeo embeds, so no template work was needed; the rendering picked up the new rows the moment they were written.

Sort order is sequential. A learner finishing Isifundo 03 lands on Isifundo 04 next, exactly as recorded.

6. Going live and checking it

The course was published the moment the rows were saved. A walkthrough on the live site confirmed three things:

• The course landing page at /sars2isixhosa/ lists all six lessons in order, with their isiXhosa titles and individual durations.
• The watch page for each lesson loads the right Vimeo embed and plays.
• The course is visible in the catalogue for everyone, with no payment prompt, since it is free.

7. Going forward

Two follow-ups remain. The first is a short isiXhosa description on each lesson, written in the description field that was added in the 27 April session. That field already exists and already renders under the lesson title; the only outstanding work is the copy itself. The second, larger one is to repeat the same shape for the other South African languages once translated recordings are ready. The course directory is now wired for it: a SARS2isiZulu, SARS2Sesotho and so on can be added with the same pattern, no code changes required.

The decision to keep the SARS series free at this stage stays with the project: pricing, if and when it appears, belongs on richer, longer courses where a paid tier earns its place. SARS is the front door, not a paywall.