Embodiments include an apparatus and method for building courses. For example, one embodiment of a course builder apparatus comprises: a course builder application to retrieve data from a database, the data usable for constructing one or more online courses; a graphical user interface (GUI) of the course builder application for designing an online course, the GUI comprising: a template region in which one or more published classroom activity templates and/or step templates are graphically displayed; an editing region into which a designer of a course may select and drag one or more of the published classroom activity templates or step templates, the editing region comprising one or more fields or other graphical elements to allow the designer may edit the one or more published classroom activity templates or step templates.