💻 Learning & career · E-book
The Small Online Course
Designing and running a course that people finish
The Small Online Course
Your name
A4 · this is a layout preview in the “Tiles” design. When you generate, the studio writes every chapter in full, paints the cover and chapter art, and composes a downloadable A4 PDF with your name, bio and store link on it.
Anyone can record a set of videos. The harder problem is designing a course where people arrive, keep going, and can do something afterwards they could not do before. This book works backwards from that outcome, through lesson design, recording, feedback and the awkward middle where most learners quietly drop out.
What's inside
- 1Start With What They Will Be Able To DoReplaces topic lists with capability statements, and shows how to interview a few likely learners before designing anything. After this chapter you will have five specific things a graduate of your course can do.
- 2Scoping It DownArgues for a narrower course than you first want to make, and gives a method for cutting scope without gutting value. After this chapter you will have a syllabus that fits the time your learners genuinely have.
- 3Lessons That Fit A ScreenCovers lesson length, structure and the rhythm of explain, show, do, including why long lessons are usually two short ones. After this chapter you will have every lesson planned as a single idea with a task attached.
- 4Recording Without A StudioDeals with sound, light, screen capture and the equipment worth buying first, along with a workflow for recording in one sitting. After this chapter you can record a lesson that sounds clear in a spare room.
- 5Practice, Feedback And AssessmentShows how to design tasks that produce something you can respond to, and how to give feedback at scale without disappearing under it. After this chapter you will have an assessment plan you can sustain across a full cohort.
- 6Live Sessions And CohortsCompares self-paced and cohort formats, and covers running a live session that is worth attending rather than a recorded lecture with an audience. After this chapter you will know which format suits your subject and your life.
- 7The Awkward MiddleAddresses the point where learners stall, along with nudges, checkpoints and community that actually help. After this chapter you will have a plan for the weeks where completion is usually lost.
- 8Running It Again, BetterCovers what to measure, what to ask leavers, and how to revise a course between cohorts without rebuilding it. After this chapter you will have a short review process that improves the course each time it runs.
A sample from chapter one
A syllabus is not a course
It is tempting to begin by listing everything you know about the subject and calling it a curriculum. The result is comprehensive and almost impossible to finish. Learners drop out not because the material was bad but because the course was built around your expertise rather than around what they were trying to do on a Tuesday evening after work.
So write the outcomes first. Five sentences beginning with the learner can, each naming something specific and observable. Then include only the material that serves them. Everything else goes into a resources page, where it is available to the curious and no longer in the way of the person trying to reach the end.
- Interview five people from your intended audience before designing anything, and ask what they have already tried.
- Keep lessons under twelve minutes and give each one a single task the learner completes before moving on.
- Record a two-minute test clip and listen on phone speakers; sound problems are far more damaging than picture ones.
- Build one checkpoint into the middle of the course where learners submit something and receive a reply.
Key takeaways
- A course succeeds when learners can do something new, which is a different target from covering a subject.
- Cutting scope early is what makes completion possible, and completion is what earns you the next cohort.
- Clear audio, a single idea per lesson and a task at the end matter more than production quality.
The studio writes every chapter from this outline, paints the art and hands you a PDF you can sell the same afternoon.
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