Plan a course

Decisions made before the first lesson exists are the ones that are expensive to change later: the URL structure, the access model, and how the course is divided.

This short chapter covers those decisions. Everything in it is worth ten minutes now and saves a rebuild later.

In this chapter

The three decisions that are hard to undo

The URL structure. Course and lesson slugs, and whether lesson URLs sit under their course, change every address on the platform. Decide before publishing, because links shared with students break when they change.

The access model. Login, permission rule or paid course produce different student experiences and different amounts of setup. Switching later means re-testing every course.

The section structure. Sections are the outline. Reorganising them after fifty lessons exist means reassigning fifty lessons.

What is easy to change later

Reassuringly, most things:

• lesson order;
• lesson content and videos;
• estimated times;
• the no-access message;
• previews;
• the course description and image;
• the settings that control page layout.

So plan the three items above carefully, and iterate freely on the rest.

A realistic first plan

For one course, write down:

1. The course title and one sentence about who it is for.
2. Three to five section names.
3. The lessons in each section, in order.
4. Which lessons will be previews.
5. Whether the course is free, login-gated, rule-gated or sold.
6. If sold, which product grants access.
7. What a student without access should read.

That is the whole plan. It fits on one page, and it is enough to build the course without rework.

Start with The course, section and lesson model.