Design and pace course content

Figuring out how focused each lesson should be, and how many lessons you should have in each module, can be tricky. Here are a couple of tips on how to pace your course.

Limit Your Lesson to a Single Task

There are no system limitations on the number of tasks you can define for a lesson, so the structure of each is ultimately up to you. That being said, we strongly recommend you keep lessons focused on a single task. The more tightly focused your individual lesson is, the easier it is for your students to understand the concept and stay on track.

You might find it helpful to sketch out both the modules and the lessons for your course before you start uploading them to Ruzuku. There are no limits to the number of lessons you can assign to a given module. However, we recommend that 6-10 as a general rule.

Consider Your Learners

When designing lessons, you should also consider who your students are. How much time will they have to spend on your course for the duration of a given lesson?

The first time you run a course, you might have to guess at this. Over time, however, you will develop a good sense of how long your students will want to spend on an individual lesson.

Consider Length of Modules

Next, consider how many lessons a given module will contain. How much time will be required to complete those lessons?

• For video and audio, take the duration of the video/audio and add time for note taking and rewinding.
• For text-based content, estimate a reading time of 200 words per minute. That might be a bit low, but better to over-estimate here than under-estimate.
• For exercises, worksheets and other interactive elements, think about your experience with similar activities.

These bits of information can help you estimate how long a given module's duration should be. 

Alternatively, if you want to match each module to a set length of time (a week, for example), you could determine how long the lessons should take for each week and use that to determine where modules should be added. In this scenario, you might end up with two or more modules for each concept, but I don’t think your learners will mind.

Consider Different Types of Lessons

The last thing to keep in mind is that you'll want to change up the types of lessons. If your course is primarily video-based, consider adding a separate lesson with a worksheet or discussion prompt to give your readers a different kind of learning experience. Having different types of lessons will keep your students interested and engaged with your content.

Your ultimate goal is to give your learners enough content to keep moving forward, but not so much that they feel overwhelmed.