
Do You Really Need Another Module in Your Course?
Have you ever started creating an online course with six modules, only to discover that somewhere along the way it's turned into twelve? You think of another useful lesson, someone asks a fantastic question, or you remember something else from your years of experience that you really should include. Before you know it, your course is growing faster than you originally planned. I understand why this happens. When you love what you teach, you want your students to get as much value as possible, and sometimes that little voice of imposter syndrome makes you wonder whether you've included enough. In this episode of the Talk Podcast, we're exploring how to decide what actually belongs in your course, when additional information is helpful and why making your existing lessons easier to understand and use might be more valuable than recording another module. What Did Your Student Actually Sign Up to Learn? When someone enrols in your course, they're usually looking to achieve something specific. They're not necessarily interested in how many videos you've recorded or how many modules you've included. They want to know what they'll be able to do with the knowledge you're teaching them. Take a course about writing your first media pitch, for example. I could teach you an enormous amount about public relations, from its history to how different media outlets operate. But if you've enrolled because you want to pitch your story to the media, you need to understand what makes a story newsworthy, how to find the right media outlet, how to write your pitch and how to follow it up. A forty-minute lesson on the history of PR might be interesting, but is it helping you achieve the result you signed up for? Decide Where Your Knowledge Belongs When you're reviewing your course content, it's useful to think about whether each lesson is essential to the result your student is trying to achieve. Some information absolutely belongs in the course because students need it to move forward. Other information might be useful as a bonus resource, additional reading or a supporting example. And sometimes an idea is valuable enough to become an entirely separate course. You're not throwing away your knowledge by making these decisions. You're choosing when and where to teach it so your students can concentrate on what they need right now. Don't Overpack Your Course Suitcase I like to think about course creation a little like packing for a holiday. You start with everything you need, then add a few things you might need, and suddenly you're sitting on top of the suitcase trying to get the zip closed. We do exactly the same thing with our courses. The difference is that when we overpack a suitcase, we're the ones carrying it. When we overpack a course, we're asking our students to carry all that extra information. That doesn't mean you should rush off and delete half your lessons. It means looking at the learning journey and deciding whether you've made it unnecessarily difficult for students to reach the result they're working towards. Teach Students How to Make Decisions Imagine you're creating a marketing course with a module about choosing marketing channels. You could include separate lessons about social media, email marketing, blogging and online networking, followed by another lesson comparing them all. But what if your student simply wants to work out where they should spend their marketing time? Rather than expecting them to become an expert in every channel first, you could introduce the options, explain how to evaluate them and provide a practical activity to help them choose what suits their business. The more detailed lessons can still exist as additional learning for students who need them. Your main course can concentrate on helping people make the decision they came to learn. Give Students Opportunities to Practise One of the wonderful things about creating digital courses is that we have so many ways to help people learn. We can use worksheets, interactive workbooks, quizzes, templates, examples and exercises rather than relying on videos for everything. Sometimes a simple worksheet is more useful than another twenty minutes of explanation. If you've just taught someone how to choose their marketing channels, give them an activity that helps them identify their audience, where those people spend time, what marketing they can realistically maintain and which activities they should focus on first. Then encourage them to take one small action. They might send an email, attend a networking event or start creating content for a particular channel. They've taken what they've learned and actually done something with it, which is exactly what we want from good teaching. When Students Get Stuck, Find Out Why After launching a course, you'll probably receive questions from students. That's a good thing because it means they're engaging with what you're teaching. But it doesn't automatically mean you need to record another lesson every time someone asks something. If three students ask what to include in a simple marketing plan, perhaps they don't need another thirty-minute lecture. They might just need to see an example of a completed plan or watch a short demonstration showing how to put one together. Of course, sometimes questions reveal a genuine gap in the course, and another lesson is the right solution. The important thing is understanding whether students need more explanation, a practical example, an opportunity to practise or something essential that hasn't yet been covered. Remember Who Is Learning on the Other Side of the Screen Your students have lives outside your course. They're running businesses, raising families, caring for people and trying to fit learning around everything else happening in their day. Some might have twenty minutes between appointments. Others might sit down to learn for half an hour after dinner. If every lesson requires a huge commitment of time, it becomes harder for them to maintain momentum and return to their learning. Think about how you can give students manageable activities and opportunities to make progress as they go. Small achievements help them use what they're learning and give them a reason to keep coming back. Review One Module Before Recording Anything New If you're wondering whether your course needs another module, start by reviewing what you've already created. Choose one module and write down what students should be able to do by the time they've completed it. Then look at each lesson and consider how it contributes to that result. You might discover two lessons that could be combined, a detailed case study that would work better as a bonus resource or an opportunity to replace another explanation with a practical worksheet. You haven't necessarily removed anything important or created more work for yourself. You've made the learning journey easier for your students to follow. Your Challenge This week, I want you to choose just one module from a course you're creating or have already published. Please don't turn this into an enormous project and start pulling apart your entire course! Open that module and ask yourself: What should my student be able to do after completing this module? Does every lesson help them achieve that result? Are any lessons covering essentially the same information? Could something work better as a bonus resource or example? Would a worksheet, demonstration or practical activity help students apply what they've learned? Is there genuinely something missing that requires another lesson? Choose one improvement you can make to help students move forward. Your course doesn't need to teach everything you know. People are enrolling because they believe you can help them learn something useful and achieve a particular result. Before you record another six modules, have a look at what you've already created. You might be surprised by how much better you can make the learning experience without adding another minute of video. Resources How to Write a Media Release An example of practical, outcome-focused course design, with step-by-step lessons, templates, checklists and a project where students create their own media release. What Makes a Great eBook Explore how to organise knowledge into a useful learning resource, including outlining, structuring and presenting information. Highlights 00:00 Why We Keep Adding More Course Content 01:10 What Students Actually Want to Learn 02:00 The Media Pitch Course Example 03:05 Deciding Where Lessons Belong 03:35 The Overpacked Suitcase Problem 04:20 Making the Learning Journey Easier 05:15 Activities Instead of More Videos 06:00 Helping Students Put Learning into Practice 07:05 Understanding Why Students Get Stuck 08:10 When Another Lesson Is Needed 08:50 Respecting Your Students' Time 09:45 Reviewing One Module 11:00 Why More Modules Don't Mean More Value 12:00 Your Course Review Challenge















