A New Way to Rate Course Creator Platforms: the DOMS™️ Scoring System
A New Way to Rate Course Creator Platforms: the DOMS™️ Scoring System
What happens when we rate course creator platforms by the experience they deliver to learners, rather than creators?
The course creator economy is growing exponentially. Today, anyone can become a teacher & share their knowledge as quickly and easily as you can upload a video to YouTube.
Online course creation platforms proliferate and there are hundreds of comparison sites which rate online course creation platforms like Udemy, Teachable & Skillshare.
Generally, these ratings are based on two measures of value, both of which are creator rather than learner facing:
Ease & speed of course creation
Degree of marketing support
Building a course quickly & marketing it well is important, but it’s not the biggest challenge we face as course creators.
The bigger challenge, one that we’re sometimes blind to, is our ability to design & deliver a course that optimises for learner attraction, motivation, achievement & joy.
The harsh reality behind the proliferation of course creator platforms is that 83% of online courses fail to attract & retain learners in the way that their millions of creators intended.
We keep building courses but our learners don’t come, or if they do come, they don’t stay.
Introducing: the DOMS™️ Scoring System
Based on 150+ articles on how humans learn online, the DOMS™️ Scoring System rates platforms by how well they empower course creators to hit six key pedagogical principles which we know drive learner motivation, achievement & mastery:
Optimise Outcomes: Learners learn better when all content & activity is aligned to clear learning outcomes. The wording & structure of outcomes along with their clarity of purpose helps the student understand what they should be learning and why it’s worth their effort.
DOMS™️ Measure: Outcomes can be front and centre at both the course & module level.
______Deliver Desirable Difficulty: Learners learn better when activities and content progress from simple to complex at an appropriate level of challenge for the learners in question.
DOMS™️ Measure: It is possible to deliver ‘beyond quiz’ activities which enable learners to apply, analyse, evaluate & create (as well as understand & remember).
______Drive Intrinsic Motivation: Learners learn better when they are driven more by internal reasons than external rewards or consequences. This intrinsic motivation leads to increased engagement with the learning process, which, in turn, reinforces motivation & achievement.
DOMS™️ Measure: It is possible to personalise the look & feel and to build connection with and between learners, e.g. via async & sync chat & other comms tools.
______Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: Learners learn best when the experience is as authentic or “close to real” as possible. As a rule, the most effective strategy is to select content, activities, assessments & modes which best replicate “close to real” scenarios & enable learners to apply & get feedback on their learning in context.
DOMS™️ Measure: It is possible to deliver activities which enable learners to apply & create in “close to real” conditions, e.g. I can embed an Airtable project plan template so learners can practice how to write a project plan.
______Encourage Metacognition: Thinking about thinking helps learners to understand their own learning, choose strategies that will lead to success, and transfer learning to new contexts with greater confidence and control. Well-crafted, targeted & timely feedback plays a critical part in developing learners’ metacognition which, in turn, drives engagement & achievement.
DOMS™️ Measure: It is possible to give both responsive and pre-programmed feedback on learner activities, immediately after that activity. Feedback can be verbal (video or audio) as well as text based. It is also possible to include activities which enable learners to plan & reflect on their learning, e.g. have access to a personalised journal doc.
______Manage Cognitive Load: Our working memories have a limited capacity. Learners learn better when information - including learning content - is minimised & presented in a way that doesn’t unnecessarily tax working memory.
DOMS™️ Measure: It is possible to deliver a range of content types, e.g. video, audio, images. It is possible to deliver a range of activity types (not just quizzes).
The Results
A rapid review of five of the most popular course creator platforms yielded some interesting results:
Skillshare: great for active, hands-on project-based courses. Especially good for creative & developer courses, but great for most course types. Beware of the lack of certification & risk of cognitive overload: “Your course needs video, include at least 10 minutes of video content.”
✔️ Optimise Outcomes: outcomes are front and centre of Skillshare learning experiences. They and well-formed by standard, using “you language” and clearly articulating the value of the experience for a just-niche-enough target audience.
✔️ Deliver Desirable Difficulty: ability, with the right design, to deliver higher order activities with increasing complexity e.g. through application, creation of real life outputs + feedback.
✔️ Drive Intrinsic Motivation: outcomes relate clearly to the learner's why: real-life gains, value prop & return on investment are clear. Opportunities for instructor and peer interactions are optimised.
✔️ Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: range of embeds for rich, real-world application of learning, e.g. Adobe, Invision. Platform has a notable focus on hands-on learning & skills development through repeated practice.
✔️ Encourage Metacognition: enables peer and instructor responsive feedback, & automated feedback. Feedback can be contextualised & timely.
✔️ Manages Cognitive Load: clear emphasis on action (skills development) over content & memorisation.
Overall DOMS™️ rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thinkific: great for building a hands-on blended (i.e. sync & async) learning experiences. Beware of the marketing lift.
✔️ Optimise Outcomes: outcomes can be front and centre, and well-formed by standard
✔️ Deliver Desirable Difficulty: creators have the ability, with the right design skills, to deliver higher order activities with increasing complexity e.g. through application, creation of real life outputs + feedback.
✔️ Drive Intrinsic Motivation: range of embeds for rich async & sync interactions (e.g. Slack & Zoom). Great UX/UI, which helps drive learner motivation.
✔️ Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: range of embeds for rich, real world application of learning using real tools. Presentation & assignment lessons enable you to set a hands-on project for your learners & provide contextualised feedback
✔️ Encourage Metacognition: enables peer and instructor responsive feedback, & automated feedback. Feedback can be contextualised & timely.
✔️ Manages Cognitive Load: some emphasis on action (skills development) over content & memorisation.
Overall DOMS™️ rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Udemy good for launching your first course. Most powerful for coding / developer courses. Beware of the content + quiz trap.
❌ Optimise Outcomes: outcomes could be more focal & relate to the learner's "why"
✔️ Deliver Desirable Difficulty: creators have the ability, with the right design skills, to deliver higher order activities with increasing complexity e.g. through assessed projects.
❌ Drive Intrinsic Motivation: UX/UI is adequate, but doesn't deliver delight which could impact motivation. Lack of targeted positioning might mean this feels generic and not for me, which can impact motivation & retention.
❌ Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: a focus on quizzes means recall is supported but there's a lack of opportunity for higher order application activities beyond coding. It is possible to hack the assignments function and add links out to application activities, e.g. in Google Docs, but this could compromise cognitive load.
✔️ Encourage Metacognition: assignments & projects for contextualised teacher or peer feedback
❌ Manages Cognitive Load: lack of hands-on practice functionality (beyond coding) and references to “video lectures” runs a risk of content+quiz approaches which leads to disengagement & drop out
Overall DOMS™️ rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Teachable: great for creating an online school with advanced marketing support. Most suitable for hybrid (sync & async) courses. Beware of the content + quiz trap.
❌ Optimise Outcomes: outcomes could be more focused & relate to the learner's "why". There’s a lack of “you” language in the high level course outcomes and too much focus on the instructor over the learner.
❌ Deliver Desirable Difficulty: the content + quiz focus means that creators have limited ability to push beyond recall & deliver higher order, more applied activities.
✔️ Drive Intrinsic Motivation: in-platform comments for instructor & student chat, which helps build connection and drive motivation. Range of embeds for live sessions, so if you have sync time this is a great way to drive motivation through live connection.
❌ Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: a focus on quizzes means recall is supported but there's a lack of opportunity for higher order application activities beyond coding. It is possible to deliver practice in sync sessions, but there’s risk of learners becoming passive and disengaging (unless you can be very present and responsive in the chat).
✔️ Encourage Metacognition: some limited contextualised feedback and as a result a risk of demotivation & disengagement (unless you can be very present and responsive in the chat).
❌ Manages Cognitive Load: lack of hands-on practice functionality (beyond coding) and references to “video lectures” runs a risk of content+quiz approaches which leads to disengagement & drop out.
Overall DOMS™️ rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Kajabi: good for selling a range a range of online products, e.g. course + subscription memberships. Beware of limited course functionality & the content + quiz trap.
❌ Optimise Outcomes: outcomes could be more focused on the learner's "why". There’s a lack of “you” language in the high level course outcomes and too much focus on the instructor over the learner.
❌ Deliver Desirable Difficulty: focus on quizzes means recall is supported but there's a lack of opportunity for more challenging higher order activities, e.g. authentic application.
❌ Drive Intrinsic Motivation: in-platform comments for instructor & student chat, which helps build connection and drive motivation. Range of embeds for live sessions, so if you have sync time this is a great way to drive motivation through live connection.
❌ Learn, Practice & Assess in Context: a focus on quizzes means recall is supported but there's a lack of opportunity for higher order application activities beyond coding. It is possible to deliver practice in sync sessions, but there’s risk of learners becoming passive and disengaging (unless you can be very present and responsive in the chat).
✔️ Encourage Metacognition: some contextualised feedback, but it’s limited. As a result a risk of demotivation & disengagement (unless you can be very present and responsive in the chat).
❌ Manages Cognitive Load: lack of hands-on practice functionality and focus on content creation methods runs a risk of content+quiz approaches which lead to disengagement & drop out.
Overall DOMS™️ rating: ⭐️⭐️
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Try out the DOMS™️ Scoring System for yourself & share your results: how far does your platform of choice enable you to optimise your online course for earner attraction, motivation, achievement & joy?
Happy designing 👋