Before you sell your course, make the outcome clear

NoeNao team · 2026-11-03

Open your course description and underline the sentence that says what a learner will be able to do when they finish. If you can't find one, or it says "understand", start there. That sentence is the promise people are deciding whether to buy.

Why "understand" is a weak promise

A list of modules tells people what is included. It doesn't tell them what will be different afterwards.

Words like "understand", "learn about" and "be aware of" describe something that happens inside a learner's head. Neither you nor the learner can easily tell whether it happened. University teaching guides make the same point: an outcome should name an action someone could observe, such as identifying, explaining, choosing or producing something (Miami University, Writing Student Learning Outcomes).

This is more than a writing preference. If your promise names a task, you can check whether your course actually teaches it.

One example, rewritten

Here is a typical description of a workplace compliance course, and a rewrite:

• Before: Develop a comprehensive understanding of workplace compliance.
• After: Given a short workplace scenario, choose the right response, name the procedure that applies and explain your reasoning to a colleague.

The second version is longer, but a reader can picture doing it. It also hands the instructor three questions about their own course:

1. Where does the learner meet a scenario like this?
2. Where do they make the choice themselves, rather than read about someone else making it?
3. How do they find out whether their reasoning was right?

The rewrite is an illustration, not a description of any particular course. It only works if your course genuinely includes that practice.

The 15-minute outcome check

Do this for one course, with the description open next to the course outline.

1. Copy the main promise from your description into one sentence that starts "By the end, you will be able to".
2. Circle the verb. If it is understand, know, learn or appreciate, replace it with something a learner could do while you watch: identify, choose, explain, draft, calculate, plan or review.
3. Add the situation. "Given a customer complaint, draft a reply that..." is clearer than "handle complaints".
4. Find the activity in your course where learners do exactly that, and write down the lesson it is in.
5. Find the feedback. How does the learner know whether they did it well? A worked answer, a checklist, a model response or your comments all count.
6. If step 4 or step 5 comes up empty, choose one: narrow the promise to what the course really practises, or add the missing activity before you promote the course.

You end up with one clear sentence for your course page and, quite often, one gap worth fixing first.

Check the promise against the course

Teaching guides call this alignment: the outcome, the learning activities and the assessment all point at the same task (University of Wollongong, Aligned assessment and feedback). In practice it means a quiz that asks for a definition does not test a promise about making decisions. If you promise decisions, learners need a situation to decide in, and a way to see how their decision compares.

The check may show that your description needs more modest wording. That is a good result. A narrower promise your course delivers is easier to stand behind than a broad one it doesn't.

What the course overview on this page shows

The audio overview on this page was made for a compliance training course. In its second half, the conversation moves from what the law requires to a different question: how to make training stick, so people can apply it rather than simply complete it. That is the same distinction this check is about.

You can make the same move in your own course page or overview. Say who the course is for, what learners will practise and what they will be able to do afterwards. Keep each of those claims consistent with your description and with the course itself.

Your next step

Pick one course and run the six steps above before you write your next promotional post. If the check shows a missing activity, add that first. A clear, honest promise gives a prospective learner something concrete to judge, and gives you a standard to build to.

Sources

• Writing Student Learning Outcomes, Center for Teaching Excellence, Miami University.
• Aligned assessment and feedback, Learning and Teaching Hub, University of Wollongong.