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Free Lesson

Start from the End: Designing Your Course Backward

Hosted by Amber Laxton

Thu, Oct 15, 2026

12:00 AM UTC (45 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

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What you'll learn

Derive terminal objectives from a value statement

Turn your course promise into three or four milestones the learner must clear, each becoming a module.

Define proof of learning for each terminal objective

Name what the learner produces at each milestone, specific enough that you can observe if the objective was met.

Map enabling objectives to each terminal objective

Work back one level to the knowledge and skills that get them to each milestone, turning each into a lesson.

Gut-check every objective against your promise

Hold each one against the value statement. Cut anything that doesn't directly deliver the result.

Why this topic matters

Median completion for online courses is about 12%. That gets blamed on motivation, but it's really a design problem. Fixing it starts with how you outline your course. Most experts build courses forward from everything they know. They end up with a laundry list of topics that point nowhere specific. In 30 minutes, I'll build one backward instead, starting from a single sentence. You'll leave with the method and a first draft of your own outline.

You'll learn from

Amber Laxton

Instructional designer, consultant, educator

I'm Amber. I've spent 20 years in education designing learning experiences, leading academic programs, consulting, and working at an edtech startup where I handled product research, go-to-market, and marketing.

That mix taught me something most course advice skips: making something good is only half of it. A course also has to work for the people taking it and for the business behind it. That means real instructional design, technology that stays out of the way, a product that holds together, and a way to reach the people it's actually for.

I help experts turn what they know into educational products that do the job on both ends.

See all products from Amber

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