Checklist for vetting ideas

The following guidelines will help you vet ideas for courses. Each guideline is followed by a series of questions to help you as you design your course.

1. Send the learner home with something practical
   • What does the learner get to keep after the course? Examples: a game, a portfolio, templates they can use for future projects, a resume, an Electron app, a working slide deck, an app deployment, a GitHub pages site.
   • Is the course project practical?
   • Will the learner be proud to show off their final repository?
2. Build towards specific skills
   • What should a learner be able to do by the end of the course?
3. Design realistic interactions
   • Is what you're teaching uniquely qualified for GitHub Learning Lab? Or, is the content better suited for a static medium, like a guide or tutorial?
   • Does the content lead users naturally to interact with the repository?
   • Do interactions feel forced? Are interactions based on the content being taught, or are they generic responses (like closing an issue for each step to indicate they're done reading)?
   • Is the learner going through a realistic workflow? Does this experience mimic what they'll do outside of a safe learning environment?
   • Does each interaction build towards the skills you've identified?
4. Keep it simple and tightly scoped
   • Could a learner do this in one sitting?
   • Can a learner easily re-enter the course after some time away?
   • Is the course teaching multiple skills that could be broken up into multiple courses?
   • Can the skills be taught with 8-15 user interactions?
   • Can the course be completed in under one hour?