Lessons are the primary instructional component in a module. They replace the live explanations and examples an instructor would provide in a live classroom, and the moment when an instructor notices confusion and tries a different angle. Because there is no lecture, no office hours, and no live discussion to fill the gaps, lessons must do that work entirely on their own.
What Lessons Are For
A lesson is teaching; the instructor’s voice making sense of material, filling in what the readings leave out, connecting concepts to the real world, and anticipating where students are likely to get stuck.
Lessons should earn their place by adding something students cannot get from an assigned resources alone. Use lessons to:
- Explain a concept the reading assumes prior knowledge for.
- Connect abstract theory to specific professional contexts.
- Show how a theory plays out in a real workplace scenario.
- Provide a perspective that resources do not cover well.
- Connecting resources to the course context.
- Walk through a worked example step by step.
- Surface a concept that students need to understand in order to complete an assignment.
- Share an example or analogy that makes a concept click in a way the required resources do not.
A lesson that does nothing more than restate what students read in a text or other resource is not teaching. It is simply creating busy work for students.
Core Principles
Prioritize Existing Resources Over New Text
Before writing new content, look for what already exists. A well-produced video from a credible source, a relevant journal article, a simulation, or a podcast episode are often more engaging and authoritative than text written from scratch.
An expert explaining a concept in their own field will land differently than a paragraph summarizing the same concept. A simulation will build a skill that reading about it cannot. Original instructor text is most valuable when it does something those other formats cannot.
Order of preference for existing resources:
1 – Excelsior Library. Licensed, credible, stable, and already accessible to all students. Start here. The library’s databases cover peer-reviewed journals, industry publications, ebooks, and more across every discipline we teach.
2 – Professional and industry associations. Field-specific bodies whose publications carry direct professional authority and relevance; for example, the ANA for nursing, ACM or IEEE for computer science, SHRM for human resources, or AICPA for accounting. These sources connect content to actual professional practice in ways academic texts sometimes do not.
3 – Government and regulatory agencies. Particularly strong for fields with regulatory or policy contexts: CDC and NIH for health sciences, NIST and CISA for cybersecurity, NRC for nuclear, BLS for workforce data. These sources are authoritative and publicly accessible.
4 – Open-access peer-reviewed sources. Journals, research repositories, and databases available without a paywall. Useful when the library does not cover a specific title or when a particular study or article is the right resource for the lesson.
5 – Vetted open educational resources. OER Commons, MIT OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, and similar platforms where appropriate. Quality varies, so evaluate carefully before using.
6 – Credible media and trade publications. Useful for current events and industry context. Use when the lesson calls for a timely example or a real-world news hook, with the understanding that these sources go stale faster than others and will need periodic review.
Write in the Instructor Voice
The instructor’s voice is one of the few signals students have that a real expert built this course. It conveys credibility, care, and perspective. Generic, impersonal text communicates the opposite. Students notice when content feels like it was written by nobody, and it undermines their trust in the course.
When original text is the right choice, it should sound like a person teachingrather than a textbook, a corporate training module, or AI. Our editorial style calls for warm, direct, second-person language: address the student as “you,” write in active voice, and write the way you would talk to someone sitting across from you. “Here’s what this means in practice” is better than “The practical implications of this concept are as follows.”
On AI-Generated Content
AI tools can generate fluent, well-structured text quickly. That fluency is also a problem. AI-generated lesson content tends to be generic, high-level, and thin on the specific expertise and perspective that makes a lesson worth reading. It covers topics accurately at a surface level but rarely gets specific enough to teach anything a student could not find with a quick search. The sentence constructions AI uses are increasingly recognizable to students, and when students can tell their course was written by AI, it signals that no one thought carefully about what they actually need to learn.
AI has legitimate uses in lesson development; for example, generating a first draft to react to, suggesting structures or examples, or identifying gaps. But the SME’s expertise and voice should drive the content. If a lesson could have been written by someone who has never worked in the field, it should not be the lesson.
When reviewing lesson content for AI-generated language, watch for these patterns and rewrite them:
“This is not about X. It’s about Y.” / “This doesn’t mean X. It means Y.” / “The goal is not X. It is Y.” These constructions almost always signal AI output and should be rewritten as direct statements.
“It is worth noting that…” / “It’s important to remember that…” If something is worth noting, note it. These phrases add words without adding meaning.
“Ultimately,…” as a paragraph opener. Cut it and start with the substance.
“In other words,…” Used to restate a sentence that just said what it meant. If the original was clear, the restatement is redundant. If it was not clear, rewrite it instead.
Sentences that restate the preceding sentence in different words. Read for this deliberately. One clear sentence beats two that say the same thing.
Closing a section by summarizing what was just said. If the section was clear, a summary is unnecessary. End when you are done.
Overly balanced “on one hand / on the other hand” constructions used when the content does not actually require presenting two equally weighted sides. Take a position when one is warranted.
Be Brief by Design
Brevity in lesson content is a learning design principle. Adult learners are time-constrained and goal-oriented. They read to extract what they need. A lesson that takes five paragraphs to make a point that could be made in one buries the useful information. Every sentence should contribute to a student’s learning. If removing it would not change what a student learns, remove it.
AI-assisted drafts tend to cover all angles at length rather than identify what matters most and then say it directly. That tendency works against learning.
Align to the Module Outcome—and to What Comes Next
Every lesson should connect to at least one module outcome. Since module assignments will assess students’ achievement of module outcomes, design lessons with the assessments in view. Ask, “Does this lesson prepare students to succeed on the assessments in this module?
Roles and Responsibilities
| Task | SME | ID |
|---|---|---|
| Identify what each lesson needs to teach and what existing resources to use | Lead | Consult |
| Write original lesson content in the instructor voice | Lead | Consult |
| Review lesson content for clarity, student comprehension, and learning design standards | Consult | Lead |
| Identify gaps between lesson content and assessment requirements | Consult | Lead |
| Review for accuracy and approve final lesson content | Lead | Consult |
Review Checklist
Does the lesson add something students cannot get from the assigned readings alone?
Does it prioritize existing credible resources over original text where appropriate?
Is original text written in a warm, direct, second-person instructor voice—not generic or impersonal?
Has the content been reviewed for AI-typical language patterns and rewritten where needed?
Is the lesson concise? Could any section be meaningfully shortened without losing learning value?
Does it connect to at least one module outcome?
Would a student who reads this lesson be prepared to complete the module’s assessments?
Has the SME reviewed and approved the content for accuracy?