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What Makes a Good Cloud Course?

Learn about the components of our Cloud courses.

Miranda Van Ommeren avatar
Written by Miranda Van Ommeren
Updated over 10 months ago

Designing Effective Interactive Cloud Exercises

When creating cloud exercises, the focus should be building a meaningful, hands-on experience that reinforces the lesson’s learning objectives. Use the following guidelines to ensure your exercises are clear, engaging, and aligned with best practices:

Concepts and Focus

  • Single Concept Per Exercise: Each cloud exercise should validate understanding of one concept. If the final question involves multiple concepts, simplify it.

  • No New Concepts: Exercises cannot introduce new concepts not covered in the corresponding video or prerequisite lessons.

Structure and Flow

  • Follow Learning Objectives: Exercises must align with the learning objectives outlined for each lesson.

  • Time Efficiency: Exercises should take no more than 5 minutes to complete (2–3 minutes is ideal).

  • Step Limit: Exercises should be concise, with a maximum of 7 steps (6 instructional steps + 1 final question). Ideally, aim for 4–5 steps.

  • Final Question: The last step should primarily be a question. Any required context, navigation, or setup should appear in earlier steps to avoid formatting limitations in the final step (e.g., bold-only text and no newlines).

Instructions and Hints

  • Actionable Instructions: Provide high-level, action-oriented instructions that describe what learners need to achieve.

  • Detailed Guidance in Hints: Save detailed step-by-step guidance for hints:

    • Step Hints: Reveal 50–80% of the answer.

    • Final Hint: Offer close to 100% of the answer to ensure learners can progress.

    • Action-Based Hints: Focus on how to complete a step rather than restating the task. Refer to this guide for examples.

  • Use Bullet Points Sparingly: If detailed steps are needed, include them in bullet points preceded by a bolded sentence summarizing the step’s goal.

Content Variation

  • Avoid Copy-Paste: Exercises should not replicate the exact steps or code shown in videos. Instead, create variation by:

    • Using datasets with different structures than those in screencasts.

    • Incorporating new functions or steps taught in previous lessons or prerequisite courses.

    • Altering tasks (e.g., using a full outer join instead of an inner join).

    • Highlighting the business value of the exercise’s outcome.

Real-World Relevance

  • Practical Application: Exercises should mirror real-world scenarios learners are likely to encounter in their work.

Videos and Scripts

  • Keep Videos Short: To maintain learner engagement, videos should be under 3–4 minutes, with scripts containing 550 words maximum with an ideal length of 400.

Dependencies

  • Minimize Dependencies: Exercises should stand alone whenever possible. If a dependency exists:

    • Provide any required files within the exercise to avoid backtracking.

    • Add a note encouraging learners to complete all dependent exercises in one sitting to avoid losing progress.

    • Limit dependency chains to a single lesson; avoid dependencies across lessons or chapters.

By following these principles, you’ll create high-quality cloud courses that are interactive, engaging, and effective at helping learners achieve their goals.

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