Building Your Course With Claude

Why most people get disappointing results when they ask Claude to build a course

The most common mistake is starting too fast with too little context. Someone opens Claude, types “write me a course on [topic]” and receives a generic outline that could have been written by anyone. They conclude that Claude is not useful for this. The problem was never Claude — it was the brief.

Claude is an extraordinarily capable course architect and writer — but only when it understands who the course is for, what they already know, what transformation they are seeking, what your unique angle is and how you communicate. Without that context, it produces average work. With it, the output is consistently strong and often requires only light editing before it is ready to publish.

This module walks you through the complete process — from the initial brief to published module pages — with the exact approach that produces professional-grade course content reliably.

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Step 1 — The course brief: what Claude needs before it writes a single word

Before Claude writes anything, you need to give it a complete picture of what you are building. This is your course brief and it lives as a document in your Course Content Project’s Knowledge area — so Claude has access to it every time you work on the course.

A complete course brief covers the following. Write each section as fully as you can — this document is the foundation everything else is built on.

The student: who is this course for?

Describe your ideal student in detail. Not demographics — specifics. What do they already know when they arrive? What have they already tried? What has not worked for them and why? What do they believe about the problem at the start that you want them to believe differently by the end? What are they afraid of? What is holding them back? What does their life look like before the course and what does it look like after?

The more specifically you can describe the person sitting at the other end of your course, the more Claude will write directly to them rather than to a generic audience. This single section does more to improve output quality than anything else in the brief.

The transformation: what changes for the student?

State the transformation clearly. Not what the course covers — what the student becomes or achieves as a result of completing it. “By the end of this course the student will be able to land a remote job interview within 30 days” is a transformation. “By the end of this course the student will understand how to write a CV” is a topic. Claude writes far more compelling course content when it is oriented toward a transformation rather than a topic list.

Your unique angle: what makes this different?

What do you know, believe or teach that is different from others covering the same topic? This might be a methodology you have developed, a contrarian take on conventional wisdom in your field, a specific framework you use or simply the fact that you have lived the experience you are teaching. Whatever it is, name it clearly in the brief. Claude will weave it through the course rather than producing generic topic-by-topic content that could have come from anyone.

The structure: how many modules, what phases?

Give Claude the skeleton of your course — the number of modules, any phase structure (Phase 1: Foundation, Phase 2: Action, for example), and any specific topics you know need to be covered. You do not need to have the whole curriculum figured out before you involve Claude. You can give it what you have and ask it to fill in the gaps, suggest a logical sequence or challenge the structure if it sees a better one.

The format: how is the course delivered?

Tell Claude how the course will be delivered. Is it written content only? Does each module end with a practical task? Are there quizzes, reflection questions or downloadable resources? Knowing the format means Claude writes with the right structure from the start rather than producing prose you then have to manually restructure.

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Step 2 — Building the curriculum

Once your brief is in place, the next step is building the curriculum — the full list of modules with their titles, learning outcomes and key content areas. This is the skeleton of your course. Claude produces a strong first draft curriculum when it has a complete brief to work from, and it is far faster to refine a good curriculum than to build one from scratch.

Open a conversation in your Course Content Project — where your brief and any source material are saved — and use the following prompt:

Review the curriculum carefully. The key questions to ask: Does each module earn its place — does it cover something genuinely necessary or is it padding? Is the sequence logical — does each module build on the last? Is the scope right — does it cover enough to deliver the transformation without covering so much that it overwhelms the student? Make revisions in conversation with Claude before moving on. It is far easier to restructure the curriculum now than after you have written several modules.

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Step 3 — Writing modules in your voice

This is where most people hit a wall — they get generic, lifeless module content that reads like it came from a textbook written by nobody in particular. The fix is in how you brief each module before Claude writes it.

Each module brief should include four things beyond what is in the curriculum. The first is the entry state — what does the student know, believe or feel at the start of this module specifically? The second is the exit state — what do they know, believe or feel differently by the end of it? The third is your personal angle — what is the thing you specifically believe or know about this topic that shapes how you would teach it? The fourth is tone direction — is this module practical and instructional, or does it need to shift beliefs first before delivering information?

Here is the module writing prompt that consistently produces strong, voice-led content:

After Claude writes the first draft, read it as if you were your ideal student. Ask yourself honestly: does this sound like me? Does it explain things the way I would explain them? Is there anything I know about this topic that Claude has not included? Add your own knowledge in as a follow-up message — “Also add a section on [specific thing I know] and include [personal example or story].” Layer in your expertise. Claude writes the structure and the body. You add the nuance and the specificity that makes it yours.

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Step 4 — Maintaining consistency across the whole course

One of the most common problems when building a course over weeks or months is inconsistency — modules written at different times can vary in tone, depth, structure and even terminology. Claude helps solve this, but only if you manage it intentionally.

The most important thing to do is always work in the same Project for all course content. The Project Instructions mean Claude starts every module with the same understanding of who you are, who the student is and how the course is written. This alone creates far more consistency than writing in individual conversations.

In addition to the Project, keep a short Course Style Guide in your Project Knowledge. This is a one-page document that captures the specific decisions you have made about how this course reads — the terminology you use for your methodology, the format of the action sections, the way you address the student (second person, “you”), the typical length of each section, any recurring phrases or frameworks you use throughout. When you start a new module, reference this explicitly: “Write this module using the conventions in the Course Style Guide.”

If you ever notice a module drifting from your established voice or structure, use this prompt to bring it back:

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Step 5 — Creating companion materials

Beyond the module content itself, most courses include companion materials that help students apply and retain what they learn. Claude can generate all of these from the module content you have already written — you do not need to create them separately from scratch.

Workbooks and exercise sheets: “Based on Module [X], create a one-page student workbook with: three reflection questions, a fill-in-the-blanks section for the key framework, and a space for the student to write their personalised action plan.”

Quick reference guides: “Create a one-page summary of Module [X] that captures the three most important concepts, the key steps in the process and the action items. Format it so it can be printed or saved as a reference card.”

Checklists: “Turn the action section of Module [X] into a printable checklist with checkboxes for each step. Include a space for the student to note their completion date and any observations.”

Email reminders: “Write a short email (under 150 words) to send to students one day after they complete Module [X]. Acknowledge what they have just done, remind them of the key insight and prompt them to take the first action from the action section. Warm, encouraging tone.”

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Step 6 — Publishing your course pages

Once a module is written and reviewed, it needs to go onto your website as a course page. If you have the WordPress MCP connector set up from Module 3, Claude can create the page directly. If not, the content can be copied across manually — but the MCP route is significantly faster once you have built a few pages and have the format working.

The key to making this work well is giving Claude a clear page format to follow. If you are using a page builder like Kadence Blocks on WordPress, upload an example page’s block code to your Project Knowledge and tell Claude to follow that format exactly. Claude can then produce module pages that match your existing design system rather than producing raw content you have to reformat.

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The complete course-building workflow in sequence

To summarise the full process from start to published course:

1. Set up your Course Content Project with your Personal AI Profile already in the instructions
2. Generate your course brief using the interview prompt above and save it to the Project Knowledge
3. Build the curriculum in conversation — review, refine and agree the module list before writing anything
4. Write a Course Style Guide capturing your format and terminology decisions — add it to Project Knowledge
5. Write modules one at a time using the module writing prompt — add your own knowledge and examples after the first draft
6. Generate companion materials from each module as you go
7. Publish each module as a WordPress page using the WordPress connector, or save to Google Drive via the Drive connector
8. Run a consistency check across all modules when the course is complete

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