One Page. One Hour. Fewer Frustrated Students.

I have a confession to make.

I am addicted to free courses. (I know. I know.) Part of it is genuine curiosity - I love learning. But honestly? A big part of it is professional. How someone shows up in their free content tells you a lot about how they teach. A free course isn't just a lead magnet. It's a preview. It's a promise.

So there I was, a few weeks ago, taking a free course on marketing without social media. After the introduction, the instructor did something I wasn't expecting. She included a page - just one page - dedicated to the terms and phrases she would be using throughout the course.

I stopped scrolling and just sat with it for a moment.

This. This is what I've been saying more courses need.

Side note: Partway through the course, she started talking about Instagram strategies. Which made me pause… “Wasn't this supposed to be about marketing without social media?” I suspect she may have repurposed some existing content, which is completely fine and honestly pretty common. But it's a good reminder: if you repackage or repurpose material, do a quick read-through to make sure everything still fits the promise you made at the start. Your students noticed what you said your course was about. Make sure the content still matches.

Okay, back to my original point…

Before I tell you why that one page mattered so much, let me back up.

I've mentioned before that I once paid good money for a virtual assistant course. VA. Virtual assistant. Except here's the thing. In my world as a music and arts educator, VA means visual arts. Same initials. Completely different universe. I had to consciously rewire my brain every single time the instructor said it.

But that was the least of my problems.

The course assumed I already spoke the language. The 3-2-1 method. OBM. CRM. The difference between a reel, a post, and a story. I was mid-module, mid-thought, and suddenly three Google tabs deep trying to figure out what she was actually talking about. I paid a significant amount of money so I wouldn't have to be Googling all the things. And yet there I was, Googling all the things.

You cannot assume your students speak your language. You just can't.

Back to the marketing course.

That one page of terms wasn't fancy. It didn't need to be. Bolded term. Plain-English definition. What it means in the context of this course. That's it.

And here's the brilliant part: It worked for everyone in the room.

For the students who already knew what SEO and lead magnets and funnels meant? One quick scan, nothing new, move on. Minimal time spent.

For the students who were brand new to the online space and had never heard any of it? A foundation. A reference point they could return to. A reason not to quit halfway through module two because they felt lost and embarrassed and didn't want to admit they didn't know what any of it meant.

That's good course design. And it took maybe an hour to put together.

Here's an analogy for my fellow quilters. (Bear with me, everyone else, this connects, I promise.)

Quilt patterns almost always open with a list of abbreviations. HST: half square triangle. RST: right sides together. If you've been quilting for twenty years, you already know. You scan it and move on. But if you're newer? That list is the difference between confidently following the pattern and spiraling into confusion before you've cut a single square.

One list. Works for everyone. Respects everyone's time.

Your course can do exactly the same thing.

Here's what a glossary page doesn't need to be:

A perfectly designed PDF. A lengthy academic document. A complete dictionary of your field. Something that takes days to produce.

Here's what it does need to be: A list of the terms and abbreviations you use in your course, with a plain-English explanation of what they mean in your context. That last part matters. Words can mean different things in different industries. (See: VA.) Define them the way you use them, in your course, for your students.

It can live as a dedicated page inside your course platform. It can be a simple downloadable PDF. It can be as short as ten entries or as long as fifty. What matters is that it exists.

Your students come to you with wildly different backgrounds, experience levels, and vocabularies. Some of them know your language inside and out. Some of them are learning it for the very first time. A glossary page doesn't talk down to either group. It just quietly meets everyone where they are.

That's not a small thing. That's the difference between a student who finishes your course and one who doesn't.

One page. Probably an hour of your time. Add it.

Thinking about what else might be keeping your students from finishing your course? That's exactly what a Harmonizing Audit looks at. Let's chat.