Objectives
Learning objectives generator
Bloom’s verbs, the ABCD format, and a warning for “understand”.
Free tool
Course outline builder
Plan a course in parts and lessons, with a time and an objective for each. See the total hours and what to fix, then copy it as Markdown, print it, or download it as a folder of Markdown files for Obsidian.
Free, no sign-up. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Your course
Who it’s for and what they already know.
Parts and lessons
3 lessons · 2 h 30 min
4 lessons · 4 h 30 min
3 lessons · 4 h 45 min
Course length
11 h 45 min 3 parts · 10 lessons
| Part | Lessons | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. How the web works | 3 | 2 h 30 min |
| 2. HTML and CSS | 4 | 4 h 30 min |
| 3. JavaScript and publishing | 3 | 4 h 45 min |
Before you run it
- “Publishing your site” is 2 h. Over 90 minutes, split it in two or plan a break and a change of activity.
- 1 lesson has no objective: “Forms”. Say what learners will be able to do after it.
Outline
Web development basics
For Career changers with no programming background
Part 1: How the web works3 lessons · 2 h 30 min
- What happens when you open a page · 45 minExplain what happens between typing a URL and seeing the page, in your own words.
- Your tools: editor, browser and terminal · 1 hSet up a code editor, browser developer tools and a terminal on your own laptop.
- Requests and responses · 45 minIdentify the method, status code and headers of a request in the Network tab.
Part 2: HTML and CSS4 lessons · 4 h 30 min
- Structuring a page with HTML · 1 hWrite a page with headings, lists, links and images that passes the HTML validator.
- Styling with CSS · 1 h 15 minStyle a page with selectors, the box model and a colour palette of your choice.
- Layout with Flexbox and Grid · 1 h 30 minBuild a two-column layout that still works on a 375-pixel-wide phone.
- Forms · 45 min
Part 3: JavaScript and publishing3 lessons · 4 h 45 min
- JavaScript basics · 1 h 30 minUse variables, conditions and loops to solve five short exercises in the console.
- The DOM and events · 1 h 15 minMake a button change the page without reloading it.
- Publishing your site · 2 hPublish your site with Git and GitHub Pages, and share its address with the group.
The .zip unpacks into a folder with one numbered folder per part and one Markdown note per lesson, so it opens in Obsidian as it is. Chalkenso’s Obsidian plugin can upload that folder to a course version: it offers to create the parts and adds the lessons in this order, as drafts.
How to use the course outline builder
- Name the course and say who it’s for. The audience decides what you can skip: career changers need “what is a terminal”, developers moving to a new framework don’t.
- Group the lessons into parts. A part is a stretch of the course with one theme, usually ending in something learners can do or make.
- Give each lesson a title, a time and one objective: what learners will be able to do afterwards. Use the arrows to reorder lessons and parts.
- Read the result: total time, time per part, and the warnings. Then copy the outline as Markdown, print it, or download it as a .zip of Markdown files.
What a good course outline contains
A course outline, or syllabus, is a promise about time and outcomes. Whatever the template, the useful ones answer the same questions:
- Who it’s for, and what they need to know before they start.
- What they’ll be able to do at the end, in one or two sentences.
- The parts and lessons, in order, with how long each takes.
- One objective per lesson, written as something learners will do, not a topic.
- How learning is checked: exercises, a project, a quiz, a demo.
- For a syllabus, the practical details: dates, times, place, who teaches and what to bring. The course schedule planner turns a lesson list into dates.
The builder covers the first four. Objectives deserve the most care: they decide what goes into each lesson and how you’ll know it worked. The learning objectives generator helps you write them with verbs you can check.
How long should a lesson be?
There’s no research-backed ideal length, and it depends on the format: a self-paced video lesson, an evening session and a full workshop day are different things. Two rules of thumb hold up in practice:
- Plan around what learners do, not what you say. A lesson is long enough when there’s time to explain, to practise and to check, and no longer.
- Change the activity before attention runs out. Over about 90 minutes, plan a break and a switch from listening to doing, or split the lesson. That’s why the builder flags lessons over 90 minutes.
Time also tells you about scope. If one part takes ten hours and the others take two, it’s probably two parts, or it holds content that belongs elsewhere. A part with a single lesson is the opposite problem: merge it into a neighbour, or the lesson is doing a part’s work.
Sequencing: prerequisites first
Order the lessons so that each one needs only what came before it. A practical way to check:
- For every lesson, list what learners must already know or be able to do.
- Make sure each item is taught earlier in the outline, or listed as a prerequisite for the whole course.
- Move a lesson later when it depends on something that hasn’t been taught yet.
Within that order, put an early win near the start: something learners can make or run in the first session. End each part with something that pulls its lessons together, such as a small project or a review.
A worked example
The sample in the builder is a beginner course, “Web development basics”, for career changers with no programming background, over six evenings. It has 3 parts and 10 lessons:
| Part | Lessons | Time |
|---|---|---|
| How the web works | 3 | 2 h 30 min |
| HTML and CSS | 4 | 4 h 30 min |
| JavaScript and publishing | 3 | 4 h 45 min |
| Total | 10 | 11 h 45 min |
Two warnings come up. “Publishing your site” runs 120 minutes because it combines Git, GitHub and publishing, so it could become “Your first commit” (45 minutes) and “Publishing with GitHub Pages” (75 minutes). And “Forms” has no objective yet; one could be “Build a sign-up form with labelled fields that checks the email address before it’s sent.” Spread over six evenings, the course is just under two hours a session, which leaves room for a break in each. For the hours learners spend outside the sessions, reading, watching and practising, use the course workload calculator.
Markdown and Obsidian files
Copy or download the outline as one Markdown file to paste into a document, a wiki or a learning platform. Or download the .zip: one folder per part and one Markdown note per lesson, numbered (01-how-the-web-works/01-what-happens-when-you-open-a-page.md) so they stay in order in any file browser. Each note carries its title, part, time and objective as properties, and the outline sits in the folder’s README.md.
Unzip it into an Obsidian vault and start writing the lessons. If you use Chalkenso, its Obsidian plugin can upload the folder to a course version: it offers to create the parts, then adds the lessons in the folder’s order, as drafts.
Questions people ask
What should a course outline include?
Who the course is for, what learners will be able to do at the end, the parts and lessons in order with how long each takes, one objective per lesson, and how learning is checked. A syllabus adds dates, people and practical details.
What’s the difference between a course outline and a syllabus?
They overlap. The outline is the structure: parts, lessons, timings and objectives. The syllabus is what learners receive: usually the outline plus dates, assessments, expectations and who to contact.
How long should each lesson be?
There’s no single right length. A rule of thumb many trainers use is to split anything over about 90 minutes, or to plan a break and a change of activity in it, and that’s what this builder flags.
Can I use this as a syllabus template?
Yes. Replace the sample with your course, then copy the Markdown into your document or print it, and add the dates, assessments and contact details a syllabus needs.
Can I open the outline in Obsidian?
Yes. The .zip unpacks into a folder of Markdown notes, one per lesson, inside numbered part folders, with each lesson’s title, part, time and objective as properties. Put the folder in your vault.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The builder runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved, so download the Markdown or the .zip before you close the page.
Do this for every lesson, every group
Chalkenso is where courses are designed and improved: instructors note what happened on the exact passage, learners say where they got stuck, and AI drafts the next version for you to approve.