How to turn a script into an interactive, learner centred tutorial or online lesson

You’re the subject matter expert. You know your content back to front. You’ve been honing it for years and you know it works. Having said that, you may not have the time or skills to turn it into an online tutorial or interactive online lesson – which will help you scale your business by providing different learning options for different clients.

Why would you WANT to create different versions though? Well, your IP is what makes you stand out from the crowd (and the generic resources that AI can produce). So if you’ve got a set of IP that you know works, why wouldn’t you turn it into a range of different products that can suit different audiences? More products = more opportunities to sell your knowledge and expertise to a wider range of clients. No brainer right?

In short, you can create:

a text based script – essentially an article, which can be published on the web or if you have a series of them could become a book
a video based presentation – which you can pre-record, or deliver live
a fully interactive online lesson – which can be authored in a variety of platforms
workbooks and quizzes – which complement both a presentation or an online lesson

Instead of writing you a list of ‘how to’ instructions, I’ve decided to practice what I preach and demonstrate it for you instead.

What's the purpose of creating a whole tutorial around this?

to showcase the different options when it comes to turning a text based script into ‘something more’
to walk you through the process I use when working with clients
to demonstrate the power of a full set of learning materials by immersing you in a best practice learning experience

What are you going to learn?

This tutorial is going to help you create a set of learning resources from a single script, by showing you how to:

Write a Well Structured Script
Break your script into Actionable Chunks
Create sections with Core Concept Questions
Design Workbook Pages with Outcomes and Practical Tasks AND
Develop Knowledge Checking Quizzes

What’s also good to know, is that AI authoring tools can actually do a lot of this for you these days – if you know how to wrangle the software! So if you’ve just read that list and thought – I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO ANY OF THAT – never fear! A good instructional designer has all these skills in their toolkit, and AI tools can make these tasks WAY faster these days!

How can you get the most out of this tutorial?

You have a few options. Here’s my recommendation.

All the options below are based on an (almost) identical script. Engage with the options that you think you’d like to create for yourself, then skim the others to confirm that you made the right choice.

Not sure this tutorial is right for you? Do this quick quiz to find out!

Anything else?

Yes. Follow the instructions. If I say to download something, download it. If I say to pause and go and open a link, do it. If I recommend doing a quiz to work out whether you even need this tutorial, take the quiz! Immerse yourself in the process, so you can decide whether it’s a good fit for you and your learners or not.

Click on the arrows on the right hand side of the boxes below, to reveal each of the learning products.

Full Script - best for those who want to skim the content

Video Tutorial - with case studies, examples and full demonstrations

This is a fully immersive tutorial – ie – you will take part in a tutorial, in the way I recommend my clients prepare their own presentations and tutorials.

There are 7 short videos, all under 5 minutes, most 2-3 minutes (remember if you increase playback speed if hover over the bottom right hand side of the video). Take your time to download the workbook before starting the videos, and experience this ‘best practice’ self study online learning experience!

Introduction and Pre-Tutorial Tasks – please start here! (4 mins)

Video 1: Write a Well Structured Script (2 mins)

Video 2: Break your script into Actionable Chunks (2 mins)

Video 3: Create sections with Core Concept Questions (3 mins)

Video 4: Design Workbook pages with Outcomes and Practical Tasks (3 mins)

Video 5: Develop Knowledge Checking Quizzes (4 mins)

Video 6: Recap and Case Studies (3 mins)

Interactive online lesson - text and image based tutorial

Follow this link and you’ll find the interactive version of this tutorial – there’s no need to ‘sign in’ – just click on the button that says ‘CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED’.

We’d love your feedback so feel free to leave comments on the right hand side comment section 🙂

How did that go for you?

Remember, you can pick and choose which learning resources you want to create as part of your suite.

Use workbooks, don’t use workbooks. Use quizzes, don’t use quizzes. It’s totally up to you.

Actually, it’s up to your learners, and what they will get the most out of.

It’s most definitely not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, different learners will need different resources. What matters most, is that they’re well structured and provide opportunities for practical application of their new knowledge.

We can help you get that balance right.

Ready to take action? Sick of sitting on a mountain of IP that could be out there helping people?

Hallo! If you’re curious about the ideas explored in this article and how I might be able to help, please book in for a quick (complimentary) chat! Every client is different, which is why I have lots of different ways of helping – whether it’s an upcoming event, free resources on my website or one to one coaching, let’s work out the best fit for you and your unique scenario!

Continue the Learning

If you’d like to explore these ideas further, the resources below may be a helpful next step.

Everyone’s a Teacher

Maria Doyle’s book Everyone’s a Teacher explores the principles behind engaging, effective learning experiences. It introduces a practical methodology for making learning more interactive, memorable, and meaningful — whether you’re working with students, professionals, or teams.