How to Set up Classes and the Different Types

Classes are one of the areas that make Steppit unique as an online course-making platform. Our tools allow you to form virtual classrooms; learners have the opportunity to engage with one another and receive direct mentorship from yourself (or others you enlist to teach).

In this resource, we’ll take you through the steps you need to take to create classes for your courses and highlight some of the different class options you have available.

To get started, be sure you’ve already created and published your course. When you publish your course, you have the option to either create a public link (allowing people to access your course content for free via a shareable link) or to start a class - make sure to select the latter.

From your Home, navigate to the Classes tab. This is where you can manage all your classes and check in on students currently enrolled. 

To begin, hit Start a Class. You’ll be taken through a series of steps to create your class. 

1. Select which course you want to make the class for — If you only have one course, this will be the default option. 

2. Decide if you want to Open a Class for Sale (i.e. sell class places via Steppit) or Start a Private Class (i.e. enroll learners via invites or integrations). 

3. You’ll be asked to select the type of class you want. On Steppit, you can shape your class based on how you'd like your students to follow the course and what level of interaction you want to provide. You’re given a few descriptors of what each type of class is and we’ve broken them down so you get a deep understanding of what to offer your students: 

   1. Weekly Access vs. Instant Access — You can either offer your students the ability to access units week by week and therefore drip-feed them content, or you can choose to give them full access to the content all at once. 
   2. Private Feed vs. Course-wide Feed — A private feed is shared between the students and mentor of a specific class you’ve created for your course, whereas a course-wide feed is shared between all the classes you create for this course. 
   3. Class Chat vs. No Chat — Your students can share feedback, ask questions and flag any concerns they might have in a class chat. This is great if you have a smaller class size of up to 20 students. You can also chat with your students one-on-one if they are encountering any specific problems on their course. If a class chat doesn’t suit your needs, you can choose not to make one available on your course.
   4. Small Classes vs. Unlimited Size — Small classes allow up to 40 students whereas an unlimited class size allows any student who enrolls to be put into this class.
   5. Low, Medium and High Mentorship — Depending on what you’re using your course for, you can offer different levels of mentorship. If, for example, your course is used for a wide audience, low mentoring might be preferable. However, if your course is designed for small, interactive classes, being able to offer students feedback on weekly assignments may be better suited to your teaching needs.

4. Now, let’s take a look at the four types of classes we offer, you can choose one to apply:

   1. Personal — Content unlocks weekly, and students can post their work to receive feedback and message their class. Perfect for small, highly engaged classes. We recommend this option for the best learning experience. 
   2. Flexible — All content is accessible from the start, and students can post their work to receive feedback and message their class. Perfect for fast-paced classes or students seeking flexibility.
   3. Intake — Content unlocks weekly and students can post to a community feed shared course-wide. Perfect for setting the course pace in a large open community. There is no chat available with this class option and this is better suited for those looking for low mentorship. 
   4. Open — All content is accessible from the start and students can post to a community feed shared course-wide. Perfect for a hands-off approach – create a class once and watch it grow. This is available for those looking for minimal mentor engagement while still building a community.

5. Depending on the class type you've chosen, you’ll need to provide a Start/Launch Date and a Class Size Limit (only applicable to Personal and Flexible classes). We recommend a minimum of 8 to 10 students per class to keep engagement between students and mentors going. Students will receive instructions from Steppit to let them know how and when they can access their course. 

6. Lastly, you select who in your team will be teaching the class. As your course grows in popularity, having extra hands to help manage your students and community will be vital for a great learning experience.

Now you know how to create a class, you can go ahead and make several ones for your customers to sign up to. Your class schedule will also appear on your channel page. For instructions on how to set up your channel, check out this resource

If you need further help deciding which class type is for you, read the following resources and use cases for each of the class types: Personal, Flexible, Intake and Open.

Not sure which class is best suited to your needs? Chat with us on Discord, we’re on hand right now to help.