Welcome back! This is part two of Running Your Beta Like a Boss.
In part one we talked about some of the fundamentals, such as delivering content, coaching students and running meetups.
In part two we’re going to look at a few more of the “plates” you’ll need to keep spinning when running the beta version of your course.
Let’s dive straight in by talking about tracking student progress.
Tracking Progress
There’s a management saying that goes: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
Likewise, it’s tough to manage your beta if you don’t know how well it’s going.
Your interactions with students will give you a sense of progress but you won’t always get an accurate picture that way.
And even if your course platform lets you see each user’s progress, it’s more likely to show you the lessons they’ve completed than the work they’ve done.
That’s why I recommend tracking students’ progress against key milestones, for example, completion of specific assignments.
I’ll give you a template in the resources section that’ll let you see at a glance where people are at and spot if anyone’s falling behind.
You’ll need to update it once a week based on what’s happening in your program but it shouldn’t take you too long.
Tracking student progress helps with accountability too, so let’s talk about that next.
Providing Accountability
I’m convinced that providing accountability around progress and results helps your average student maintain their momentum.
However, being too heavy-handed can drive them away. If students are lagging behind you want to inspire them to catch up, not shame them into quitting.
Not only that, but since this is your first time running your course it’s possible you didn’t get the pacing quite right.
So you don’t want to be too gung-ho, but you do need to give students the right information to keep themselves accountable.
The most basic thing is being clear about how much progress you expect by any given point in the beta schedule.
You can do that first in your onboarding materials, and then by providing weekly reminders once the course is up and running.
You can also remind students exactly where they are in relation to where you’d like them to be using the information in your progress tracker. But keep it informational – no judgements.
Another option is to invite students to commit to a certain amount of progress each week, then check in the following week to see how they got on.
Next up, feedback!
Getting Feedback
Getting feedback on your course content is one of the main reasons for running a beta course in the first place, so you mustn’t neglect it.
And while it’s great to hear how awesome your course is, it’s actually those areas where it’s lacking you really want to unearth.
The most obvious way to get feedback is simply to ask for it.
For instance: what did you think of this lesson or assignment? Or: what did you think of this module as a whole?
You’ll find a template for gathering feedback in the resources section with questions for getting responses at different levels of detail.
Be clear with students from the start that giving feedback is a fundamental aspect of their participation. You can even say a module’s not truly complete until they’ve given you feedback on it.
But if you prefer a less formal approach to feedback, make an extra effort to notice where students get stuck. Because if several students struggle with the same part of your course, that’s a strong clue it needs tweaking.
Just make sure you ask questions to get to the bottom of their struggles.
And here’s a quick power tip: keep a journal while you’re running your beta. Make a note of what worked, what didn’t and what you’d do differently next time.
Changing Pace
Let’s talk about pace.
When you first design your beta schedule, it’s based on your best guess of how to spread your course content across the time available.
If some students fall behind, it’s tempting to slow the program down.
But I’ve found that doing this can be discouraging for the people who are keeping up with the schedule.
I recommend not changing the pace unless you feel you’ve made a major miscalculation about how quickly people can progress.
Of course, if everyone’s falling behind there’s no point in marching ahead obliviously. You’ll need to adjust the timetable.
Try adding a catch-up week and then restarting from where you left off. A fixed window is much better than just pausing the program until people catch up.
Of course, this will have a knock-on effect and you’ll either have to dial back the target result of the program, or extend out the end date.
I’d almost always prefer to do the latter.
Getting Help
Just to wrap things up, if you’re in a position to get a little extra help to run your beta, I really recommend it.
When you have someone else to handle the more functional tasks, like updating trackers and sending out reminders, you can focus on supporting your students and working on content for upcoming modules.
Just a couple of hours a week from a virtual assistant can make a real difference. But whether you get help or not, it’s a good idea to make a list of weekly tasks so that nothing falls through the cracks.
Ready to Wrap Things Up?
Okay that’s everything I have to teach you about running your beta like a boss.
If your course is relatively short and simple, some of what I’m recommending will be overkill. Ultimately though, it’s your beta program, so run it your way.
To end, here’s some simple advice for any scenario:
- Have a solid plan
- Communicate the plan to students
- Follow the plan (and clearly communicate any changes)
See you in the final lesson for this module, where we talk about ending your beta with a bang!
🛠️ Resources
Student Progress Tracker
This simple tracking spreadsheet created using Google Sheets lets you track a small group of students across a series of milestones.
To use it, either use “File > Make a copy” to create a copy in your own Google Account, or “File > Download > Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)” to download a version to edit in Excel.
Student Feedback Form
You can copy and edit this template and send directly to students, or use it as the basis for created on online form with a tool such as Google Forms.