You're in the first group of instructors building self-paced cohorts on Maven. You know what made your live cohorts work, which is why we're not handing you a template.
What we’re providing are 3 principles and the questions we'd use to test a course’s quality and design.
Design for the student, without you in the room
Where does your self-paced course answer the most-asked student questions in live cohorts?
In a live session, you read the room. What replaces that judgment when you're not there? Is there anything that you could offer, like office hours, to make up for that?
The spots where live students get stuck get worse without you. What are you replacing your support with?
Make it worth their money
What did students pay for in the live version: your teaching, your feedback, the peer group, the deadline? Which of those does your self-paced version keep, and what replaces the elements it drops?
A live student finishes with artifacts: notes, projects, feedback received. What does a self-paced student walk away with?
Get students to memorable moments quickly
In their first 10 minutes, does a student see a syllabus page or the thing they came for?
Reread your testimonials. What, specifically, are students raving about?
For each of those elements: how does a self-paced student get there quickly?
What a self-paced cohort is not
❌ A stack of long Zoom recordings from past cohorts - this design would fail all 3 principles. Each session was designed specifically for students in the room that day, their questions, and the live pace, and they won’t have the same impact on students going through the content asynchronously.
❌ A content library only - students pay for information and your judgment, feedback, or push to produce something. A course that’s only a collection of content fails to "make it worth their money.”
FAQs
FAQs
How do I turn live recordings into self-paced content?
Don't just dump 2-hour raw recordings. Chop into bite-sized pieces, add a Loom walkthrough, or go higher-production (your call). Since you won't be "in the room," lean on your expert knowledge of how to guide students through your content in a way that helps them meet the outcomes of your course.How should I price self-paced vs. live?
Keep it close to your live price. If discounting, don't go below 25% off live cohort price (e.g. $1,000 live → self-paced shouldn't be under $750). We tested steeper discounts before and it didn't move the needle. A narrower gap tends to drive more signups and more revenue. Read more here.Can self-paced and live live on the same course page?
Yep! And by default, you will use the same landing page where students can pick the format. Each gets its own syllabus, and we're updating "What's Included" to spell out what each format offers. (Want a fully separate page? You can create a self-paced-only course too.)How do I keep self-paced students accountable without live sessions?
Build in touch points: recurring office hours, turning on community, giving feedback on submitted work. Heads up: dedicated recurring "office hours" scheduling isn't natively supported yet. The workaround for now is a lesson/announcement with plain-text dates.