Spiral Nature began offering courses in 2016, and we’re always looking for instructors with fresh ideas for courses.
If you’re interested in working with Spiral Nature, it’s a good idea to sign up for our free newsletter to get an idea of the kind of work we publish.
Pitching a course
Before you begin writing your course, please pitch the editor with your course idea to ensure that we don’t already have something in the works, and that it fits our mandate.
We will work with you to ensure that it is the best fit for our audience, and that it has the best chance of success.
In your pitch, please indicate:
- Broad subject category. For Spiral Nature, this would be magick, spirituality, or occulture.
- Topic of study. This is the specific topic within that category, such as creating bindrunes.
- Level. We offer four levels of courses, introductory, advanced, expert, and professional. It’s generally best to start with introductory, unless there is already a course similar to the one you want to produce that is already at that level.
- Objective. Think about how you will inspire your students, and consider what you want them to take away from this course. What will they have learned? What will they be able to do? This should be succinct — one or two sentences.
- Estimated number of lessons. For introductory courses, this should be at least five lessons; for advanced, at least seven; and for expert, at least 10.
- Synopsis. Eventually, something like this will be in your course description to sell your course, so structure it accordingly. What will students learn? How will this benefit their practice? These are the kinds of questions you want to answer implicitly in your synopsis. This is the most important selling feature of your course, and should be about a paragraph in length.
Consider your students carefully
Are they beginners new to the subject? Advanced? Experts? Each target audience will have different needs and expectations.
- Beginners and novices need things spelled out for them. They’re new to the subject, and may need terms and background explained in a clear, step-by-step way — without talking down to them. Provide a detailed explanation of what kind of preparation needs to be done, with a step-by-step outline of what should take place during a rite or exercise, and what the result should look like. Offer tips and tricks, and troubleshoot where you can.
- Advanced students have mastered the basics, and are looking for something a little more challenging. You can make certain assumptions about their basic level of understanding, and more detailed explanations can be referenced with links to other material elsewhere. Take them further with spins and new tricks on tired techniques.
- Experts already know just about everything about their topic. New translations, studies, or new information that has come to light may offer something that hasn’t been seen before. Or a novel twist based on first hand research or new developments.
- Professionals may be tarot readers, magicians-for-hire, or others who offer speciality spiritual or magical practices. These people are already experts, and are looking for ways to improve their business and relationships with their clients. Offer them real-world techniques and best practices you’ve used yourself and have sourced from other professionals.
Courses
Once your course has been accepted, you will provide a more detailed course outline, and then the actual lessons and the course itself.
Initially, the course outline will be lesson titles with perhaps a sentence or two explanation, and we will work together to ensure that everything is included that a student may need to know to be successful.
From there you will create the lessons themselves (500-800 words for most lessons), exercises (300-500 words), and quizzes (3-5 questions).
Each lesson in the course should have:
- Lesson. The lesson itself: core content with practical examples. Outline what the student will be learning, and how you will demonstrate that information.
- Exercise. Create an exercise where the student can put what they’ve learned into practice, or offer things they should meditate on in preparation for the next lesson.
- Quiz. Check for understanding through a brief multiple-choice quiz of two or three questions. Indicate to me what the correct answers are, and offer a brief (one-to-two sentence) explanation as to why this is the best choice.
Learning styles
Try to keep in mind that people learn in many different ways. By consciously thinking about this, you’ll be able to use different teaching techniques to reach as many people as possible.
- Visual learners
- Auditory learners
- Kinesthetic learners
- Advanced learners
Not every every lesson or even every course is going to be able to address each style, but aiming for an overall mix can make lessons more enjoyable.
Additional resources
Materials. Are there any additional materials the student will need to complete the lesson? Provide a list.
Bibliography. List your sources.
Resources. Are there any additional resources you’d recommend? You can combine the bibliography and resource list by creating an annotated bibliography.
Final test
The final test should be 7-10 multiple choice questions in the same format as the quizzes. While the questions can be similar, they should not be duplicated.
I’d leave the harder questions for this final, rather than the individual quizzes. The idea isn’t to trick your students, but ensure that they’ve understood and integrated the material into their practice.
Payment
Our courses are offered online, and can be purchased by students individually, or they can receive them as a part of our membership program — either way, our instructors are paid 50% of the set course fee.
As a general guideline, courses are priced at $10 per lesson, so a five lesson introductory course would be $50, as an instructor, you would receive $25 for each course sold individually, or $25 for each course selected through the membership program. We will work out the course price together to ensure it is fair to both you and the student.
Once your course is published, you will receive an advance of 100% of your course fee, and, once the first two courses have been sold, receive quarterly payments for further courses sold.
We provide a quarterly statement which lists all courses, and how many were purchased or selected by members, and you will be paid quarterly via PayPal. You will also have access to our membership and course reporting software, which you can access at any time.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact the editor with any questions you may have.
Image credit: Rob K
