About

Most advice about building online courses is written to sell you a platform. Most research on how people learn is written for other researchers. The Learning Curve sits between the two: it reads the research, explains what it means for a real course, and judges the platforms on how well they help people learn.

What we publish

• The Library: one evergreen page per learning principle, each re-checked against new research every year.
• Guides: practical course design and instructional design, grounded in the evidence.
• Reviews: course platforms scored with one published method, from hands-on testing.
• Trends: dated news on where online education is going, and what it means for people who build courses.

Who's behind it

The Learning Curve was founded by Jim Lounsbury, a learning designer and documentary filmmaker based in Sydney. Jim works in educational development at Avondale University, designing course content and microcredentials, and runs CredentialCraft, a course-design studio. Alongside that, he has spent his career making documentaries and factual television in more than 40 countries, for clients including National Geographic.

That mix shapes the publication: a learning designer's respect for evidence, and a filmmaker's sense of what keeps people watching.

How we work

We use AI tools to help research and draft articles. Every article is reviewed, edited and approved by Jim before it is published, every research claim links to its source, and every platform claim is checked in the platform itself. Documentary-style photographs on this site are AI-generated illustrations and are credited as such.

The site earns money through affiliate links, which never decide what we cover or how we score it. The disclosure page has the details.

Get in touch

Corrections, research we should read, or a platform we should test: hello@thelearningcurve.net.