The much anticipated Lifeology Builder has officially launched to our Community, and we can’t wait to see the Lifeology-powered “flashcard” courses you all make! By signing up for the Lifeology Builder, you’ll be able to create and publish your own visual narrative or how-to flashcard courses. There’s a free subscription option to get you started, too!
We hope you enjoy diving into the Lifeology Builder and creating courses of your own! To help get you started, we have a challenge for you: create a Lifeology course using the Lifeology Builder with a fellow Lifeology Community Member.
To participate, you will need to sign up for a Lifeology Builder account.
Task:
Team up with another Lifeology Community Member to create a Lifeology course using the Lifeology Builder! If you are an artist, team up with a writer. If you are a writer, team up with an artist (we encourage paid collaborations – don’t expect artwork for free). You can use the Slack workspace to find a partner. Try the #lifeologybuilderchat #i-need-an-artist or the #scicomm-discussions-and-advice channels.
To be eligible, the topic of your course should be related to health, science or science communication. The length of the course should be between 15 and 30 cards and the images should be square 1:1. The course should be created using custom artwork–no stock images for this challenge.
Having trouble with how to get started? Check out our Lifeology course writing guide and template document! You can also see examples of our story-driven Original courses and our “how-to” and explainer Instructional courses in our Lifeology Library.
Prize:
The top 3 courses will be featured on Lifeology’s blog and social media. We will also consider your course for publishing to the Lifeology Library of courses if it meets our standards of plain language and being fact-checked or reviewed by outside experts or audience members! The winners will also have the option to receive a paid Lifeology Builder Pro subscription (you can publish more than one course!).
Submission:
Send your name, your collaborator’s name, and a link to your published course to lifeology@lifeomic.com. Also include any social media handles, if you would like to be tagged in potential social media posts.
Be sure to only submit courses containing original artwork. In other words, you or your partner must be the sole creator of the art and own the copyright for it.
Submissions will be accepted until July 1st at 5:00pm ET.
Evaluation criteria:
We will be choosing the top 3 courses for rewards based on the following criteria. These criteria have evidence behind them—they are what we used as standards for our own Lifeology Library courses because they are proven strategies for creating more engaging, accessible and impactful learning materials. Note: We will also consider any Builder-created course for inclusion in the Lifeology Library of courses if it meets our standards!
- Audience – use of plain language, presentation of information at a ~6th grade reading level and appropriate depth of information provided
- Accuracy – information is factually correct (e.g., according to review by an outside expert, or through your own fact-checking process using primary sources) and presented in a non-misleading context; effective integration of scientific sources.
- Artwork – the art is empathetic and helps communicate the text information on each card; each image is clear and easily understood with sufficient contrast between colors and textures.
- Overall quality of the course – the type of course written (story-driven vs. “how-to”) is appropriate for the topic and information presented, the course is easy to read and is free of typos and grammatical errors, and there is cohesion between the course script (the card text) and the images used in the course.
Bonus points for a course created using an empathetic, audience-first approach. This involves engaging with members of the targeted audience for your course, asking questions and receiving feedback on your course.
