Obsidian University - For Students Looking To Level Up Their Notetaking And Studying
This video course has helped 200+ real students get good grades in less time, enjoy school more, and learn more effectively through leveling up their notetaking and studying strategies using the linked notetaking app Obsidian.
Audience: College students across the globe.
Responsibilities: Learning Experience Design (action mapping, storyboarding, prototyping, and full building), visual design, web design, videography, eLearning development.
Tools Used: Canva, YouTube, Obsidian, Kit (formerly Convertkit), Webflow, Thrivecart.
The Problem And Solution
In College, many students feel so burdened by the weight of homework, projects, and exams, their grades take a hit, and they lose out on other parts parts of the college experience. One of the main reasons for this is students are rarely taught proper notetaking and studying techniques. They are lost.
I experienced these same problems myself at the beginning of college. But after spending more than 2+ years in the Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) Space, having over 30+ people on my PKM podcast, and creating myriads of content on notetaking, studying, and meta-learning on my YouTube channel, I knew I had the power to spark change. So I and my business partner John Mavrick, began fleshing out Obsidian University. Our idea was to create a video course to help students learn more effectively through leveling up their notetaking and studying strategies using linked notetaking app Obsidian. To heighten transfer of learning we planned to create the video course inside Obsidian itself so students could apply their learnings instantly and directly.
Our Process
To bring this project to life, I leaned on the structure of the ADDIE model. For the analysis phase, I conversed with many students at Cornell, as well as online through our audiences we had built on our email lists to assess their problems.
Afterward I met with my subject matter expert and same age cohort business partner John Mavrick, (SME), to create an action map that would serve as the foundation of our text-based storyboard as we entered the design phase. John Mavrick handled most of the back end coding word for the course, while I handled most of the lesson writing, video creation, and learning experience designing.
We created and approved our storyboard together outlining the rough components of the video course and entered the development stage. We rough drafted the written components in Obsidian and launched implemented a prototype to a beta-cohort of students at 50% the full price. We integrated feedback from the beta-cohort and I created videos for each of the lessons. We designed a sales page for the course in Webflow, a free email course lead magnet to the full paid course (3 Days To Lecture Notetaking Mastery In Obsidian), and a few YouTube videos leading to the course. We created a community discord for students to interact with each other and have direct access to John and I.
Finally, we launched the course at full price to our audiences through our email lists. To this day the course has had over 200+ students and made $17,000+ in sales. We evaluated the course afterward using the four levels of Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation and continued to release updates in the months after the course release.
Action Map
After conducting 10+ client interviews with our audience, John Mavrick and I sat down to create an action map. We decided our business goal would be: increase students self-enjoyment of school by 20% and GPA by 5% over one semester. We highlighted skill gaps in orange.
Using the action map we realized the three most important actions for students to be able to do in Obsidian was being able to follow the collect, connect, create process for notetaking and studying in Obsidian. This process would help students most closely with improving their GPA through more effective notetaking and studying.
Text Based Storyboard/Course Outline
Action map finished we moved onto the design stage of ADDIE. John and I decided the best means to teach students these skills was through an online based video course with action items alongside lessons and a community discord to help keep students accountable. This is because our audience is largely online and geographically distant and the skills we needed to teach were visual in nature. There were also a number of mindsets we wanted to imbue that would help them enjoy school more which we believed would be more effectively pushed through video than solely writing.
The outline went through a number of rounds of feedback as we sent it to our audiences through our email list. Here’s the rough course outline we came up with in the end:
Course Outline Toggle (No Need To Read Full Thing)
Preface: Breaking Out Of The Cookie Cutter Student Mindset
- How you can fall in love with learning again
- Why you should learn the art of notetaking
- Why Obsidian is the right tool to do this
Section 1 - Obsidian 101: A Beginners Guide To Supercharging Your Learning With Obsidian
Module: Learning Obsidian's Core Features:
- Understand the Obsidian note taking process and layout by learning it’s core features
- Create your own personal Wikipedia with bi-directional links
- Efficiently style and format your notes using Markdown
- Write and navigate notes at the speed of thought using hotkeys
- How to visually personalize your Obsidian workspace using them
Module: Seven Obsidian Plugins To Explode Your Notetaking
- Automatically search and organize your notes using the Dataview plugin
- Save hours by automating note creation with the Templater plugin
- Create different note types at lightning speed using the QuickAdd and Metadata Menu plugin
- Navigate daily and weekly notes using the Calendar plugin
- Easily turn your notes into flashcards using the Spaced Repetition plugin
Module: How To Easily Personalize Obsidian For School
- Hierarchically organize everything you’re learning using course, unit, and lecture notes
- Combine knowledge across classes and semesters to create a lifelong knowledge base using maps of content (MOC) and concept notes
- Make your best creative work using assignment and essay notes
- Reflect on your progress and plan for the future using the daily and weekly notes
- Easily navigate throughout your vault using customizable home and school dashboards
Module: How To Get Better Grades While Studying Less In Obsidian
- Implement elite studying principles like spaced repetition and active recall into your notes
- Build mastery on all course material by using retrospective timetables for studying
Section 2 - The Three Step Process To Building A Unique Knowledgebase: Collect, Connect, Create
Module: Collect
- How to navigate the overwhelming amount of information in school with a collect toolkit and your twelve favorite questions
- Keep track of and create different note types for lectures, textbooks and required readings
- Methods to finish your class readingsmuch faster and with greater understanding
- How to take unique, personal, lecture notes you can study with and connect between classes and semesters (even in STEM)
Module: Connect
- Methods for growing your notes over time
- The four-step Map of Content (MOC) course creation process we use to maximize understanding of our college classes in Obsidian
- How to connect and navigate your notes using Maps of Content (MOCs)
Module: Create
- The 3-step process I use to write essays in record time with my Obsidian notes
- How to compound your knowledgeacross classes and semesters using Intermediate Packets
- The amazing variety of things you can create with your Obsidian notes both inside and outside school
- How to ingrain habits and rituals that will make the course learnings STICK
Beta Testing And Final Course Creation
With the course outline finished, we moved onto the develop stage of the ADDIE model. We rough drafted the written lessons including action items at the bottom and resource sheets showcasing the most important workflows and frameworks for the course.
We moved onto the implement stage of the ADDIE model by launching a course prototype to a beta-cohort of 10 students at 50% the full price ($49). Then we moved onto the evaluate stage of the ADDIE model by integrating feedback from the beta-cohort. Most of the feedback involved shortening the content and clarifying confusions in how to do certain skills. Once the writing was finalized I created videos for each of the lessons.
We designed a sales page for the course in Webflow, a free email course lead magnet to the full paid course (3 Days To Lecture Notetaking Mastery In Obsidian), and a few YouTube videos leading to the course. We created a community discord for students to interact with each other and have direct access to John and I. Finally we launched the full course through our email lists. To this day, we have over 200+ students and $17,000 in course sales.
Results
Following Kirkpatrick’s model of training evaluation, we first evaluated level one, the student reaction through our testimonials. Here are some of the testimonials we have gotten:
Here’s an interview I had with one of our students on my podcast:
We assessed levels two and three learning and behavior, through the actions shown in the community discord. Throughout our course, students were prompted to post the results of their learnings into the relevant sections of our discord. Here are a few examples of students work:
