Ask Claude what a comprehensive, high-quality course on your topic should include — without showing it your curriculum first. Then compare that benchmark against what you actually built. The gap between the ideal and the actual shows you exactly where your course is strong and where it needs more depth.
Why Benchmarking Against the Best Matters
When you build a course from your own expertise, you naturally include what you know well and what you value most. But your students will often have seen other courses on the same topic before they found you — and they will be making comparisons, consciously or not. If your course is missing something that every other serious course on the topic includes, students will notice the gap even if they cannot name it precisely.
Benchmarking is not about copying competitors. It is about knowing the standard so you can meet it, exceed it, or make a deliberate choice to teach a different approach with full awareness of what you are leaving out. That awareness is what separates intentional curriculum design from accidentally incomplete course building.
The Benchmarking Workflow
Run this as a two-step process. First, ask Claude: “What would a comprehensive, well-respected course on [your topic] cover for [your audience]? List the major topic areas and key concepts that should be addressed. Do not hold back — give me the complete picture of what a thorough treatment of this subject includes.” Do not show it your curriculum yet. Let it generate the benchmark independently.
Second, paste your curriculum outline and ask: “Here is my actual course curriculum. Compare it against the benchmark you just described. Identify: (1) topics from the benchmark that my course addresses well, (2) topics from the benchmark that my course covers partially, (3) topics from the benchmark that my course does not address at all, (4) anything in my course that goes beyond the standard benchmark — areas where I am teaching more than the typical course.” That comparison gives you a clear picture of your course’s competitive position.
What This Means for Educators
The benchmarking exercise often produces two useful surprises. The first is that your course covers some important topics inadequately — which you can fix before launch. The second is that your course covers some things more deeply than typical courses on the topic — which you should highlight in your marketing. The areas where you go beyond the standard benchmark are your genuine differentiators, and they deserve to be named explicitly in your sales copy.
Repeat this exercise when you update your course. As your field evolves and new tools emerge, the benchmark shifts. Staying aware of what the best courses on your topic now include keeps your curriculum current without requiring you to consume every competitor’s content personally.
The Simple Rule
Know the benchmark before you finalize your curriculum. Ask AI to define it, compare your course against it honestly, fill the critical gaps, and then lean into the areas where you genuinely exceed it. That combination — comprehensive on the essentials, exceptional in your specialty — is the foundation of a course worth recommending.