Last Updated: February, 2025

Hello, I’m Joshua Lee!

I have developed a 7-point course grading system to provide objective and structured reviews of online courses. This system evaluates key aspects such as content quality, instructor expertise, engagement level, practical application, accessibility, community support, and overall value. Through my framework, I ensure that my reviews are consistent, insightful, and useful for aspiring online business owners looking to invest in their education.

Here is the methodology:

I’ve seen courses filmed in $250,000+ studios, as well as at home on cheap webcams. Additionally, some creators are fantastic at creating free content on their social media, but terrible at delivering quality training that students pay a premium for. And so, this is the reason why I rank this one #1.

Courses range anywhere from a few hundred dollars, all the way up to $25,000 which includes a course, coaching and often, a live event. Some courses are way overvalued, while others have creators that sell themselves short, to a point where they would sell more courses if the prices were actually higher. Courses that are sold at higher price points typically attract a strong calibre of student who’ll typically put in the work to yield the result.

Some business models like eCommerce lean perfectly for beginners, while technically-heavy things like Forex trading and AI aren’t so beginner-friendly. Sometimes, these advanced courses are marketed to beginners who are looking at shiny objects, rather than knowing whether this would be a sound pathway to head down.

Some courses are oversold and set high expectations. The “$0 to $10,000 in 6 months” milestones which are almost always never hit by their own students. Not only this, but sometimes these business models just haven’t stood the test of time.

One of my biggest frustrations were courses that were 2-3 years out of date, yet were still being marketed and sold heavily to their email database. Worst – at $3,000+ price points. It’s my expectation that each course is renewed at the start of each year, otherwise I deduct points from creators.

Sales pages often lean into the method being sound, and the core teaching being solid, but fall short of expectations with mediocre lessons along the way, with many things being left out. This is often to lead to a more expensive upsell. This, to me, is the work of amateurs. True educators provide everything in one course, and may offer a live event or 1-1 coaching at an additional cost, with no additional training as the core course should include everything.

Mentoring, support and community engagement truly makes investing into your education worthwhile. However, I’ve often seen creators completely avoid any engagement within their own communities. Like zero. To me, this is the worst idea for student engagement, retention, connection and reputation. No throne is too grand that you can’t support one of your own students.

Now, some final thoughts…

Is my process perfect? No, but it continues to get better month on month, year on year. I’ve been in this space since 2011, and with over a million visitors to my blog, it’s fair to say that I’ve begun to really master the art and science of objective course reviews.

If you have any questions on this process, please feel free to reach out!