# Advice on creating explorations

We’re delighted that you’re joining Oppia as a creator. Here are a few guidelines to get started:
 
1. **Figure out who you are writing for.** Know your intended audience and keep the language and content appropriate for that audience.  
2. **Pick a focused topic.** “Mathematics” is too broad, and so is “Geometry”. Instead, choose something that’s more like the size of a textbook chapter or subchapter.
3. **Explain the concepts.** Sometimes, you might feel tempted to skip over something that seems hard to explain or requires a bit of digression. That’s a potential red flag! As a teacher, you should be able to clear out any potential doubt. 
4. **Diversify learner interactions.** There are 5 different types (not including “end exploration”) of interactions you can use (and more if your exploration is on maths, programming, geography or music). Feel free to make use of them! You don’t need to stick to multiple-choice all the time.
5. **Keep it concise.** You might get tempted to explain a lot of things to the learner at once but instead you’ll end up overwhelming him/her with a lot of details. Avoid this and try to divide these “new concepts” nicely on different cards so that it has a good flow.
6. **Keep it short.** The brain has a maximum of about 20 minutes of good concentration time before it needs a break.  An exploration should never take more than 20 minutes. In fact, around 5 - 10 minutes would be ideal.
7. **Keep the flow forward.** Try not to direct learners to a previous card. This keeps the learner experience simple. If you do need to refer to content from a previous card, feel free to repeat the relevant material.
8. **Avoid using too many pronouns at once.** When we read a pronoun, it requires an extra layer of effort to check what each pronoun is referring to. Rather, specify what each pronoun really means.
9. **Use pictures.** Try to include graphics or other Easter eggs every few cards. A picture helps to break up the monotony of reading. Moreover, Images and examples are a great way for learners to engage with the core concepts! 
10. **Review and proofread.** So you have a finished exploration? Great! But - review your exploration to check whether there is a flow and every card is logically connected with its neighbour. You can’t have your third card talking about “variables” and then the fourth one suddenly about “loops”.
11. **Ask for feedback.** Ask the intended audience of your exploration for feedback, and make adjustments as needed! Their feedback can help you improve the exploration.
 
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Adapted from:
- [Guidelines for creators](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ffx_nJsZ8k-aJyPRlFu2HWDJPIkfTAyUBxyUbtcEe2Y/edit)
- [General tips for writing explorations](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u4WErMBSRR7TQPAZ9Kd1rGJ6U4V9EQZJx462gCxyrYk/edit)
- [Guidance for content creation teams](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h8jDHduAOgMOkpssiDMduCdP9TYfTOsS0UQ_VhwWa-k/edit)
- [Advice for creators](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcO4uNznFejkQZ2nq320zzpSaNRQ8aqYZz5MGMQuEoY/edit)