How to teach on Rootlet: from your first lesson to your first sale

Rootlet

Tue, 13 Oct 2026

If you're good at something people want to learn, you can turn that knowledge into an online course and earn from every sale. This guide explains how teaching on Rootlet works, from applying to getting paid, what you're responsible for as an instructor, and what research on online video tells us about making a course that learners actually finish.

Who makes a good Rootlet instructor

Rootlet is built around practical skills taught by people who use them. You don't need a teaching qualification. What matters is that you genuinely do the thing you teach, whether that's bookkeeping, baking, photography, coding or anything else, and that you can explain it clearly from the basics up. Learners can tell the difference between someone reading from a script and someone sharing what they do every day.

How teaching on Rootlet works

1. Apply to become an instructor

Start on the become an instructor page. Tell us about your experience and what you'd like to teach. Once your application is approved, you'll get access to your instructor dashboard.

2. Build your course

From your dashboard you create the course, add a title, description, category, level and thumbnail, then organise it into sections and lessons. Lessons are usually videos, and you can add supporting material and quizzes. On Rootlet, lessons unlock one at a time as learners watch, so plan them in a logical order where each one builds on the last.

3. Set your price and publish

You choose your course price. We may review a course before or after it goes live, and we can refuse or remove courses that don't meet our quality standards or terms, so it's worth checking your course against the tips further down before you submit it.

4. Earn from every sale

When a learner buys your course, you receive the revenue share shown in your instructor dashboard, less payment processing fees and any refunds. Payouts are made according to the payout schedule and minimum shown in your dashboard. As your sales grow you'll also earn instructor badges, from Seedling Seller at 10 sales up to Ancient Oak Seller.

How refunds affect you

Learners can ask for a full refund within 14 days of purchase as long as they've watched less than 30% of the course. The full details are in our refund policy. A refunded sale is taken off your earnings. To protect instructors, we may refuse refunds where we see signs of abuse, such as repeated buy-and-refund activity. The best protection is a course that delivers what its description promises, so be specific and honest about who the course is for and what learners will be able to do by the end.

Your responsibilities as an instructor

• Your content must be yours. You need to own, or have permission to use, everything in your course, including music, images, fonts and software screenshots, and it must be accurate and lawful.
• We get a licence to sell it. You keep ownership, and you give Rootlet a non-exclusive licence to host, market and sell your course to learners.
• You handle your own tax. Course income counts as your own trading income. In the UK, HMRC's trading allowance lets individuals earn up to £1,000 a year in gross trading income tax-free. Above that, you need to register for Self Assessment, by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you earned it. This is a summary of GOV.UK guidance, not tax advice, so check your own situation with HMRC or an accountant.

How to plan a course learners finish

One of the largest studies of online course video looked at 6.9 million viewing sessions across four edX courses. The researchers, from MIT and edX, compared how different video styles related to how long students kept watching and whether they went on to try the practice questions. It was an observational study rather than a controlled experiment, but its findings are a useful guide. You can read the full paper by Guo, Kim and Rubin (2014).

Keep videos short

Video length was the strongest predictor of engagement. However long a video was, the typical viewer stopped watching at around 6 minutes, and the share of students who went on to attempt the practice questions fell from 56% to 31% as videos got longer. Break long topics into short lessons that each cover one idea.

Plan it for online, not a recorded class

A course whose lectures were planned specifically for online learning kept students more engaged than one cut up from an older classroom recording. Write a short outline for each lesson before you record, and speak to the learner as if they're sitting next to you.

You don't need a studio

In the study, an informal course filmed at an office desk did better than a studio-filmed one. The researchers suggest that a personal feel matters more than expensive production. Clear sound, good light and a steady camera go a long way.

Show your face, and show the work

Videos that switched between the instructor's face and slides or a screen did better than slides alone, and tutorials where the instructor drew or wrote things out by hand held attention longest. Let learners see you, then show them exactly what you're doing.

Bring your natural energy

Instructors who spoke faster generally kept students more engaged, which the researchers put down to enthusiasm rather than speed. You don't need to slow down artificially. Cut out long pauses and filler in the edit instead.

Give learners something to do

Short quizzes and a practical project help learners remember what you teach, because testing yourself strengthens memory more than rewatching. Add a few quiz questions to each section and finish the course with a real task learners can complete with their new skill.

A checklist before you submit your course

1. A clear title and description that say who the course is for and what they'll be able to do.
2. Lessons of a few minutes each, one idea per lesson.
3. Clear audio and a short outline behind every video.
4. Everything in the course is yours or properly licensed.
5. A quiz or practice task in each section, and a project at the end.
6. A price that reflects the value, and a thumbnail that shows what the course is about.

Ready to start?

If you have a skill people want to learn, we'd love to hear from you. Apply to become a Rootlet instructor, or email us at support@rootlet.co.uk with any questions first.

Sources

• Guo, P. J., Kim, J. and Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: an empirical study of MOOC videos. Proceedings of the first ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S 2014).
• GOV.UK (HMRC). Tax-free allowances on property and trading income.
• Roediger, H. L. and Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3).
• Rootlet. Terms and conditions and refund policy.