How it works
One topic, 5 ways in, and a reason to come back tomorrow
Most learning sites give you a different shape every time. WholeTopic does one thing on purpose: every course is built the same way, and every part you finish counts for something.
The journey
Pick a topic
Type anything, or pick one from the library. Every course arrives in the same shape, so you always know what you are getting.
Take it your way
5 parts, any order, one or all. Each part tracks its own progress and each finished part earns points.
Keep the streak
Finish any part today and the flame stays lit. Miss a day and it resets. A week and a month each earn a badge.
Collect the badges
Milestones earn badges. Some come fast, some take months. All of them show on your account.
Earn the certificate
Finish all the parts of a course and a certificate is issued in your name, with a verification code and a link you can share.
The format
Every course, the same 5 parts
The sprint is seven short days with a challenge each. ELI5 explains the one core idea four times, each more precise. The 80/20 is the handful of concepts that carry the topic. The quiz corrects you when you are wrong. The ladder takes you beginner to advanced with an exercise at each rung.
7-Day Sprint
Seven days, one key concept each, with a small challenge at the end of every day.
Explain It Like I'm 5
The core idea for a five-year-old, then again for a beginner, an intermediate, and an expert.
The 80/20
The 20% of concepts that give you 80% of the results, each with an analogy that sticks.
Test Me. Fix Me. Repeat.
Ten questions, one at a time. Get one wrong and you get the correction and the why.
3-Level Ladder
Beginner, intermediate, advanced, with a practical exercise after each level.
Why five ways, and not one good one
Because meeting the same idea more than once, in more than one form, is what makes it stay. The quiz is retrieval practice, the one study technique with the strongest evidence behind it: pulling an answer out of your head beats reading it again. The ELI5 and the ladder make you meet the core idea at four depths, and the sprint and the 80/20 attach it to examples and analogies you can picture. None of that needs you to have a "learning style"; it needs you to finish all five. That is why the certificate is for the whole topic, not for a part.
Progress you can see
See exactly where you are
Every course card shows which of the 5 parts you have finished and how far along the whole course is. Your dashboard shows your level, your streak, your badges, and where you sit on the leaderboard this week.
- 10 points for every part you finish
- 50 points and a certificate for a whole course
- 15 points for a perfect quiz
- 20 points for building a course of your own
- 5 points for every day you show up
CPR and First Response Essentials
The badges
Twelve to collect
Some you will earn in your first hour. Some take a month of showing up. All of them are real milestones, not participation stickers.
First step
Finished any part of any course.
Whole topic
Finished every part of a course.
Hat trick
Three whole courses done.
Shelf
Ten whole courses done.
Quiz ace
A perfect score on a quiz.
Sprinter
All seven days of a sprint.
Top rung
Beginner to advanced on one topic.
Builder
Built a course of your own.
One week
Seven days in a row.
One month
Thirty days in a row.
Polymath
Whole courses in three different categories.
Early
An early adopter.
The levels
Seven names for how far you have come
This certifies that
completed the whole topic
All 5 parts. Quiz score 10 of 10.
The certificate
Finish the whole topic, get it in writing
Every part done, quiz score recorded, your nickname on it, a verification code, and a public link. Print it, save it as a PDF, or share it. Print it, save it, or share it.
The leaderboard
Opt in, pick a nickname, climb
A weekly board that resets every Monday so newcomers can win it, and an all-time board for the long game. Only people who opt in appear, by nickname. Your email is never shown.
Points come from finishing things, not from clicking around. Retaking a part you already finished earns nothing extra, so the board rewards learning, not farming.
| # | Nickname | Points | Streak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam R. | 265 | 12 days |
| 2 | quietbaker | 210 | 9 days |
| 3 | Priya | 180 | 4 days |
| 4 | T. Okafor | 145 | 6 days |
| 5 | You | 120 | 3 days |
Building and paying
Build a topic
Type it the way you would say it to a friend. Your first $9 includes a course credit; monthly members get a new one every month; extras are $5. Built in a few minutes, yours forever.
Everyone gets it
Your course joins the library for every member, which is how the library grows. Tick "keep it private" for a $10 add-on if one is just for you.
Kept right by the people using it
Every draft gets a second review pass before it is published, and every course page lists its sources and how many mistakes learners have reported and how many were fixed. Every course page has a "report a mistake" link. Reports go straight to us and we fix or regenerate the part. Failed builds return the credit or are refunded.