CoreDogs' goal is to help novices learn. Start by understanding how they learn. Then, create both (1) content and (2) procedures that help learning processes work well. 

College textbooks are written by experts. The experts explain the way they understand some domain, like chemistry, or Web design. That's great for other experts, but it doesn't help novices. Textbook authors need to think like novices, or they won't be able to write for novices.

Tom Kuhlmann wrote a nice blog post, called Here's How to Help Your Subject Matter Experts Build Better E-Learning Courses. Tom hosts the Rapid Elearning Blog at articulate.com. Tom makes three main points:

• Keep it simple
• Don't share everything
• Focus on action

These three make sense from a learning science perspective.

It can be hard to convince a subject matter expert that s/he doesn't necessarily know the best way to explain things. Learning about learning takes work. Someone may have done the work to learn about Web design, but has s/he done the work to learn about learning?

Have a look at Tom's post. Good stuff.