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Module 01 · Lesson 1 of 3

How this course works

Four parts, short lessons, and two layers in every lesson: plain words first, then the detail.

  • 4 minread
  • 2figures
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In this lesson you will find out

  • How the course’s 25 modules are grouped into four parts
  • Which boxes you will meet inside every lesson
  • What the quick checks, quizzes and certificate involve

About 4 minutes. At the end you will find one quick question, a short summary and the button to your next lesson.

Welcome. This course follows a new human life from the moment an egg and a sperm meet, through the first week in the fallopian tube, all the way to birth. Then it takes you somewhere most courses never go: inside the IVF laboratory, where an embryologist watches those first days happen. By the end, you will see your own fertility, your embryo reports and your pregnancy scans the way an embryologist does.

A watercolour of a wooden table by a sunny window with an open notebook, a pencil, a book, a cup of rooibos tea and a vase of protea, with mountains outside.
Figure 1.1.1 Learn at your own pace: most lessons take about five minutes.

The four parts

The course has 25 modules in four parts. You can read them in order, which is how they are written, or jump to the part you need today.

The four parts of the course Four panels with small watercolours: How a life begins, from an egg with sperm through 4 cells and a blastocyst to an embryo; How the body forms, a heart, a brain and lungs; the Atlas, an embryo and fetus growing week by week; and Kara’s lab, a dish of embryos, a freezing straw and a microscope. PART 1 How a life begins From the first cell to birth PART 2 How the body forms How every organ forms PART 3 The atlas Week by week, at a glance PART 4 Kara’s lab Inside the IVF laboratory
Figure 1.1.2 The four parts of the course, from the first cell to the IVF lab.
Part What it covers Modules
1. How a life begins Eggs and sperm, fertilisation, the first week, implantation, the embryo and the fetus, the placenta, chromosomes 1 to 11
2. How the body forms How each body system forms: muscles and bones, heart, blood, lungs, gut, kidneys, reproductive organs, brain 12 to 20
3. The atlas Week by week at a glance: size, shape and milestones 21
4. Kara’s lab The IVF laboratory, your embryo results, and looking after egg and sperm quality 22 to 25

What is in each lesson

Every module opens with its learning aims and a short list of what you should already know. Lessons are short, usually four or five minutes.

Each lesson opens with a short list headed In this lesson you will find out, under a row of numbered circles that shows where you are in the module. It closes with a Lesson summary of the main points and an Up next button that takes you straight to the next lesson, or to the module quiz after the last one. On a phone, a small bar at the bottom of the screen keeps the way back and the way on in reach.

Inside a lesson you will meet the same boxes you know from the Fertility with Kara website and ebooks:

  • Kara explains: Kara’s own voice, describing what the science looks like in the lab, or what couples ask her most.
  • Words you may hear: the terms your clinic or a textbook will use, explained once, and collected in the glossary.
  • Myth and evidence: a common belief, and what the evidence actually shows.
  • Ask your healthcare professional: questions to take to an appointment.
  • Keep learning: a panel you can open for the full science, with the proper terms and the detail. If you skip it, you lose nothing you need.
Tap to enlarge

Every drawing in this course was made for it, in the Fertility with Kara style. On a phone, tap the magnifier on any figure to see it full size.

Checking what you have learned

Each lesson ends with one quick question, so you can check the main idea before you move on. Modules 2 to 24 each end with a six-question quiz with explanations, and you can retake it as often as you like. When you have finished, the final assessment asks questions written for it, covering Modules 2 to 24, including reading lab reports, in a new order each time. Score 80% or more and you can print a certificate of completion.

Your progress, scores and the name on your certificate are saved only in your own browser, never on the course’s server.

Check your understanding

What is the “Keep learning” panel in each lesson for?

Kara’s key takeaway

Read in order or dip in where you need to. Plain words come first; the deeper science is always one tap away.

Lesson summary

What you learned in “How this course works”:

  • The course follows a new life from egg and sperm to birth, then takes you inside the IVF laboratory.
  • Its 25 modules sit in four parts: how a life begins, how the body forms, the atlas, and Kara’s lab.
  • Lessons are short, usually four or five minutes, and use the same boxes as the website and ebooks, such as Kara explains and Myth and evidence.
  • The Keep learning panel holds the deeper science with the proper terms, and you lose nothing you need if you skip it.
  • Each lesson ends with one quick question and Modules 2 to 24 each with a six-question quiz, and 80% or more in the final assessment earns a certificate.

Up next Lesson 1.2

Meet your teacher Who Kara is, and why an embryologist is a good guide to the first days of life. 3 min read Start the next lesson
All lessons in Module 01

Your progress is saved in this browser only.

Read next on Fertility with Kara

In the ebooks: Book One, chapter 1: Fertility: The Basics Everyone Should Understand

A note from Kara

Thank you for choosing to learn with me

I know you had many places to look for answers, and you chose this course. Thank you. It means a lot to me that you trust me with something this close to your heart.

Every lesson here is something I wish every couple could hear before they sit down with their clinic: how a life begins, what happens in the lab, and what the words on your report mean. Take it slowly. Short lessons, one at a time, are the way the science sinks in.

If a lesson raises a question about your own body or your own embryos, write it down and take it to your healthcare professional. That is exactly what this course is for.

Warmly, Kara

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