Practice prompts learners actually try
Keep optional exercises tiny and concrete: inside your lesson text, video, or file links, so progress still feels real.
You do not need a separate homework system. A short prompt in the lesson (try this step, fill one line, export one screenshot) is enough for many topics.
Tie each prompt to something they can point at afterward: a saved file, a setting changed, a before-and-after. That lines up with marking the lesson complete when they are ready.
Keep the required path light. If you add stretch ideas, put them at the end of the lesson or link a file learners can download when they want to go deeper.
When the course outline and completion progress are visible, finishing a lesson feels like a small win. That beats hoping people remember to come back with no sense of momentum.