Trending and the Demand Radar

Overview

The Demand Radar is StretchCode's built-in signal for what's hot. Subjects carry a demand score and a rank, and the most in-demand subjects are flagged as trending. Those signals surface on catalog cards, in a dedicated trending view, and as a Popular sort — so learners naturally gravitate to the courses in highest demand.

How demand works

• Each subject (the topic a course belongs to, such as a language or discipline) can have a demand score from 0–100 and a rank relative to other subjects.
• Subjects above the threshold are marked trending.
• A course inherits its subject's demand: catalog cards can show the subject's demand score, rank, and a trending badge.

The demand figures are computed from popularity signals for each subject and refreshed periodically, so the ranking reflects current interest rather than a static list.

Where demand shows up

1. Catalog cards — a course whose subject is trending displays a trending indicator, and its demand score/rank are available on the card.
2. The Popular sort — choosing Popular in the catalog reorders results by demand score (highest first), with featured courses and your catalog sort order as tiebreakers.
3. The trending view — a dedicated list of trending subjects, each with its name, category, demand score, rank, a representative course link, and how many courses cover it.

Using demand to plan content

The Demand Radar isn't just for learners — it's a content-planning tool:

1. Open the trending view to see which subjects are climbing.
2. Check the course count per trending subject to spot demand you're under-serving (high demand, few courses).
3. Prioritize authoring or updating courses for those subjects.
4. Use the Popular sort to confirm your best-performing subjects are well covered.

A realistic example

An academy's trending view shows Data Analysis ranked #2 with a demand score of 88 but only one course covering it. The team prioritizes a second, more advanced data course. Meanwhile, learners browsing the catalog with the Popular sort see the data courses rise to the top, and the trending badge nudges undecided learners toward them.

Tips

• Assign each course a meaningful subject so it can inherit demand signals and appear correctly in the trending view.
• Treat a high-demand, low-course-count subject as a content opportunity.
• Point new or undecided learners at the Popular sort; it does the "what should I learn?" triage for them.
• Demand refreshes over time — check the trending view periodically rather than treating it as fixed.

FAQ

Where do demand scores come from? They're derived from popularity signals for each subject and refreshed on a schedule, then normalized to a 0–100 score with a rank.

My course has no trending badge even though it's popular with my learners. The trending signal is tied to the course's subject. Make sure the course is assigned to the right subject, and note that trending reflects broad subject demand, not per-course enrollment counts.

Can I sort the catalog by demand? Yes — choose the Popular sort, which orders by demand score with featured and sort-order tiebreakers.