Tips for outline and structure an online course
1. Identify the end goal
we're going to take these parts one at a time before we do anything else we want to identify the end goal the first step to figuring out the end is to figure out the beginning hang with me here for this we're going to ask two questions who is my course for this question is really important because it helps us understand the person for whom we're trying to create a result how do they relate to the subject of your course what skills did they already have and what do they already know question number two is what are they currently struggling with or experiencing this question helps us understand where they are starting on their journey with you what is this person struggling with what are the gaps in their knowledge what is missing from their life without having taken your course now that we understand the beginning it'll be easier for us to figure out what a good ending point would be the question you want to ask here is what end result do I want to create for my student .
When answering this question we want to keep a couple of important things in mind don't overdo it one of the biggest mistakes course creators make is to try to teach their students everything they know about a specific topic instead of being helpful this is action the overwhelming and can leave your students feeling more frustrated I can't stress enough how important it is to get this part right and to do that we're going to ask three questions how much material can you realistically teach you've got to understand your own limits sure you might be able to make a 100 hour online course about your topic but that could take you ages to make what's a reasonable amount of information for you to teach how much material can your students realistically learn most students are coming to you with a specific goal in mind it's not like college classes where they expect to spend an entire semester with you and most people aren't going to be able to learn a semesters worth of info in a short amount of time can your main topic be broken down into subtopics rather than cover the full scope of what you know could you zoom in and choose a subtopic that can still produce results for your student get more specific .
Getting more specific is a great strategy for making your course manageable but Ben my students won't learn as much from me if I don't tell them everything I understand your concern but think about the alternative if your student is overwhelmed with too much information they may not get any results from taking your course it's better for your student to have success with a relatively small goal than to fail trying to learn everything you know when you get specific you're more likely to be able to deliver on the result and the result is more tangible and much easier to sell use the course outline template now that we understand who we're creating our course for where they are now and what end result we want to create for them we're going to break the end result down into manageable steps to help us do this
2. Bridge the gap
Now it's time to bridge the gap think about where your student is now and the end result you'd like to create has opposite banks of a river what major milestones will they need to achieve to arrive on the other side of the bridge as you think of these major steps write each of them down in its own module box make sure each of these steps encompasses a unique aspect of your course now it's time to break the modules down into individual lessons in this step it's important to find the right granularity if the lessons too specific your student could get bored and have trouble staying engaged if it's not specific enough your student couldn't miss an important step and not achieve the desired result if one of your modules could be easily broken down into sections with their own separate steps it's a good idea to turn those sections into individual lessons as you choose your lessons write them down in the spaces next to their corresponding module.
3. Choose best mediums
Our last step is to choose which mediums are best for each piece of course content there are many different ways to present the information but the most important question to consider is is this medium the best way from my student to achieve the result I promise you also have to think about how students learning about your specific topic tend to learn best which medium does the best job of making the information clear and what mediums are most accessible for your students with that in mind I'll talk briefly about the pros and cons of each video video is the most engaging it's a multi-sensory experience that can captivate the viewer it builds the strongest relationship between the student and the teacher because the student can see you or at the very least hear your voice video can be very time consuming to create and the equipment to produce quality video can be a big investment still for most course creators having some type of video content is a must-have audio audio content is the easiest to consume because students can take the content on the go or listen to it while they're doing other tasks think podcasts or audio books.
Your student could be learning from you while doing the dishes are going for an evening run it is easier to get distracted while listening to audio only also while audio is less expensive to produce them video it's still really important to have good quality and the equipment you'll need to achieve that can be somewhat expensive PDF guides PDF guides are easier and less expensive to produce than video or audio it's also easier for students to go back to you and reference a PDF worksheet can help walk students through doing the work whether you use checklists quizzes or a specific framework you've created you can to use charts and graphs to enhance the learning experience with PDFs because the student can't hear your voice or see your face they won't be as engaged or connected with you text this is the easiest produce for creators that are comfortable with writing it's also the least expensive because it doesn't require additional tools or skills.
Text is the least engaging form of content and writing well can take some practice still it can be a great medium if you're just starting out or if you determine it would be the most beneficial for your student now instead of a blank sheet of paper or stacks upon stacks of scribbled nonsense you've got this clean clear structured outline that will tell you exactly what you need to do to bring your course to life take a deep breath with me if you were feeling stuck before I hope this article has given you the tools and the motivation you need to get rolling on your course who are you making a course for what problem will your course .
Tags:
Course Tips