“The best laid schemes of mice and man often go awry,” mused Robert Burns. While the writer was lamenting the plight of a mouse, he could have just as easily been waxing poetic about consumer learning.
If you’ve ever taken an online course, you know that even the best conceived program can go off the rails.
Convoluted sign-up forms that make it hard for learners to enroll. Text pages full of typos and grammatical errors. Multimedia files that are slow to load. Mind-numbing activities that make people jump through hoops instead of reaching their goals.
It doesn’t take much for an e-course to go from a learning adventure to an educational train wreck.
That’s why you need to take the time to figure out exactly who your target learners are, what content they want and need to learn, and how you’ll package your expertise.
Resolve to take your business to the next level with these tips for creating a solid e-course.
We get it. You want to create an online course so you can demonstrate your expertise, introduce customers to a new product or service, or position your company as the go-to source for industry know-how.
But make no mistake: No matter what your business goals are for your online offerings, your customers will have their own reasons for enrolling in your course.
How do you find out what people want to learn? Start by thinking like a student and ask yourself, “What’s In It For Me?” Brainstorm what your customers need to know, the tasks they’ll need to be able to do, and the attitudes or feelings they should develop by the end of the course. In other words: Think in terms of cognitive, practical, and emotional learning.
Bear in mind, however, that most courses won’t emphasize all three areas in equal measure. A course for city planners about the latest recycling technologies, for example, will likely be more focused on information, while a certificate program for fitness instructors will spend more time on skills building.
Under promise, over deliver. That maxim holds true for business and consumer learning.
Smart entrepreneurs know that, when you’re deciding what content to teach in your online school, it’s wise stick to what you know best. So, beware of being a know-it-all and resist the temptation to be all things to all people.
Have you discovered the secret to marketing on Instagram? Then build your course around your real-life experience with that platform and let someone else teach about ad copy for Facebook. Bottom line: Spread yourself too thin and you run the risk of misleading learners. At the very worst, you’ll lose their trust. So stick to your wheelhouse and create custom content and activities that show off your expertise while addressing people’s needs.
Once you’ve got a clear picture of your learners’ needs and goals and you know what expertise you bring to the mix, all that’s left is to decide what materials and activities you’ll need to create.
But before you jump down the content creation rabbit hole, do an inventory of the content that you’ve already got on hand.
Let’s say you’ve got a great new product and you plan to develop a how-to course to help people make the most of its features.
Do you have a FAQs page that you can repurpose and turn into a downloadable cheat sheet? What about creating case studies from customer testimonials? Or using your press release on your course description page?
Remember to tap your human capital, too. Is there a subject matter expert on your team who can speak about the latest research and trends or moderate an online discussion forum?
Ready, Set, Resolve! Make this the year you commit to creating your best e-course ever.