So you finally reached the development phase of instructional design and you’re feeling like you're drowning in to-dos. Your list might even include tasks like these:
Feeling overwhelmed? Let me share a little trick (you’ve probably heard of it before) called batching. I use this trick to work more efficiently during the creation phase of instructional design. So what exactly is batching?
Working in batches is the process of finishing like tasks at the same time before moving on to another type of task. For example: recording all the videos, then typing all the text, then creating all the graphics, rather than creating everything for one lesson before moving on to the next lesson. Here’s how I set this up for course creation work: I tend to be a little obsessed with spreadsheets, so I start my content creation work by creating one giant list of all the tasks that need to be completed. I organize my spreadsheet by module and lesson of the course content to make things easier when I go back to double check. Here are the columns I include on my spreadsheet:
Once I’ve created my giant list, I sort the spreadsheet by the “task type” section, so that all of the same kind of task is next to each other. (Here’s a little plug to let you know that if you schedule a consultation with me, I’ll make your spreadsheet for you). Now that I’ve got my handy-dandy list ready to go, I start creating in batches. I like to create the videos first for a few reasons.:
When I’m in video-creating mode, I don’t do any other tasks. No subtitles, no graphics, no transcripts, no PDFs. Just videos. After the videos are finished, I move to the next task, then the next task, and so on. This sounds counter-intuitive, because we tend to look at content creation in chunks by lesson, but creating content using this method saves you time because you work more efficiently. Here are a few reasons why:
Final Thoughts There are a lot of things to do when you get to the creation and development phase of your instructional design. One way you can save time and work more efficiently is by completing your tasks in batches, or in chunks where you complete similar tasks together before moving on to different tasks.
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Have you ever asked yourself this question? Do I really need course objectives If so, you’re in the right place. The short answer to your question is: yes. You need course objectives. Which may leave you wondering some of the following questions:
Keep reading to learn more. What Are Objectives? When people talk about course objectives, they usually mean one to two sentences that define the focus of the content and the skill students will master through the content. This doesn’t have to be fancy. All you need is a succinct statement that you can reference throughout your course creation process. Objectives are the foundation of your content, so treat this as a very important beginning step. How Do You Make Course Objectives? There is a lot of research that exists about objective writing, such as this guide from Sue Bannister, a lecturer for the University of Western Australia. Your objectives don’t have to be quite that complex. (I mean you can write them that formally, but it isn’t required.) You do need these things in your objectives:
Here are a few examples:
It’s best to create objectives at a few levels. There will be overlap between objectives, and that’s okay. Your objectives will increase in specificity as you move through the levels.
Why Do They Matter? When you design instruction for someone else, objectives help all stakeholders stay focused on the same goal. Often a design team will work with the client to write objectives before beginning any design work. This makes it so every member of the team knows exactly what to focus on in their work. When you’re designing instruction for yourself, it can be super easy to skip this phase of design because there isn’t anyone asking/reminding you to do it. Don’t skip this step! Having clearly written objectives at the very beginning of the design process keeps the whole project focused on the goal. Or in other words, writing objectives (like actually writing them down) and revising them until they really say what you want them to say, is a very important first step. How Do You Use Them? Objectives give you the ruler you can use to measure whether or not your instruction succeed. Objectives are the road map that makes sure you reach your destination. Defining your objectives gives you a standard to hold all of your instruction to. You’ll create assessment that assesses the objectives. Then you’ll design an instructional plan that is aligned to the objectives. Then you’ll align your content to your instructional plan (which is aligned with your objectives). And at the end? When you create your evaluation? You’ll use your objectives to help you decide whether or not your instruction worked. Final Thoughts
Objectives are an essential part of course design. You don’t have to write them in formal language, but you do need to write them down. Your well-written objectives will drive the rest of your instructional design. Raise your hand if you’ve ever looked at someone else’s course and thought – there’s no way I can ever measure up to that! I mean, we’ve all done it, right? It can be overwhelming to see all the flashy bells and whistles that you could add to your course. There are lots of trendy things you can invest in, like sales pages, funnels, microphones, sound mixers, ring lights, webcams, graphic designers, etc. There are also lots of extras you can add on to your course, like Facebook groups, text messages, Slack channels, monthly video chats, downloadable workbooks, templates, etc. But let me let you in on a little secret – you actually don’t need any of that. What you do need is well-designed instruction that includes a few key features. What are those key features you ask? Well, let me tell you. Objectives Effective instruction focuses on specific objectives. This keeps you on topic so you don’t ramble on about whatever comes to mind. It also gives you something you can measure. Objectives are essential. Really. Without them you’re just talking. Once you have objectives, you can plan all your other content to focus on your objectives. Think of them like the foundation of your course – everything else is built on the foundation. If you're looking for more about objectives, you can learn more here. Assessment Assessment is the only way for you to be able to know whether or not your learners are actually learning, which, after all, is the entire point of having a course. This is different than writing an exam or creating a quiz – assessment for course creators is about considering how you will make sure your learners are learning and then asking the right questions to be able to figure out whether or not it worked. If you’re looking for more about assessment, you can learn more here. Aligned Activities Remember how I said your objectives were the foundation? You can use your objectives to help you develop content that is aligned to your goals. Your content can be in lots of formats:
The format isn’t as important as whether or not your content matches the objectives you set. If your content isn’t aligned, you won’t be able to determine whether or not learning happened (assessment) and whether or not you met your goals (objectives). Evaluation Evaluation is another essential piece of your course creation. Good evaluation helps you decide what you change for the next launch of your course. If you’re looking for more about evaluation, you can learn more here. Final Thoughts
Don’t be distracted by all the fancy add-ons you can purchase or create for your course – you don’t need them! What you do need is well-designed instruction that focuses on objectives and that you can assess and evaluate. Evaluation is probably on the list of “least understood parts of course creation.” Lots of people skip this step of instructional design or evaluate their content in ways that are inefficient or ineffective. So how can you use evaluation as the powerful tool it was intended to be? It’s time for a little myth busting. Are you ready? Myth #1 – Course creation is easy. Create your digital course, put them up for sale, then sit back and let that passive income roll in. You only have to do the work once. Truth: While we might all wish it worked like that and it might even look like it’s working that way for some people, the truth is….course creation looks more like this:
Myth #2 – The only way to know how people feel about your course is to wait for them to leave you a review. Truth: You can wait for people to leave reviews. Or you can ask for feedback. Add a final lesson, module, or email automation to the end of your course that includes a survey to collect feedback from your learners. Myth #3 – One short survey is all you need for effective evaluation. Truth: One short survey is a great start. But…there’s a little bit more to evaluation than just one short post-course survey. Let me introduce you to Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation. This is a system of evaluating instruction in four categories, called levels. Each level focuses on one area of the instruction. Level 1: Reaction This level is all about figuring out how your learners feel about your course. Did they enjoy it? Was it worth their time? Do you personally feel like the course was successful? The simplest way to evaluate your course at this level is to create a satisfaction survey to send to your learners soon (like immediately) after they finish the course. Here are some potential questions you could ask:
Level 2: Learning Evaluating your course at level two is about determining how your course impacted your learners confidence, ability, and understanding about your course topic. The simplest way to evaluate your course at this level is to create pre- and post-surveys asking your learners questions about their attitudes toward and knowledge about your course topic. You can compare the data from the pre- and post-surveys to see how your course is performing. Many evaluators will create one survey for both Level 1 and Level 2. Once you’ve created the survey you can set it up as an automated email sent to your learners when they finish the course. Here are some potential questions you could ask on both a pre- and post-survey:
Level 3: Behavior Level three is all about analyzing how your course changed your learners’ behavior. Typically data at this level is gathered a few months or so after the end of the course so that you can see how the things you taught in your course have impacted your learners over time. Of course, the timing definitely depends on the content of your course, so you’ll want to work with your evaluator (or if you’re a solopreneur you’ll want to plan in advance) to determine how long to wait between the end of the course and reaching out to your learners to collect this data. You might be thinking – how do I figure out how my course changed my learners’ behavior? My business is online. I’m not going to see these people. Don’t worry – this level can also be evaluated through a survey with questions focused on how the course has impacted the learners’ behavior. Here are some potential questions you could ask:
Level 4: Results The last level of evaluation focuses on looking at the return on your investment in order to determine whether or not it’s worth launching the course again and/or if any things need to be changed. Here are some ways to do this:
To Wrap Things Up
Evaluating your course is an essential and often overlooked part of course design. Start planning for evaluation before you finish creating the content. Kirkpatrick's levels can be a way for you to evaluate your course's effectiveness in different areas. So you made your awesome course. And you sold it to your awesome people. And no one complained. So that means your people learned, right? Well, maybe. Maybe not. A lack of complaints isn’t a sure way to determine that learning has happened. Which leads us to a really important question: How do you know if your course is working? Or in other words: How do you know if your learners are learning? This is an essential question that instructional designers and teachers have been asking for decades. In fact, many curriculum planners use these popular four questions (originally developed by Richard DuFour when they create their instruction:
The only way to know if learning is happening is by assessing learning. In a traditional classroom-type learning environment, assessment happens all the time:
The thing is, though, that even if you’re not giving an exam at the end of the course, you still want to know if people are learning. So let’s take a look at how DuFour’s 4 Questions can apply to your course creation. What do we want all students to know and be able to do? This questions is talking about learning objectives. When you know exactly what it is that you want your learners to be able to know and do after completing your course, it’s much easier to measure whether or not the learning actually happened. If you’re new to writing objectives, this post I wrote gives you all the nitty gritty details. Short version: objectives are important and you need them. They help you decide in advance exactly what your course will focus on and they help you keep your content focused on that point. How will we know if they learn it? This is the question of the hour for this blog post. Here are a few ways you can assess whether your learners are learning your content, or not. Facebook Groups If you have a Facebook group (or other online community) that you created for your learners, this can be a great place to assess learning. You can make posts that ask direct questions, like:
You can also “listen to” aka read conversations happening in comments in the group and observe how your learners are using the content you taught them. Survey A post-course survey is a perfect way to assess learning. Throw together some questions about the content in your course, put it in a survey, then add the survey to an automated email sequence or to the last lesson in your course. Interview Reach out to some of your learners and ask them if you can interview them. In your interview, ask them what they’ve learned from the course, how it’s benefited them, etc. Here’s a bonus tip – you can use the responses you gather as course testimonials, How will we respond when learners do not learn? Oof. That’s a tough question. It’s a good one, though. My favorite part of this question is the word “when” rather than “if.” Chances are, if you’re delivering instruction in any format, you will not have 100% of your learners learn the content. So what can you do about this? When you look at your assessment data and you realize that not all of your learners are learning, here are a few other questions to ask yourself:
After reflecting, you’ll probably have some ideas of ways you can change and adjust the course content. How will we extend the learning for learners who are already proficient? Use this question to kick off your brainstorming session for the next courses or resources you’re going to create. You’ve got a group of learners who have learned from your course and they’re ready for more. What can you offer them next? So what's the point?
Let’s go back to where we started at the beginning of this blog post. Selling the course isn’t the end of the course – you need assessment to be able to determine whether or not your learners are actually learning something from your course. The best way to prepare for this is to start planning your assessment while you plan the course. Picture this – you spend hours and hours and hours and hours creating a beautiful course. It’s full of all the latest bells and whistles – video and audio content, PDF workbooks, actionable training, gorgeous graphics, free bonuses, and more. You’ve made a powerful sales page and flashy advertising content. You roll out the red carpet, kick off a huge launch, and…. Nothing. No one enrolls in your program. No one makes a purchase. No content is delivered, no lessons are learned, no bonuses are downloaded. Then you ask yourself – where did I go wrong? What was missing? Why didn’t anyone want to learn my content? Well, my friend, if this has ever happened to you or if you want to avoid the possibility of it happening to you, you have landed on the write blog post. Today I want to tackle the question that no one is asking (but maybe they should be): How can I create content that people actually want to learn? You might have been asking these kinds of questions:
The difference between courses that succeed and courses that don’t is course creators that start their course creation process with a little something called a learner analysis. Lots of instructional designers (like this guy, this guy, this girl, and also this guy) have talked about the importance of a learner analysis. So let’s break this all down together. What is a Learner Analysis? Basically this fancy title just represents the phase of course creation where you compile all the things you know about your future learners. You want to really know who these people are, what they know, what they need to know, what problems they have, how they feel about the topic you want to teach in your course, etc. You (or your instructional designer) take all this information and use it to make decisions about your course creation. Decisions like: what content to cover, how quickly to move through the content, how to deliver the content, etc. What Questions Should You Be Asking? So at this point you’re probably thinking, okay, so I’m convinced that I need a learner analysis, but what information do I need to include as part of it? Great question. I always say, good information comes from good questions. Here are some good questions to lead you toward the good information you need for your learner analysis:
But don’t stress too much – you don’t have to answer all of these questions all at once. Pick a few, start looking for answers, and go from there. How Do I Find Answers to these Questions? The best way to learn about your audience is to start asking them questions! You can put all of these questions in one giant survey, but chances are people will get bored and never finish the survey. Here are some other ideas for ways you can ask your audience these questions:
Social listening is basically a fancy way of saying that you creep around on social media and “listen to” (aka read) what people are saying about your topic, Show up in Facebook groups where people in your target audience are spending time and read what is already being said about your topic. Then borrow those observations to help you build your learner analysis. Of course, if your business is a little bigger, these tasks could easily be delegated to some of your employees. Slowly, you’ll start to gather information about your learners. Pull all those details together, and voila! You have a learner analysis right there ready for you to put to work. Final Thoughts
Let’s circle back to that scenario from the beginning of this post. The one where you made a beautiful course that no one wanted. Don’t let that scenario become your reality. Start your course creation off on the right foot by starting with a learner analysis. |
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