Notes about Online Education Design
Here are a few notes that I jotted down the other day to outline some important opening questions for beginning the process of educational design. This is informal, but I wanted to share with anyone who's thinking about creating a process, program, or online course or workshop. I think that it could do more good in blog form than it could in my notes app, so here you are.
And if you have any questions or need some help with the implementation of your online course architecture, feel free to reach out. I'd love to talk with you to see how we could work together.
Identify the gap. Where are they now? Where do they want to go?
First things first. Look clearly at the gap between where your client is and where they desire to be. This is the terrain through which you will guide them. What does their experience look like? Why do they want to get to the other side of this challenge? What do they believe will be better for them if they achieve this goal? This is the foundation of all the work that you will be doing both in preparation and in leading them on the journey. Spend time here truly empathizing with their situations and the problem as they see it.
Why haven’t they been able to reach this ideal state yet? What have they tried already? What’s stopping them? Environment, mindset, lack of awareness around key issues?
This is possibly the most important key to being able to help your ideal clients. Why don't they already have what they want? It can be tempting to look at them from your perspective of what YOU know is the issue... you have a very different vantage point than they do. You need to understand what THEY think is the reason why they don't have the thing they want. They may have a whole list of things that they see as the problem... that may or may not be true. In order to help them, you have to understand their current mindset and be able to help them see a way beyond the boulders they see in their way. If you don't address this piece, you may not get them to start in the first place.
Identify who’s most likely to want this transformation and who doesn’t. It’s not about superficial demographic information: (females in the Midwest, ages 25-40) it’s about the struggles they’re facing and the mindset they need to make a transition. This is called psychographics. Its the commonalities of thinking, belief, and mindset (things unseen) that unite people of all kinds of demographics (things that are clear to the eye).
What’s the journey from here to there?
The more specific and measurable the better. How can you break this journey into measurable steps? Phases? Modules? Weeks? What are the logical building blocks of change? This will help you to categorize your information and to help them to understand the process as a whole.
What are the dips, pitfalls, and struggles that people on this journey are likely to face?
Normalizing the challenges they are likely to face, based on your past experience leading other clients through this process is a way to help your client to not get stuck there. Knowing that a specific challenge is common and normal can help them to see it as temporary and solvable. This can help them move through it with more ease and less self judgement. It also helps to position you as the expert in their mind when you predict a challenge that they face. All of this combines to help them move through the challenge to the other side where they are more likely to see success!
What are the ways they’ll know they are making progress in the direction they want to go? Identify mindsets and milestones.
In the same way that you can help clients by identifying challenges, when you make milestones explicit, it truly helps people to be able to identify when they are on the right path. Humans are wired for progress. They are in the daily details of their full lives and in the middle of their challenge. It may seem obvious to you that they are making progress, but they haven't been this way on the path before. Let them know when they're winning.
What’s the long way there? What shortcuts do you know that will make the journey shorter and easier?
This is a different way of looking at the transformation that you are leading them through. Can you shorten the gap between where they are and where they desire to be with a quick win? The distance between when they start and when they see any sort of win/ success determines their momentum. If it's a long time before they see a win, their momentum is low and their enthusiasm can wane. Addressing their momentum right out of the gate can be the difference between a happy customer who's successful in your process and one whose energy flags and they lose focus resulting in things like; not completing the program, not seeing the success they could have, or even asking for a refund.
What’s your process/ method? Write it out linearly. Now, is there anything in there that can be cut out or shortened and still have them reach the results they desire? Do they need to make small actions over time to see progress? Or can this actually be done in one focused afternoon?
Transformation doesn’t always require them to understand every aspect of the problem or path, you don’t have to know how a car works in order to drive one. What can you edit out? Does the process get them results without step #3? Then remove #3. Time is a non-renewable resource. Getting them to their destination in the shortest amount of time you possibly can is one way to add value. A mistake I commonly see is that people want to demonstrate their expertise by putting in hours and hours of unnecessary information. A direct short journey over the mountain is useful for many people. Get them over the mountain before nightfall.
How will people take in this information? Would it be useful for them to listen to it all the way through like a podcast before they take action? In what mediums do you feel most comfortable?
Media is an ecosystem. You can enter it in many different ways. Starting with video and separating out the audio and transcript is possibly the most direct way to get all the assets that you need to provide thorough coverage of the information for all learning types; written, auditory, and/or visual. But this isn't the only way to approach it.
Remember that done is better than perfect. And the best way to get to done is to take your personal abilities and preferences into account when making a plan for execution.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the considerations of creating your online course, but going through this list will give you a stronger start than spinning in doubt and questions.
Let me know if this serves you!
Laura