Help Your Learners "Get It"

Week Six: The Handbook for Course Creators

Maybe you've heard this quote: "It's not about information, it's about transformation." Ok, great. But how do you design your course so that your learners experience transformation?

Welcome back to Week Six of this 13 week series where each week I distill down some key strategies and concepts you need to know to design courses that WORK.

#6 How do you help them understand?

Last week, we looked at how you get your learners' attention. This week, we'll dive deeper into how you can help them understand what you're teaching them.

Here is a simple 3 step process to help your learners "get it".

1) Introduce a concept or scenario...i.e. teach them something

2) Challenge them to apply what you just told them...i.e. make them do something

3) Invite learners to reflect on what they just did...i.e. make it mean something

So how do you do this?

Here are some tips for each stage of the learning process.

1) Teach Them Something

- Demonstrate a process with a screenshare tutorial

- Role play a conversation

- Walk them through steps with an infographic or powerpoint slide

- Reinforce what you're saying by using relevant visuals

2) Make Them Do Something

- Have them review an example or template and analyze it

- Ask them to teach it back to you

- Tell them a scenario and have them choose what to do next

- Investigate and report back (e.g. find three good examples or a bad example)

- Rank order something from best to worst

3) Make It Mean Something

- Ask them to journal about what they noticed in that activity

- Have them share their #1 takeaway

- Quiz them to make sure they remember key points

- Have them tell you why you had them do this

- Ask them what this might mean for them in the future

*Credit to Julie Dirksen, Design for How People Learn

Happy Course Creating!

Have a spectacular week folks!

Jess Paré

Founder & Chief Learning Alchemist

About The Lab!

Thanks for joining me here in the "lab" as we explore what it takes to transform your wisdom and knowledge into programs, courses, and products you can share with your clients in physical reality. Just as the alchemists of old experimented with combining different elements to see what the outcome would be, I see myself as a bit of a mad scientist (with better hair!). By pouring the content swirling in your head into the beaker of my design process, we alchemize your content into something magical that you can share with your audience.