Ready, Set, Teach!

By Cameron Young

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So you decided that you want to monetize your knowledge but have no experience in creating a instructor course. There are many questions swirling around in your head,

• How much do I charge?

• How will I market my course?

• What makes a good course; how long is it?

Don’t worry I have you covered. I am going to breakdown course creation into a few blog posts. Today we will focus on developing a robust understanding within your mind of your course. Before you create your course, you should be able to explain to anyone and excite them about your course. Not sell the course, but guide them to the point where they want this course to be created; that they share your vision of this course.

This is your first goal in creating a course, you must be able to articulate the point of your course before you create a successful course.

So let’s start with imagining the end product which is the graduated student. What change should they expect to see upon completing your course? This can be manifested in a shift in a way of thinking, ability to do something, or the method of which they do a process. Examples would sound like from the basic objectives like, students will be able to apply the scrum method undertaking a project, to the more advanced objectives like, students will be able to analyze and form an informed opinion surrounding an international business lawsuit.

These are your learning objectives; or another word is value proposition. A good number to aim for is 3 but a range of 2 to 5 is solid.

This can be a very difficult question to answer but a critical one. It provides a firm foundation that your course can be built upon. This answer is the ‘X’ on the map. If you ever find yourself lost later on creating your course, learning objectives are what you should reference.

Now let’s bring this around and see how your learning objectives can do the majority of explaining a course idea. I’ll use the hypothetical course of Grifting 101. I determined that the learning objectives are students will be able to…

1. Identify scenarios and people who are susceptible to grifts

2. Give and receive the 10 most common grifter signals discreetly

3. Apply the Ponzi methodology when planning a scheme

I would explain grifting 101 to someone like this,

I will be teaching grifting 101 to people so they can find a mark in a grifting-friendly situation. Execute a scheme planned with the Ponzi methodology using discrete signals.

A suggested activity if you are feeling stumped in creating learning objectives is to make a list of 20 words, phrases or anything really that can be applied to a graduated student from your course. Now whittle this list down by 5 items until you have just enough to create learning objectives with. I find it useful to do this with a friend who can talk out eliminating items.

A quick recap of this week’s post,

• A good course can get anyone excited about it’s subject

• Creating learning objectives are the critical first step

• Learning objectives articulate the value of your course