#4 - The Age Old Question
Hi Reader
Welcome back to The Learning Stack. This week I will get you thinking about objectives - I know some of my readers hate writing course objectives with a passion, but they are a hugely important part of your journey as a course creator.
As ever, if you want to take a look at my previous newsletters, you can find them HERE
What Comes First: Course Objectives or the Course Outline?
Last week we talked about how you find your niche and researching effectively. Once you have a niche sorted and a topic in mind, you will need to start thinking about the course itself. There are two areas to focus on - Objectives and Outline....
The Chicken and Egg Dilemma
Just as with the chicken and the egg, there’s no clear-cut answer to which of these to start with. Do you set the objectives first and let them guide your content? Or do you flesh out a detailed outline and then back-track to determine your objectives? Each approach has its pros and cons, and today I am breaking them down to help you decide which is right for you.
Why Objectives Matter
Course objectives are your North Star. They guide everything: the content you create, the delivery style, and even how you’ll measure success. If you start here, you’ve got a robust framework to support all the following steps.
The Flexibility of an Outline
However, don’t underestimate the power of an outline. It gives you the liberty to play around with your content, to fit the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that makes sense. An outline helps you visualise the student journey from start to finish.
My Preference
Here’s a twist. I actually find it helpful to develop my learning objectives and course outline in parallel. This approach ensures that both elements inform each other. I can change my outline to meet my objectives, then tweak the objectives as I add or take away from my outline. This can result in a more cohesive course for your learners.
Consider Your Audiences Input
Your target audience can also make a difference to how where you might focus first.
Beginners Need Direction: When your audience is mostly made up of beginners, they probably don't know what they don't know. They're looking for guidance and structure. Clear objectives from the outset provide this direction. Objectives like "By the end of this course, you will be able to create a basic website" give novices a defined learning pathway. They can immediately understand what they will gain from the course, which can be particularly motivating and provide a clear framework for them to operate within.
Experts Seek Depth: On the flip side, if your audience is more advanced or seasoned professionals, they usually have a good idea of what they're interested in and what they want to get out of a course. For them, a detailed outline provides a nuanced look at the material covered. This can help them judge whether the course will be worth their time and whether it covers areas they are not yet proficient in.
Practical Tips
- Use audience personas to guide your decision
- Consider conducting a pilot session to get real-time feedback
- Revisit and revise. Both objectives and outlines should be fluid.
The Iterative Process
Remember, course creation is not a one-and-done deal. It’s an iterative process that involves constant refinement based on feedback and performance metrics.
Wrapping Up
So, whether you’re Team Objectives or Team Outline, the key is to keep your student’s journey in mind. The route you choose may vary, but the destination—quality education—remains the same.
Next week I will hone in on Objectives. I will help you understand how you can create highly effective objectives for your learners.
Something I Learned This Week:
I am on a huge learning curve right now as I look at ways to grow an audience in 3 ways all at the same time. This newsletter is relatively simple to write once I have a plan, but growing the subscribers will take a long time as it relies on me making people aware I exist. I am spending time talking to course creators and learning experts on X/Twitter, and writing articles or adding to collaborative articles on LinkedIn. There is no magic spell that can do this for me so it will be slow and steady. I am almost at 30 subscribers and my next target will be 50, then 100, then 200.
The biggest time saver for me is an application called Typefully which I am using for writing and scheduling both X and LinkedIn posts. This means I can now create a load of content in advance and have it set up to auto post on a regular schedule.
That's it for this week. I would love it if you reply to this email and tell me what your thoughts are on this and previous newsletters. Every edition is another step in my learning and any feedback you have can only help me improve.
Thanks for reading!
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