Creating a self paced course - part 2: content development and design!
How do I turn a live in person training course into a self-paced programme for solo learners?
In this series of 5 newsletters I am diving into the process I went through to create and launch a self paced course. Launch day is June 16th, and in this post I share how I went about creating and recording the content for the course.
Once I had set my sights on developing a self paced course, the first step was to think through the structure and the content. This was perhaps where my biggest learning (so far) has been. I assumed that the content would be the easy bit. After all, I have all the course materials already developed to run a signature 3 day Facilitation 101 intensive course, and have created some 1 day courses which include additional content. The 3 day course covers 9 distinct modules, and each has a combination of theory, case studies and scenarios, practical tips and activities. In my mind, the content was 90% there and I would just hop online and record some presentations and it would be done.
I was wrong!
Three major challenges
It became clear very quickly that there were some major challenges I would need to navigate if I was going to be able to translate my existing course materials into content that was suitable for a self-paced course. The three biggest ones were:
Adapting a programme based on learning through group activities to a solo learning experience
Creating new modules and content that I had wanted to develop - but hadn't run yet due to the time limits of the 3 day course.
Designing a course experience that can work for learners at different stages - from novice facilitator to someone with more confidence and experience
There have been multiple other challenges, but here I’ll focus on these biggies.
Audience adaptation: designing for solo learners
The first thing I had underestimated was just how much adaptation it would take to turn a group course into a self guided course. The activities I run when I’m delivering the course live work because people get to experience different methods as participants, and can then reflect on their experience as participants before practicing delivering them themselves. That model wouldn’t work with a fully self guided course, so I had to find new ways of landing the key learning points, and giving people as much practical experience as possible, even though they wouldn’t be doing the course with other people.
I also realised that a lot of the benefits participants get come through group Q&A, so developing the self paced course required an enormous amount of work to think through all the most common (and some of the lesser asked) questions, and document the responses I would usually give live.
Creating new modules and content
The third big challenge I faced was in creating new content. Since launching the Facilitation 101 course I have developed ideas for new modules which I hadn’t run yet, and there was an opportunity with the self guided course to turn it into the most comprehensive course yet. But that required time to create the structure and content for the new modules, which included:
Workshop design
Facilitating communities of practice
Virtual facilitation skills
All in all the adaptation of the content and the creation of new modules has taken almost 6 weeks longer that I’d expected. It meant pushing back the launch date and was a big reality check on the level of change that would be needed for this course to work.
Designing a course experience that can work for learners at different stages
The third major challenge was trying to make sure that the course could be useful for people who were at quite different stages of their learning journey. When I deliver in person training people I offer a range of courses, some aimed for people who are new to facilitation, and others for more experienced facilitators.
The platform I would be using to host my content on (Kajabi - but more on that next week!) gave me flexibility to create different bundles of content that I could use to create different learning journeys for people. I’ve used this to try and help guide participants towards course journeys that will help them, depending on their starting point, but which also give them choice over which modules they are most interested in.
The way the course is structured on the platform is one of the biggest ‘tests’ of the launch, and it is something I expect I might review and adapt once the first few people have completed the course and shared their feedback.
Changes, changes and more changes
Working through these three challenges, I made quite a few changes to the content, both in terms of the video content and the additional resources. I:
I created a lot more resources for participants to work through on their own, turning each discussion section of a live training into a takeaway resource or set of reflection questions for solo participants
I also had a huge job of translating activities which I had run with groups into meaningful content for solo learnings. For example, one of the modules I teach is about how facilitators can help groups make tricky decisions. When I run this live with a group, we use 3 different methods to try and make a decision together. This gives them the experience of being a participant making a decision, and exposing them to a range of different methods they could try using themselves. The learning relies on their active participation in a group setting, and re-designing this experience so it is equally meaningful for solo learners has been tricky! I don’t think I got it quite right the first time, but I had some excellent insights from my first round of testers and it is much stronger now. (More on that to come in the upcoming newsletter on testing and iteration!)
I also invested in some new design assets for the course. I wanted to make it more visual, and so enlisted Azi Farni - a close friend and the brains behind all of the Facilitation 101 design work to come up with some new visuals for the course, which has given everything a more polished feel and also helps balance out the video and written content with some powerful metaphors and illustrations.
Format choices
Another big change was on the format I would use to deliver the content. In the live training I rely primarily on group activity, peer learning, solo reflection, and modelling / demonstrating facilitation skills. The group and people’s experience of being in it is the main learning mechanism.
I mentioned in the last post that I haven’t yet decided whether to run any live group learning sessions as part of the self paced course (lots of trainers do, and I’m asking people who sign up to the waitlist whether that’s something they would be interested in). BUT - I’ve had to assume that won’t be happening in the way I design the course materials and content, so that the course will be a powerful learning journey for anyone who takes it, with or without live group sessions.
Re-designing for the self paced course has involved creating new tools that can help support the participant learning journey. That’s involved:
Video content
Re-designed activities that involve more solo work, and input or modelling from me through video content
Worksheets and checklists
Sample session plans
More personal anecdotes and examples from me
Overall I’ve created a lot more resources which draw directly from my own work - and I’m using a platform for the course (Kajabi) which can help me integrate lots of more interactive elements, like quizzes, which I am hoping will help the whole course feel much more interactive.
Filming: practical realities
Then it came to filming, and a new host of decisions came - from the practical to the slightly ridiculous.
Choice of platform: there are a huge number of recording platforms I could have used, but I chose Zoom Clips (part of the downloaded Zoom desktop app) because I am most familiar with it, and I’ve already paid for a subscription, but I was also considering Loom which I’ve used before and is fairly intuitive.
Other tech tests: I also spent a not insignificant amount of time testing different camera and microphone options. And despite investing in a nice Rhode clip on microphone, I didn’t end up using it as it as it was a bit fussy and obvious in the camera shot, and the sample tests I ran and shared with friends indicated the camera microphone was doing as good a job (I’m sure some audiophile is going to wince at that comment!)
Continuity checks! This is where things got faintly ridiculous. I was filming the video content over several days, but needed (and wanted) the clips to look consistent. Cue obsessive checking of the study background, moving pesky bits of paper which were out of place, or cushions which had been re-arranged. It also involved washing the same jumper and blow drying my hair several times in a row to get continuity - and now I am filming the final video clips in 27 degree heat I really am regretting my outfit choice!
Recording, and re-recording: even as someone who regularly records video content, this was a labour of love! Each clip took an average of 3 attempts to get a final version I was happy with, and there were a few loud swear words coming out of my mouth at points when I thought I had a perfect clip and then fluffed it right at the end.
(Pictured below: drying my course jumper out after a wash so I can get back to filming!)
The lessons I learnt along the way
I’ll always learn most through doing: getting going and creating a first draft of the course before sending it out to testers was the best way for me to test my thinking, and get things out of my head and onto paper.
Learning design for solo learners is a whole new field of work. I had hugely underestimated the sheer amount of translation and adaptation that I’d need to do to get the course re-designed for a self-paced audience.
Creating the content and resources for a self-paced course has taken my offering to a whole new level. I have SO much more I can now offer participants of my in person courses. Pre-recorded videos, new activities and worksheets to do in their own time. It feels like that in and of itself has been worth the investment of time and resources.
The first round was only the beginning
The first round of course development was really only the beginning. At the beginning of February I sent the course out to 5 people to test it. Integrating their feedback and creating a better, stronger version two has involved even more work! More on that in a later post.
Next week - taking on marketing and sales
How do I even price and sell an online course?
And if you want to have the full participant experience - you can sign up to the waitlist yourself and get a free module on how to facilitate groups with dominant voices.
Just take a look here: https://epv6lyb5w22.typeform.com/to/XMqA6zMK?typeform-source=docs.google.com