By: John Williams, Implementation Services Project Manager
How Do You Build a Great Course?
For almost every course, there are hundreds of institutions and academies running very similar courses. What makes yours different? Why should the student choose you over a dozen others? In a world where options are expanding rapidly, we need to talk, move and act differently to stand out.
Simon Sinek explores this concept in his series on personal communication.
Asking the Questions
Q1: What Do You Do?
Think about your use of Brightspace to educate - just for a second - and then look below!
It's likely something on the lines of :- Using the Brightspace LMS platform, we deliver great and engaging courses to the people that need the training, to get a great NPS, a stakeholder satisfying ROI and to leave our students with sound knowledge and a good experience!
Q2: How Do You Do This?
Think about your use of Brightspace to educate - just for a second - and then look below!
It's likely something on the lines of :- Using the array and variety of tools in Brightspace, and our own extensive teaching experience and enthusiasm, we expand beyond the paradigm of traditional training to create a learning experience for our learners which makes a real difference to them and their work.
Q3: Why Do You Do This?
The first question we should ask is last we will explore, because it's the hardest question to answer. Why did your company start, and what is it's mission? What is the mission and objective of your designers and instructors, and where their passion for education comes from?
Example:-
We teach Health & Safety, because we can help make a real difference within the industry, to raise awareness and make sure people go home at the end of each day.
We teach Health & Safety to empower people, and because a safe employee puts more into their company than one watching their back - so efficient and practical safety measures create a loop of improvements.
We teach Health & Safety because we believe a practical and useful experience and understanding of safety makes a difference over dry theory and "paperwork" safety.
In short - We believe in our students, in our industry, and in our ability to make things better, every day, in every way.
Applying this to Brightspace
Landing Page:
- Use the banner image, and periodically change the images to keep interest.
- Use the MyCourses widget to facilitate the learner's Journey
- Regular announcements to keep relevant, or a feed from your social media.
- Your logo is part of "Who We Are" - make sure it's clear and sharp on tablets, desktops and phones.
- Consider including a statement on who we are, or a video.
Images
- Check your images show clearly on tablets, phones and desktops.
- Make sure your images are relevant, and try to get images that have your logo in it. You are part of the industry you are training for, and can show it!
Courses
- Use the banner image, and make it relevant.
- Consider using the welcome widget - "Who We Are" and "Why Should You Study With Us"
- Different audiences can have different reactions.
- Instructor profiles (if you don't have instructors, introduce the team!)
- Keep videos short and sweet, break them down to multiple videos if necessary.
- Engage with interactive elements - Look at Creator+ for this especially!!!!
- Formative and developmental quizzes are also interactive elements.
- We all loathe and dread "Death by Powerpoint" and "Death by Video" courses, and turn off for them.
- You do not lead with statistics. You do not inspire with facts. You inspire with the time and effort you put in to your learner, and you inspire with what you believe, and what you can be seen to stand for.
- Make sure your content refers to your organisation, your industry and the effect you and the training has on the industry. "We Believe That Together We Can Make A Difference"
- Use Announcements for relevant posts as well as course announcements.
- Describe within the course what they are doing and why they are doing it. Army training refers to a 3-step process - "This is what I will teach you, This is what I am teaching you, and This is what I Taught you.
- "A picture says a thousand words"
- "Those who do not understand clichés are destined to repeat them"
- See if you can bring the learners experience into the material.
- Ensure the Navigation bar is simple and relevant.
- Use Social Media shareable badges and awards. Great visibility and recognition give a hit of Dopamine to your learners (while encouraging Oxytocin rewards), as well as a little advertising for both the learner and your organisation.
- We are no longer in a classroom, with an A4 sheet of paper for a feedback survey at the end. Can we do a dozen smaller feedback surveys of just one or two questions?
- Make your learners feel important, and that their opinions matter.
QA
- When determining what data to collect from Brightspace, don't forget to analyse quizzes and assignments. If one question routinely does worse that the others, it may need re-writing.
- Use Images, especially that have organisational relevance. Quizzes and assessments trigger more subconscious reaction, meaning your logo and branding is absorbed more here - but keep it relevant.
Accessibility
- Look at accessibility. Check the course with at least one screen reader, on multiple devices (tablets, phones, mac, android, windows, etc.)
- Use alternative texts for images.
- The Accessibility modules within the Learning Centre of the Community give great ideas on this.
Announcements
- Keep announcements relevant.
- Keep them up-to-date. You will significantly affect your image with a latest news post 5-years out of date.
