How to Create a Clear and engaging Content Outline to your online course -
Making an online course is more of an art form than it is a science. There's not a set of rules for success, however there are some aspects that the most successful courses have in their common. One of them is a course outline.
An organized, engaging outline of content is beneficial to you and your learners when you begin to plan the new curriculum. Making an outline may aid in ensuring that your content corresponds to the objectives you set to your students.
Are you unsure of how to begin making your outline? In this blog we'll show you every step to build an effective course outline.
What is a plan of study?
An outline for your course outlines the content of your course. The outline will provide the game plan as you begin mapping out the sections, lessons, quizzes, and additional content that you want to include in your class.
It can be tempting to ignore the outline and dive right into creating the content of your course, but do not give into that desire. An outline of your course will make sure you've got a well-constructed program before you go far too involved.
A step-by-step course outline guide
Getting started is the hardest phase of starting any new project. It's good news that you don't need to fumble around with the outline of your course. Simple, easy actions will help you go from concept of course to outline within a matter of minutes.
1. Identify your learners and their needs and goals.
Get started by setting your focus and identifying your intended users, the students who will be taking your course.
A few questions worth considering:
- What are you learning from your pupils?
- What is it they are trying to achieve?
- What is it that they are struggling with?
- What will you teach them to help them achieve the goals they have set?
Asking yourself these simple questions can help you focus your mind and help you stay on the right the right track when you develop an outline tailored to the needs of your target audience.
2. Create a map to get to your desired result.
Once you've pinpointed your students and their motivations and goals, you're now able to design an outline of how they can reach their goals. It could be that they'd like to master a couple of conversational phrases in Italian at the time they finish the class Perhaps the objective is to achieve a professional certification.
Think of the roadmap as a bare-bones first draft of your plan. It is a simple map of the path from the beginning to the final destination of your route.
Related article: How to Structure an Online course
Your starting point should be a simple introduction. What ever your subject, every course should begin by introducing key concepts. Be aware that your students may not be starting with the same idea. Some students may need a quick overview before diving into course content.
Use methods of scaffolding as you identify the subsequent sections in your course roadmap. When you are completing your course, you must be conscious of your progression through the course. The sections you take should be elements that begin with a simple idea then move to more intricate ideas. Avoid introducing a complex topic or idea too early in the course to get to the most important lessons.
3. Reinforce learning.
After each step in your plan for content it is important to highlight elements that help to make learning stick for your learners.
What does this take? It could mean designating an end-of-section review of every section, with hyperlinks out to additional reading materials video, resources, or other materials. Or it could mean quizzing students after each section to assess their comprehension. It is also possible to conclude every section by asking an essay where students can put concepts to use.
4. Start putting the pieces together.
When you've designed the outline of your course then it's time to complete your course outline with detailed sections and lesson titles.
In each portion of your class, think about the followingaspects:
- What's the format? Will the section be presented in text or video, or a combination of mediums?
- What are your talking points during each lesson? What are the details you'll have to share?
- How does this section build on the preceding sections? Does it flow into the section that follows?
- How does this section relate to the learner's goals?
By now, you'll have detailed content guidelines to your course. What's left is the final step: Building the course.