As educators, we are here to help people learn and grow. As entrepreneurs, we are here to provide products and services that solve problems and meet needs.
In a recent blog post, I shared a parable about long forks, in which people feeding each other across the table provided a metaphor for creating a heavenly experience.
It feels profoundly good not only to get one's own needs met, but also to help others meet theirs.
Let's take that metaphor a step further now and consider the specific benefit your course will provide to those you are here to serve.
Answering this question gives you the key to designing your course in the most effective way.
The transformation your course provides is called the course learning goal,
and it determines the best way to structure your course.
How do you know the best way to structure your course, based on its learning goal?
Educational researcher and theorist Robert M. Gagné discovered that people best learn different types of material in different ways.
He divided learning up into five major areas, which he called "The Five Domains of Learning". His research showed that different approaches work best to achieve effective learning in each of these five domains.
If you're interested in exploring this topic more deeply, you can learn more about Gagné 's five domains of learning in my book and course.
Understanding the specific transformation your course will provide, the difference it will make in people's lives, is the KEY to designing the entire course.
Once you understand the type of learning needed to achieve your course learning goal, everything else falls into place.
Many experts set out to create an online course without ever thinking about the transformation they want their course to deliver.
They think of their course from their OWN perspective: as a way to share their expertise, to convey what they know.
That's a reasonable and important starting place for thinking about creating an online course.
But in order to design a powerfully effective course, it's essential to go farther: to see the course from the LEARNER's perspective.
How will sharing your expertise, and teaching what you know, make others' lives better?
How will your course help others?
Will it promote:
Survival
Connection
Fulfillment
At the Learn and Get Smarter community meeting on Saturday, July 4th, 2020, we will continue our exploration of systems thinking, guided by several community members, -- including Rob Ruder, Adjunct Faculty Member in Gonzaga University’s School of Business Administration -- who are experts in the subject (and who are graciously making all of our lives better by helping us learn how to think about complex issues in nuanced and flexible ways).
We'll be starting to explore INFORMATION SYSTEMS as they relate to both systems theory and online course creation.
Come participate in the discussion as we explore how we can help ourselves and each other learn and get smarter online, in service-oriented, meaningful ways.
Come to the community meeting
Saturday, July 4th, 2020
9 AM Pacific/ 12 Noon Eastern
Click on the green button to register for the meeting.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
