Creating content for diverse learners is a challenge that many content developers face. Diverse learners are those who have different backgrounds, preferences, needs, and goals when it comes to learning. How can you design and format your content to meet the needs of diverse learners and help them achieve their learning outcomes? Here are some tips to consider.
Before you create any content, you need to know who your audience is and what they want to learn. You can use various methods to research your audience, such as surveys, interviews, personas, or analytics. The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your content to their interests, motivations, challenges, and expectations.
Content creators have many ways to know about their audience through research. But your next step after finding out who your audience is also proves to be a crucial aspect in reaching your readers or consumers. Once you know who your audience is, create content like you are communicating to only one person. This makes your content even more personal and relevant to your readers or viewers.
I believe in customising content for your users. One-size doesn’t fit all. If we cater to too many customer/ user personas, the content becomes too generic. To be able to understand our users, it’s useful to first ask ourselves: 1. What do we wish to create content on? 2. Is this something that our target audience will be interested in? 3. Is this new information? 4. How can we make it more relevant, more engaging for our users? Once the author/ content creator has developed clarity on the above, then the next step must be taken to understand the user needs: 1. What would interest our users the most on the topic? 2. What do the users know about it already? 3. What is the preferred style of our users to consume content?
Different learners have different preferences for how they consume and process information. Some learners may prefer text, while others may prefer audio, video, or images. Some learners may learn better by reading, while others may learn better by doing, watching, or listening. To accommodate diverse learning styles, you can use multiple formats to present your content, such as blog posts, podcasts, webinars, infographics, or e-books. You can also provide transcripts, captions, or summaries for your audio and video content to make it more accessible.
Your content should be organized in a clear and logical way that helps your learners navigate and understand it. You can use various techniques to structure your content, such as headings, subheadings, lists, tables, charts, or diagrams. You can also use white space, colors, fonts, and icons to create visual contrast and hierarchy. You should also provide an overview, a summary, and a call to action for each piece of content to help your learners know what to expect, what to remember, and what to do next.
How you present your content also matters. People will skip your content if the fonts or colors used are not exactly easy on the eyes. It's good to have great content, but seeing it in the perspective of design also helps in communicating to your audience better. You also need to have an eye for design or design feedback to achieve this.
Your content should not only inform your learners, but also engage them and motivate them to learn more. You can use various strategies to make your content more engaging, such as storytelling, humor, examples, scenarios, quizzes, polls, or feedback. You can also use interactive elements, such as buttons, sliders, drag and drop, or gamification to make your content more fun and interactive. You should also encourage your learners to participate, collaborate, and share their opinions and experiences with you and other learners.
Your content should not be static, but dynamic and adaptable to the changing needs and preferences of your learners. You can use various tools and methods to adapt your content, such as personalization, segmentation, branching, or adaptive learning. You can also use data and analytics to monitor and measure the performance and satisfaction of your learners and make adjustments accordingly. You should also solicit feedback from your learners and update your content regularly to keep it relevant and accurate.
The final step in creating content for diverse learners is to test your content and see how it works for your audience. You can use various methods to test your content, such as usability testing, A/B testing, or beta testing. You can also use metrics and indicators, such as completion rates, retention rates, engagement rates, or satisfaction rates to evaluate your content. You should also collect and analyze feedback from your learners and identify areas for improvement or enhancement.
There are instances where rigid content cannot be created because the learners are too diverse. In such cases, it’s easier to draw a learning agreement rather than a syllabus. 1)Identify the learner - name, specialisation, age, and background, and many other demographic parameters that are likely to influence content 2) identify learning goals 3) identify learning resources such as prescribed text books, online articles, references available at the local library, to meet these goals 4) Develop plan and period of learning 5) Build mutually agreed upon content to meet goals 6) Engage with students to share her learning 7) Assess and document learning based on learner’s agreement