As a content creator in the education niche, you want to design your content in a way that engages your audience, helps them learn effectively, and builds your authority and credibility. But how do you achieve that? In this article, we'll share some of the best practices for content design that can help you create educational content that works.
The first step in designing effective educational content is to know your audience. Who are they? What are their goals, challenges, and preferences? How do they learn best? What are their existing knowledge and skills? By answering these questions, you can tailor your content to their needs, interests, and learning styles. You can also use tools like surveys, interviews, or analytics to gather feedback and data from your audience.
A massive change to the quality of my content happened when I started asking myself a simple question - would I watch it? Like, really actually sit down and enjoy this? Look at your content objectively as best you can, and you'll start to make little changes here and there to appeal to a MUCH more diverse audience.
The second step in designing effective educational content is to define your objectives. What do you want your audience to learn, do, or achieve after consuming your content? How will you measure their progress and success? By setting clear and specific learning objectives, you can focus your content on the most relevant and valuable information, skills, or actions. You can also use frameworks like SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) or Bloom's taxonomy (a classification of learning levels) to help you craft your objectives.
In addition to getting clear on what you want your audience to learn, get clear on WHY you want them to learn it. Make sure that your objectives are relevant, engaging, and useful.
The third step in designing effective educational content is to choose your format. What type of content will you use to deliver your message and meet your objectives? Will it be text, audio, video, images, infographics, quizzes, or something else? How will you structure and organize your content? How will you balance the use of words, visuals, and sounds? By choosing the right format for your content, you can enhance its appeal, clarity, and effectiveness. You can also use principles like multimedia learning (using multiple modes of communication) or universal design for learning (providing multiple ways of engagement, representation, and action) to guide your format decisions.
The more interactive the content, the better your audience will engage and learn from it. Try gamifying some of the learning, for example by showing a skit and then having your audience choose from a few options to see the story play out in different ways. Or create a list of steps in a process and let your learners put them in order.
The fourth step in designing effective educational content is to apply instructional design. How will you design your content to facilitate learning and retention? How will you motivate, guide, and support your audience throughout their learning journey? How will you reinforce and assess their learning outcomes? By applying instructional design, you can create content that follows a logical and coherent sequence, provides clear and consistent instructions, offers feedback and reinforcement, and incorporates interactivity and practice. You can also use models like ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) or Gagne's nine events of instruction (a framework for designing effective learning events) to help you structure your content.
Get into it straight away. Avoid long intro screens with a company logo that everyone's already seen 50 times that day alone. Instead, treat your educational content intro like a trailer - what are we covering, what is the point? Leave your audience with a clear objective before the first lesson begins.
The fifth step in designing effective educational content is to test and improve. How will you evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your content? How will you collect and analyze feedback from your audience and stakeholders? How will you identify and address any gaps, errors, or issues in your content? By testing and improving your content, you can ensure that it meets your objectives, satisfies your audience, and achieves your desired results. You can also use methods like usability testing, peer review, or A/B testing to help you test and improve your content.
The sixth and final step in designing effective educational content is to keep learning. How will you stay updated and informed on the latest trends, research, and best practices in content design and education? How will you continue to develop your skills and knowledge as a content creator and educator? How will you adapt and innovate your content to meet the changing needs and expectations of your audience and the market? By keeping learning, you can maintain your edge and relevance as a content creator and educator, and create content that stands out and makes an impact.