First, work on your content

This is the second article in a five part series. Start here 4 Big Tips for pivoting your courses from in-person to online here.

Marketing people are fond of saying that content is king, and not without due merit. Your content is the foundation upon which the other strategies of good online experience can be built. And, this is worth highlighting – good content means different things in different contexts.

The following guidelines will help:

Don’t assume the same content will work in any format.

This means your in-class slide deck will not suffice for your virtual class. Whether you are using a webinar platform such as Zoom or WebEx to connect with your learners live, or using videos, eLearning modules and online resources to provide them an anytime anywhere learning experience, you will need to look at your content with fresh eyes.

For example, your students may be on a smartphone, a 10” tablet or a 13” laptop. They may have other windows open simultaneously. The environment they are in is not under your control either. So your content must be visually and cognitively engaging. Consider seat time carefully – how long should your online content be? On another hand, you could now afford to bring in different experiences for individual learners. So branching and adaptive learning becomes a real option.

Your content must be visually and cognitively engaging

Another thing to consider is to offer same material in various ways. Add a transcript to your video, that also has a related web page or whitepaper. Your learners can then choose to learn via whatever modality that works for them.

Contain ambition, Be practical, Curate

Word of caution. The possibilities of online learning can sometimes blind one to its limitations. One of our clients spent 7 months deliberating on the best way to speak to his listeners. In the meantime, we went live with some of his colleagues’ courses. Figuring the right technique, tool and tone is very important – but know when to stop! The slick animations you see on internet may have taken months to make! The great video was probably the eighth retake, and the awesome original content had a team of instructional designers working day and night behind it.

So be practical with the kind of resources – budget and time – you have. Curating freely available material to present an eclectic “bookshelf” to your learners may be as good a strategy as any. As you select content for your class, though, be aware of bandwidth disparity. Not everyone has an unlimited, high-speed data plan yet.

Be aware of bandwidth disparity

Consider content dissemination carefully

Learning continues even when a course or a presentation ends. How are you providing your resources to your learners? Consider creating two separate sets of materials – one for presenting, and another for distributing. The second set of materials could have “learner notes” instead of “speaker notes”, resources in hyperlinks, and even optional content for further reading. If you are providing exercises, you may include detailed instructions and criteria in materials to be disseminated.

Often, one is restricted in what can be achieved in a virtual learning environment (VLE). Time is a constraint, the diversity of your audience may be another one, and so is technology. For example, you may not be able to stream heavy digital media files. But these can easily be disseminated to your learners later.

Remove things that don’t work so well in the digital medium

There are activities and interactions we take for granted in an in-class environment that just do not work in online setups. If you have such interactions designed in your plan, you will want to revisit those. Some instructors/teachers find this the hardest part. They see the value of people coming together, doing a hands-on activity and learning form it. To let go of that is a tough thing to do. Many such experiences can now be ported online effectively through the use of breakout rooms, Virtual and augment reality additions etc.

One thing I always say to educators making the switch is to

stay true to the learning outcomes, not to the methods used to achieve those outcomes

Add things that work wonderfully in the digital medium

I may be biased, but I truly feel digital offers many new ways for us to present the content and ignite serious thinking in our learners. Explore these avenues, and don’t be afraid to try something new. Sometimes it is as simple as starting with a VLE with a shared whiteboard. Sometimes it may be a totally new way of approaching assessments. Working with an experienced partner is definitely helps, but even more useful is to keep an open mind towards experimentation.

In the next article, I will talk to the delivery of this content.

Read the first article of this series - 4 Big Tips for pivoting your courses from in-person to online here.