Teach the Material so It Transforms the Material

A while back I was working with a subject matter expert crafting a course on--well, it doesn't matter what it was on. He knew his subject inside out. Ask him any question about his topic, and he could talk for hours about any aspect.

So what was the problem?

The problem was that he just strung together facts and details without insights. It was a snore-fest.

He didn’t engage us; he reported to us. We may as well have watched an encyclopedia read itself.

He’s hardly the first person I’ve worked with who struggled to make the transition from subject expertise to teaching the material in a way that ensured we really, truly got it. And cared that we got it.

Indeed, one of the biggest challenges online course creators face is TEACHING the material so that it TRANSFORMS the way students comprehend it. If not resolved, this challenge leads to courses that are as fun for the learner as swimming through sand. Students not only lose interest—they also don’t gain the knowledge they were seeking.

This is a potential problem in EVERY subject area, from cooking to dog training to neuroscience.

Once you’ve got your modules and lesson topics nailed, you have to flesh out the content in a way that surpasses the knowledge your student would gain from reading a book.

I’ve written and coached a lot on the transition from outline to script, and down the line I’ll be sharing some of those tips. But the other day I asked myself—

“Self, what ONE thing could Subject Matter Experts do to make it easier to write their content so it taught really, really well?”

And darned if my self didn’t answer with an idea so good that I’m using it myself. The million-dollar secret is to ask this question of EVERY SINGLE TOPIC:

How do I make this clear?

That’s it. How do I make this clear?

This one question will keep you focused on helping someone UNDERSTAND the material, rather than simply being exposed to it, memorizing it, or ingesting it. This one question will force you to take every fact and push it into a story, comparison, contextualization, analogy, example…

It will force you to do whatever it takes to MAKE IT CLEAR.

That, my friends, is one powerful question.

Make asking and answering it part of your process, and the learner’s experience and engagement will both immediately improve. You really owe it to yourself as a teacher and to your students, whatever their ages, to run everything you teach through this simple filter.

~Marcy McDonald coaches online course creators to be outstanding teachers in the medium of video. She has worked with 100s of subject matter experts and helped craft more than a dozen $1,000,000 courses. Get a FREE half-hour coaching session when you click here to sign up for weekly tips on crafting great online courses.