Have you ever taken an online course or program and felt like you were lost at sea?
That there was just a barrage of information and you didn’t know what was coming next or exactly where you were going? Then, you’re probably a bit like me and many other people. We like to have a clear road map. We like to know both the destination and the major milestones along the way.
In this article, I’m going to share with you why I think it’s important to have a map for your course and how to make one.
WHY IS HAVING A MAP IMPORTANT?
Outlining for your students how you’re going to take them from A to B (at least in broad brush strokes) helps them to contextualise their learnings. They’re able to slot in each lesson within a bigger framework and see how it all fits together. That’s incredibly powerful and will help them to implement what you’re teaching them.
There is no doubt that you are an expert in what you do. You have a wealth of information to share with your students. However, that wealth of information is bound up in years and years of experience, and that makes it like a messy office – you might know where everything is because you’re so familiar with it, but a new person stepping in will probably look at the mess and feel overwhelmed.
This is what can happen to your students without a simple system to guide and direct them through your intellectual property.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR MAP - Make it VISUAL AND SIMPLE
I find one of the biggest reasons people who create courses and programs don’t give their students a road map is because they have skipped a super important step in the course creation process. And that step is systemising their intellectual property.
So, a road map is just systemising your intellectual property to show your students how you’re going to take them from where they are now, to the end result. Because courses and programs are incredibly popular these days, there can be a push to just get it created. And while I’m all for ‘done is better than perfect’, I also believe that taking time to systemise your intellectual property pays immense dividends in the long run.
WHAT COULD SYSTEMISING YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LOOK LIKE?
It could look like my 7 Stages of Course Creation.
Or, it could look like the Smart Chicks Value Model.
Having a visual representation of your intellectual property that you can show your students gives them a clear visual road map of where they’re starting and where they’re going to end up. They can see at a glance what’s going to be covered. This gives them power. This gives them certainty about the content.
They can more easily digest and file the information and activities that you’re giving them into a framework and put them into action.
DOES YOUR COURSE OR PROGRAM HAVE VISUAL MODELS?
If you’re thinking about creating a course or you already have one, and you haven’t got a simple visual representation of your intellectual property that you show to your students as a kind of road map, I hope I’ve shown you why it’s important.
Creating your intellectual property is Stage 4 in the 7 Stages of Course Creation. It comes after figuring out the why, who and what. It comes after nailing your branding. It comes after mapping out the funnel. But it should ideally come before you build your course.
What do you think about visual models as road maps for courses? Do you have your visual models already sorted?