At the moment, I’m busy creating courses. My day job as a learning designer keeps me in the creation zone and I really enjoy the creativity it brings.
When you create a course, you have to think about the objectives as well as the best way to deliver the information. Learning delivery is constantly evolving. Technology is creating an appetite for unique ways to learn. It’s thrilling…and a little scary. I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever keep up …or will AI will take over my job?
That said, the best part of my career is that I have to evolve along with the industry. I need to look at innovative ways to get my messages across. I need to continue my own learning journey, which I love. I think if I play my cards right, and keep learning, I may just be at the forefront of innovation and other future of work skills.
I’ve discovered something interesting on my writing journey…
While I create courses, and more recently wrote a book, I realised that both are at the core, storytelling. I approached both with the same objectives. To tell a story that shares a viewpoint and may even shift a mindset.
Just like storytelling, writing a course has the same structure:
- There’s a beginning – the WHAT and WHY. This sets the framework of the subject and why it’s important/interesting to know. In a book, you introduce characters and locations. In a course, you introduce concepts and the why.
- There’s the middle – The HOW, WHEN, WHO, ETC. This gets the reader into the details of the how and anything else you need to know. In a book, this is the main body of the story. In a course, this is all the juicy details to make the learning sticky.
- There’s the end – the CONCLUSION. Bringing everything together with key insights into a lovely conclusion. In a book, this is the finale, the moment you leave your reader satisfied (or not, depending on your story!). In a course, this is when you leave your learner with an a-ha moment, or a shifted mindset, or a hunger for more.
Whether writing a book or creating a course, it’s all about capturing attention. Who wants to go on a boring course? Who will ever finish a boring book?
Us humans have been storytelling for centuries. And, we remember stories. They make us FEEL something.
What story will you tell? What course will you create?
Love and peace
Janine
Want to buy my book Wanderlust and Misadventures? Or find out more about my learning design biz? Click on this fancy link here.
