Course Design Challenges

Course Design involves many challenges. Perhaps you have never designed a training course before. You may not know how to do it, not know how long it will take, and not know where to begin. You may feel anxious and only have past learning experiences to draw on as to what a training course looks and sounds like.

Often, course designers think that building a training course is simply putting some PowerPoint slides together on a certain subject and presenting the information in front of students. They may think this is because of past learning experiences. This type of design is limited as it only transfers knowledge. In business, we need to teach both knowledge and skill.

Professional course designers use design models to create training courses. It is important that designers change their mindset from an educational one (their past college learning experience) into a skill-building or training mindset (training in business).

Here are 5 ways you can change your mindset:

•  Learn and apply a best-practice instructional systems design model – There are many models out there, but they are all similar. Use a model that is easy to learn and apply. 
• Think about designing courses in terms of tasks, not topics – When meeting with subject matter experts, focus on what tasks they do versus what knowledge they have.  
•  Identify what tasks need to be taught in your course – If someone asks you to design some leadership training, then ask what tasks you want leaders to do in this company that they currently aren’t doing.
•  Use design methods that focus on the application of knowledge – Role plays, case studies, and practice exercises encourage your students to apply new knowledge not just remember it.
•  Write performance-based objectives – When you write what students will be able to do after a training class as opposed to what they will know, then your course design will be built around accomplishing your learning objectives.

Build Performance-Based Training That Makes An Impact

Changing your course design mindset from an educational one to a training one will set your students up for success in their jobs! Our L&D professionals at Intellezy can help you build and implement custom eLearning training that will lead to better adoption of your new technology!