5 Extremely useful tips to plan your course content

If you want to provide transformational content to your audience then you need to plan your course content in a meticulous way.

Your aim as a course creator is to take your students from point A where they are facing issues to point B where they are pain-free and their problems are solved.

Creating that smooth journey is your primary job. If it’s bumpy and hectic then you have failed as a course creator.

So, let’s look at the five extremely useful tips to plan your content

Map the journey with milestones

The first step in planning your course is to Identify the problems your audience is facing, that will be your point A. 

You already know what the end result of your course is going to be, so that’s your point B.

Now, your job is to find out the major 5-6 milestones in that course.

For example, in my WordPress for Everyone course, I have 6 different milestones

1. Identify the objective of your website

2. Finalize the sitemap and mindmap of your website

3. Create rough designs of your website, finalize colours and typography

4. Install WordPress and set up themes and plugins

5. Build your website

6. Make is secure

So, these are the major 6 milestones in my course.

They start with nothing and have no idea of what they want and the outcome will be a completely secure website.

Here are some tips to create this journey

1. Each milestone should be major. Your students should feel that they have achieved something at the end of each milestone.

2. Don’t go beyond 6 milestones, otherwise, your course will become a long drawn-out course and students may leave it.

This is how you can use the journey method to plan your course.

Create a framework

Sometimes you cannot map your course in a linear journey format. In that case, you can create some sort of framework.

For example, I had a blogging course and it used the 4P framework.

Each P had some meaning and students would complete one part and then move on to the next or whatever part they want to.

Frameworks usually don’t force the journey on the students and students are free to take the path they want to.

Bushra Azhar, a prominent online marketer and course creator has created a framework called The Eight Psychological Switches.

Same way Russel Brunson has created multiple such frameworks.

1. Perfect Webinar Secrets

2. One Funnel Away Challenge

3. 5 Days Lead Challenge

And many more such frameworks.

So, when the journey is going to be a non-linear one then opt for a framework-based module.

Actions are important

Every module in your course, be it a milestone or part of your framework, should contain some actions.

A lot of courses focus so much on theory or even the DIY part is so poorly done that it’s not useful.

Just an example, I joined the Email List Building course for about two years and one of the modules was using Facebook ads to build your email list.

It talked about creating traffic ads, conversion ads and integrating Facebook Pixel with your website.

However, all that DIY part was shown through multiple screenshots and not actual step-by-step videos.

You should show students how to do something and then actually ask them to do it. You can even ask them to upload their work somewhere for their peers to review it.

Unless and until you add actions to your course, you are creating just a preaching video that has no real meaning to your students.

So, whenever you are planning your course, make sure you are adding enough actions for your students to take.

Avoid information overload

Let me give you a simple example. In my course WordPress for Everyone, I teach non-technical entrepreneurs how to build their own websites.

This course completely focuses on WordPress and gives a step-by-step guide to building your website.

Now, I wanted to I could have added information regarding how plugins work. How do themes work? How do websites work?

It’s easy for me to create this content and add it. But I didn’t.

Do you know why?

Because my audience doesn’t need to know this.

All they care about right now is to build their website, make it live and start earning money.

They don’t need deep information regarding the web and the different technological information.

If I had given this information, then either of the following things could have happened

1. Getting overwhelmed with excess information and quitting

2. Too long course with too much unnecessary information

3. Request for refund

Inherently we course creators consider that if we put more information into the course, we will make it more useful.

But that’s counterintuitive.

Remember, your students are already fed up with unnecessary information.

You don’t want to bother them more with excess information.

Worksheets, quizzes and exercises

You must ensure your students are excited to go through your course.

And one way to make sure they remain engaged is to add worksheets, quizzes and exercises.

If your course only contains videos or only one type of content then your students won’t remain as engaged as they would with different types of content.

These things also give your students a sense of accomplishment.

My take

I will suggest don’t start building your course haphazardly. Take your time to plan your course.

However, do ensure that you are not stuck in analysis paralysis.

Your course content may not be perfect to start with, but it should be at least closer to the points I have mentioned above.

So, go ahead and map out your journey, or create a groundbreaking framework and start working on your course.

When you have the end result that you want to give to your students then working on all these things will become easier.

Best of luck 🙂

If you want to know, how you can host your online course for free without paying a dime then you should read the other article I have written. Click here to read more about it.

I have also written about the myths that will hamper your course creation process. You can read about the myths by clicking here.