nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

How do you decide what makes it into your course?

MarinaT

Hi everyone,

When you know a subject really well, it can be tempting to include everything you know. But where do you draw the line?

When planning a course, it can help to think about who the course is for and what you want those learners to be able to do by the end. From there comes the harder part: deciding what they actually need to learn to get there.

How do you decide what makes it into your course and what gets left out?

Do you plan around your learning objectives? Start with a huge outline and cut it down? Or does your curriculum naturally take shape as you create?

We're especially curious to hear from instructors who have changed their approach over time.

Related resource: Udemy's Intended Learners guidelines cover defining your target audience, learning objectives and the expectations you're setting for learners.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

HimanshuDhar

Any student who joins a course have some objective. The course need to be designed in a manner so their objective is getting fullfilled.

But then comes the competition and as an instructor you keeps on adding topics to beat the competition.

Mike Pritula

My approach changed after I had taught about 2,000 students and checked a lot of their homework. Before planning my main HR intensive, I asked myself one question: if I wrote a book for these people, what must be in it? That gave me one central tool that runs through the whole course, and everything else had to connect to it. I still struggle with the urge to cover everything. Once I gave a very broad overview of employee evaluation methods in one session, around 200 slides, fast and with fewer examples. One learner wrote that it was amazing, another wrote that they couldn't focus and needed more detail. Now my filter is simple: if a topic doesn't end with a homework like "take this tool and apply it in your own company", it probably belongs in another course.

Baghi823

It would be impossible for me to include everything I know about making music in a single course, and it takes me at least 8 hours to create 40 minutes of content. Also, there's many levels: you cannot teach a beginner what you can teach to someone who's advanced, the former will be overwhelmed.

'' Or does your curriculum naturally take shape as you create?''

No, never. To the contrary, every minute, almost every second, is planned out in advance. I see courses with dozens of hours of stuff in it, but much of it is mere filler. That's not how I create my courses, and as a buyer I never buy such courses. Life is too short to sit around listening to someone's ramblings, personal stories etc (don't we all have them?). I have no time for that and I confidently assume my student is the same. But I have found courses on Udemy of the type I like, and to me these are a real bargain at 15 bucks or so. The value is clearly above their price.

The purpose of taking a course is to learn something useful and worthwhile, not entertainment, at least in my view. Learning is focused work, not play.

MattBarnett

A useful way to make the cut is to write the final task first, then work backwards. For an assertiveness course, that might be: respond to an unreasonable request clearly, without becoming aggressive or agreeing to something you can't deliver.

Then ask of each proposed lesson: does the learner need this to attempt that task, or does it address a likely mistake? A boundary-setting example earns its place. A long history of communication theory probably doesn't, unless the course promises that depth.

I would keep the cut material in a separate ideas document. It makes removing an interesting tangent easier when you know it hasn't been lost. Mike's point about application is a good filter; I'd add that learners also need enough explanation to understand why their attempt did or didn't work.