It is important that you organise your content in a clear and concise way that enables the student to obtain the knowledge in a scaffolded way.
Questions to assist with organising content…
What are the topics you need to deal with so that at the end of the course duration, the student will be properly trained in the course handled. However before the content is organized there are some other steps that should be accomplished. This steps will make the organization of the content flow almost naturally.
This steps will be discussed as Preliminary Steps.
The first step in these steps is Choosing a topic.Choosing a topic though has been discussed in the beginning of this article should be highlighted once again in order to bring out some points. When choosing a topic it’s important to bear in mind that a topic should be one that is highly requested for.
It should be something that a good number of people will love to study on. For instance, in this times where unrest and civil disorder seems to be the other of the day. Also where due to so many conflicts and pressure points that could without much effort be a tipping point for catastrophic occurrences, an online course which deals on conflict avoidance and resolution including handling negotiations in conflict situations will be highly accepted. As no one will want to be caught off guard if such situations should confront a person or there exist an job offer for someone with that knowledge. The same reaction will be given to a online course on Risk analysis.
The next step after choosing a topic is Creating the learning Objectives. This is like the foundation upon with everything else is built. Without successfully listing out learning objectives, there is no way a content can be created. Learning Objectives basically deals with what the student should know at the end of the online course. What the student should have answers to or have an idea of. After identifying these objectives then the content will be created from these objectives. The content is like the roadmap that will lead to the accomplishment of these learning objectives.
THE CONTENT
Anyone who wishes to create an online course must have so many information at hand. It might be in a textbook or in mind or outline in a PowerPoint presentation or contained in any other document. These information will more often than not be displaced and available in a way that needs to be arranged if learning is to be achieved. Organizing this information in a comprehensible manner is what is know as organizing content. Now when a person ponders more on these available information it might appear to be extremely large and very complicated that is where the person is required to break it down into very simple topics that can be handled one at a time.
The organizer of the online course is required to make room for change and adaptation. It is important to note that where learning is involved the roadmap to it is not always a straightforward way. A person creating an online course should be aware of this fact and should as much as he can make room for those slight changes. This changes could occur as a result of feedback from students, or subsequent inquiry into the topic could expose new topics that should be included both in the learning objectives and the content. Again different people possess different ways of learning. An organizer should take into consideration this factor and as such pay attention to the most effective way to extend the knowledge to as much people as possible. So while creating the content make it in a way that it will not be difficult to adjust to new methods or to include new topics if the need arises.
Also the organizer should take into consideration the duration of the course. If it will last for 10 days
or 10 weeks. This decision should be made taking into consideration factors that will facilitate
learning. Learning for long hours everyday might not be the best method so depending on the topic the content might be structured in a way that it will be spaced. More insight on this factor will be given when discussing the creation of the lesson structure. However, when creating a content the duration of the course should be considered.
The Structure of the Lessons
The primary objective of any online course is to result in learning. Now the basic thing to do in this step is to create a timeline for the study. The items to be handled before the other from the start to finish. It must be done in a comprehensible manner. First it has to be Chronologically arranged. One has to come before two. It will be difficult if the ideas are so mixed up in a way that both the timeline and needed points of study is completely distorted. The first issues should be highlighted and treated before the second one and the rest. The topics must be Logically connected. This implies that it should be treated like ascending a stairway. The first step should invariably lead to the second and the third and it should go on that way in a logical manner where the learner will be able to as much as he can connect the dots between topics.
Again, each topic ought to be handled exhaustively. No weak points should be left. In an online course the organizer should be able to (as much as he can) break down the required information to avoid leaving the students with more questions than answers. This topics should be treated in a way that will also sustain concentration. It is true that the student should be fully concentrated at all times but the organizer can help this concentration by presenting this topics as less ambiguous as possible. It should be simplified and the controversial part should be explained with more practical examples. This technique will sustain the attention of the student and motivate the person to follow up the course in order to discover more about the topics. Using this method, learning is achieved with ease.
Finally in creating a structure, there should a topic for each day. Which will be handled with tact taking into consideration the previously mentioned factors. The organizer should make sure not to go beyond the topic designated for each day.
