Bundle, Pare and Deliver: Tips for Honing Your Course Content

Arggh!!  Content, content, content and more content.

Your ideas have the potential to produce a LIBRARY of content but how can you pare it down to effectively share it with your readers or students?

Follow these content bundle & paring steps:

1. Write down key (burning) points for one TOPIC within your subject area (think in terms of one lesson).
2. Dump all your CONTENT from your brain into each key point (i.e. brainstorm and write like a wild person). Save this raw content.
3. Create a TABLE that has key points down the side and intro, middle and end section along the top (see example below). Use any program for this.
4. Copy and paste your wildly written content into the relevant table CELL.
5. Review each key point and divided content, and determine what needs to be TWEAKED, reduced or moved to another/new topic so that it is clear, complete and a small chunk of info.
6. Look at all your points and determine if some should be added to ANOTHER lesson or scraped all together as your goal is to keep your topic focused with only essential key points. Too many points overwhelms learners.

CONTENT TABLE EXAMPLE

Here is an example of key points for a topic on WORKING with MASSAGE CLIENTS.

• The INTRO section should tell learners or readers what to expect in the content, provide a brief background on the one point, and then lead them to the middle section.
• The MIDDLE section is the meat. Here the main ideas, facts or steps are presented that tell about the key point. These can presented in an infographic, story, video, example and/or a written words, etc.
• The END section is a summary of what was presented and/or a call to action, such as an exercise to play with the ideas, facts or steps.

COURSE TOPIC: Warmly Working with Your Massage Client

How much content is best?

Use this as a golden rule when determining how much content to add to each key point:

Adults can only absorb 20 minutes worth of information.
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For each lesson (one key point), ensure that it doesn’t require more than 20 minutes to read, listen or do something as adult minds will ‘fill up’ and are less likely to retain info past that point.

It’s not because they aren’t intelligent but more to do with the memory capacity of our brains.

Think in terms of read, do and rest; read, do and rest; etc.

FOR INSTANCE

If you have a training video that is 60 minutes long, cut it up into 10 to 15 minute sections accompanied with a few essential tips written below the video for retention and focus.

Perhaps, add an activity that might take 5 minutes to practice or play with the main point/idea.

Your Turn!

1. Brainstorm key points for one of your fav topics.
2. Write wildly about each key point. Think: Brain dump.
3. Create a table, like the one above, and cut, paste and tweak until your content is short, sweet and focused.
4. Reconfigure your content into other appropriate formats ideal for learning or absorbing (i.e. graphics, audio, list, video, etc.).
5. Time your content so that it’s no more than 20 minutes to absorb.
6. Place your newly bundled & pared content into a lesson or article, and share!

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