Enhance Engagement and help sell more Courses with the Content Structure Strategy
Now is the time to begin building your plan. You've bought and set up and you have everything set, however there's one important decision to take before you can begin.
What can you do to design your course content in order to boost participation of your students and course sales?
Like all the top Learning Management Systems, has an organized structure for the content. Instead of being in a monotonous classroom environment in which you have to go between lessons, it's possible to divide the content into lessons, sections as well as topic areas to help you learn.
The content's structure is an important factor that determines the efficacy and the quality of your courses. It's worth doing your best to do it.
This article will discuss the nature of the hierarchy of content as well as the psychological aspects that affect the learners' participation in sales, as well as the best way to determine the appropriate structure to the course material.
We'll begin by discussing the order of content.
Content Hierarchy
In the past, we have discussed how to segment the information into sections, lessons, topics, and even quizzes. This allows you to break the content you create into topics and smaller pieces that are easier to manage. Below, you'll find an image of each section.
Let's look at each of the sections in more detail.
Lessons
Lessons comprise the most level of information. In the event that students are enrolled in a class, the initial action is starting the first lesson. Students will continue to go through each following lesson until the class is completed.
If you've got a straightforward program, it's possible to have lessons.
Sections
Sections can be described as groups of lessons. In simple terms, the introduction of a section makes it possible to split sections visually by putting an intro leading. It has benefits that impact both sales as well as involvement as we go down.
Discussions
Topics are the kids of the lessons. They work in the same way as lessons , with respect to abilities, but can only be used after navigating into the lessons of the teacher. They can also be split into long lessons in manageable multiple-step chunks. This will increase engagement.
Quizzes
Questions can be placed on different levels in the hierarchy of content. As an example, they might be on the highest of the hierarchy alongside lessons, or as a student of a lesson (similar to the subjects) or be a student of a particular topic.
It is important to remember that the sole thing you should be thinking about are quizzes that at the lesson level will only be offered in the course's final lesson. So, if you'd like an exam to be held in the course of a lesson or immediately following it, the test must be a test for kids.
Assignments
Assignments are situations where users must either submit a file or respond to an open-ended question to proceed. This file may be approved automatically or manually accepted. Subjects and lessons could include assignments. The segments can't, however since they don't have an individual page. Instead, they're a way to break up lessons with the aid of a graphic.
When you've got a clear comprehension of the structure of your content we can discuss the psychological factors influencing how best to arrange your content according to the hierarchy.
Design Psychology
The perfect order of content for your course is affected by psychology. When they see the outline of your course, potential students and learners form an assumption and make judgments about the worth and the complexity of your course.
The likelihood of buying is lower in the event that the course's format fails to offer a straightforward assessment of the worth of the class. Also, students are unlikely to purchase if the structure creates a feeling of being unclear or complicated.
From the standpoint from a seasoned learner course's design directly affects how enjoyable the course is and can be the difference between a learning experience that is completed or abandoned.
Three basic psychological concepts in play:
- Chunking
- Progressive Disclosure
- Gamification
Chunking
It is easier to comprehend and comprehend large quantities of information when they're grouped into the same themes. In this case, for instance for a moment, if I have you recall the following list, you'd probably be struggling:
- Carrots
- Hamburger
- Oranges
- Brocolli
- Watermelon
- Celery
- Strawberries
- Pork chops
- Bacon
However, if I break the entire group down into smaller pieces, it's much easier to manage.
Vegetables
- Carrots
- Brocolli
- Celery
Proteins
- Hamburger
- Pork chops
- Bacon
Fruits
- Oranges
- Watermelon
- Strawberries
Sections and topics let the grouping of content in categories. Similar to the grouping above helps reduce the burden on your brain for students to comprehend the subjects and concepts taught in the class. This course is much more manageable for the students who are already in it, and helps potential buyers to understand the worth of the program.
Take a look at the following two examples. Instructions with or without sections:
and
Which is easier to process and comprehend? The second example.
An equally significant and related psychological concept is "Progressive Disclosure." We'll get to it.
Progressive Disclosure
Progressive disclosure is an idea that helps comprehend data after being exposed to top-level information and then you can choose to look at more detail if you wish.
A good example is your blog archives on your site. It is not common to showcase a whole article on a single page. Instead, you display relevant information such as the title and a brief description. It is also possible to add a link that will show the full blog post.
Summaries, instead of an entire post can help you to find all the subjects that are discussed on the blog. You can determine which of them to read about and explore more.
You can use progressive disclosure to students via questions on the topic or for children. The lessons become more advanced and students are able to take the course further to explore the deeper ideas.
This example will be expanded from the one we discussed to include:
Similar to the concept of chunking, this makes it easier for potential buyers to grasp the basic concepts that are taught in your instructor and improve the chances of buying. In addition, for students who are already in the program it's more manageable because there aren't nearly too many tasks to be focused on at any one time.
Gamification
You can apply two of the principles of gaming to design your course's structure "Investment Loops" and "Appropriate Achievements."
The process of progressing through a class (like completing a section or lesson, topic or even a quiz) can trigger reward centers. You're moving towards a goal, which is great feeling. If you're able to bring this happiness which inspires students, the better off they'll be.
The process of activating our reward centers is an art of equilibrium. In this case, the Appropriate Achievements theory that states that when it comes to creating rewards, the following phase must be difficult enough to be difficult, however not too difficult that the feeling of being unattainable.
When it comes to implementation, each stage of the course is required to be complicated and long enough to challenge the learner yet short enough to be able to complete immediately. So, instead of having an extensive lesson that covers three to five complex ideas, you have a single course that covers 3 to 5 sections.
There are some tasks that be completed in just 3 or 5 minutes instead of tasks that take between 15 - 20 minutes. That means learners will be able to tackle the steps swiftly that feel satisfying instead of. needing to dedicate more time or energy to finish the next step.
Additionally, it triggers it to trigger an "Investment Loop" that occurs when you are satisfied having completed the task but you still require you to finish more. In the end, students are more likely to complete 3 minutes tasks more quickly than a fifteen minute step.
Pro tip! Indicating visually how long a step can take is an effective method to boost the engagement of the students. Visual Customizer is able to do this in a matter of just a few minutes!
Once you've understood the reasoning behind dividing your course content into parts, lessons, topics and exams We'll discuss ways to choose the ideal format for your course's content.
Create your Content Outline
Prior to filling in any of your materials, I advise you to create a "content outline" comprised of bulleted lists that outline the lesson, sections, subjects, quizzes, as well as the topics.
Themes that are broad
First, make a list of the main subjects or topics that which the class will be teaching learners. If you have more than 10, I'd suggest looking at if these could be combined into the same general topic.
Secondary and Sub Concepts
Then, within each of the three broad themes , create a list of the suggestions of three to seven within those subjects.
Then, evaluate the idea that you are evaluating and figure out how time it will take to convey the idea clearly to someone who knew nothing about the subject. If it's more than 5 - 7 minutes, you'll need to add another layer of hierarchy. Divide your 3-7 concepts into 3 - 7 sub-sections.
If you have more than seven sub-sub-sections or you find that it takes more than five minutes describe, you may want divide this class into a number of distinct classes.
Sections or topics
You now have two and three layers in the structure of your content. There are sections, lessons or subjects if you've got three layers.
There must be topics or sections within your hierarchy, even if you have two.
I'd look at it like that: Your class is akin to the text's table of Contents.
Table of Contents is an important aspect in deciding to buy a book. In the same way, users will review your lessons list to decide which books they'd like to purchase. Thus, it's beneficial from having more classes available, so to keep the class from being overloaded. As an example 15 lessons split into three parts will more effectively "sell" the course rather instead of three classes with five subjects each (because there's more data to hide.)
Now you have a comprehensive plan to fill and segment your content !
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