Create Professional Development Courses That People Actually Want

Like you, I have spent thousands on beautifully packaged professional development courses because they promised me fantastic results. These learning tools provided some meaningful, transformative content, but not all courses provided optimal training development which explains why I didn’t get past the first two modules! The goal of optimizing the promised results was not realized, thus reinforcing the narrative: why professional development is important. 

Creating online learning content means building something that people actually want — something that provides that “right fit”. Don’t be offended or intimidated if you cannot do this by yourself. Experts, like our strategists at Boost Learning Development, can help with course audits and accelerated strategy discussions. 

If you’re ready to tackle online course creation, and leverage learning online to create self-directed, well-organized content that is relevant and applicable to your audience right now then here are seven adult learning strategies for conveying content in a more engaging and learnable way:

Pre-qualify learners diligently for optimal professional development courses

Categorize students into the right stage of learning. Create assessments to test learner knowledge, skill, and confidence before they buy your course. It may impact sales initially, but it builds integrity. 

Stick to focused objectives for adult learning classes

Avoid “knowledge dumping” onto the learner. Irrelevant information can be boring and non-motivating. Less is more, so laser-focus your objectives to the desired performance outcomes of the course, and make these objectives very clear to students. Learners will appreciate knowing how this knowledge and these skills will be useful to them.

Incorporate innovative instructional design around virtual learning tools

The sky is the limit when creating unique and effective virtual experiences. Explore design outside the industry through collaboration with online content designers, to see what’s possible in your classes.

Categorize content in the lessons of your professional development courses 

The digital realm affords the flexibility to sort information for easy reference. This means categorizing based on themes, topics, skills, and other potentially useful classifications, for your learner.

Deliver content organized by task. It’s easier for learners to place information into a useful, real-world context.

Activities should make content meaningful right now 

This is especially important for adult learners, who want to know why and how lessons can impact their employment, their development, and their life goals. They want the content to address professional needs.

Appeal to a variety of learning styles 

Understanding learning styles makes curriculum creation, development, and execution more advantageous. Online learning should not compromise innovative pedagogical methods. Embrace interactivity by giving the learner something to do, something that keeps them engaged and interacting with your course: embrace kinesthetic learning through a variety of tools.

Use interactivity to improve focus 

Include discussions, activities, and something to make the learner accountable. Interactivity can look like creative storytelling, scenarios, gamification, and other multi-media presentations.

Using these strategies consistently in your adult learning online course will make it desirable. Constructing learning tools and strategies is entirely attainable and worthwhile. Your learners will benefit, and you will benefit — in fact, you may even find yourself wondering why you hadn’t tried online courses or coaching programs sooner!