If you are new to instructional design, planning your online content can be an overwhelming task.
There is a lot to think about: Where to start? What elements include? How to make sure it is engaging? How to manage the project?

Over the years, I used various online course planning and project management and design tools. Some of them were sophisticated and expensive, and some completely free, but also effective.

One of the free tools I use to visualise course creation workflow is Trello.

I have a few templates of my own that I use at different stages of the training planning and development and this particular template is really helpful to visualise the course workflow. It is easy to use and intuitive – if you hate massive spreadsheets and long documents with tones of bullet points, you should definitely try to use it.

I was looking for a solution to replicate online the flow and the format of the course design sprints I run for my clients, and Trello was great with that. The cards and lists successfully replace traditional post-its and paper cards.

You can share the course deign template and work on it with your team. It also works in live online sprints as people contribute via ZOOM or TEAMs. If you use it, I guarantee, you will have your training roadmap quicker than when you try to agree on it via email, over the phone or using traditional note-taking.

If you are not sure about pedagogy, this course plaining template should also help to ensure that the training is engaging, diverse and adheres to main principles of adult learning.
My course design template draws on ABC curriculum development framework and theories of social and conversational learning.
Have a look how it is done. Sign up to and get this template for free! Get access to the template so you can try yourself. It is free so as long as you have an account with Trello, you will be able to copy this online course design template and use it to design your courses.