Welcome back to the second stage of our course creation series – course design!
In the last post, I outlined the essentials of the course planning phase, laying the foundation for your course with a clear strategy focused on your audience, topic, and delivery approach. Now that you’ve done the groundwork, it’s time to take the next step—designing your course content.
In stage two, we shift from broad planning to the actual design of your course. This is where your ideas start taking shape as you finalise course topics, define learning outcomes, and decide on the types of content that will best engage your learners. Whether you teach through videos, interactive live workshops, or self-paced modules, creating a well-structured course that delivers on the promises you made during the planning phase is crucial.
I’ll explain how to refine your course offering, create a detailed course structure, and ensure that every piece of content you produce is aligned with your learners’ needs. You will move from brainstorming to creating a roadmap and organising your ideas into a structure, ensuring your content is clear, engaging, and effective.
Ready to dive in? Let’s move from planning to action and design a course that delivers real value to your learners.
As a reminder, the course planning journey map is below.
From Idea to Launch
Six-Stage Course Creation Model
The 6-stage model to guide you through the eLearning development process:
- Stage 1: Plan Your Course and Project – Audience, Topic, Strategy
- Stage 2: Design Your Course Content
- Stage 3: Create Course Content
- Stage 4: Deliver Your Course – Implementation, Enrolment and Support
- Stage 5: Promote Your Course – Market, Sell, Launch
- Stage 6: Support and Evaluate – Post-Launch Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
In this post, I will focus on stage two, the design.
Stage 2: Design Your Course Content
The design phase is still about planning but a different kind. You have just finished basic planning and are preparing for the next stage. Designing course content means planning the course structure, including every element of the content you must produce. To do that, you need to finalise course topics and learning outcomes and decide what types of media and activities will best support learning.
1 Refine your offering
1.1 What do you know so far? (recap and finalise)
The initial research, brainstorming, and validation of your ideas happen earlier in the course planning stage. At this stage, you refine your course offer to ensure you’re providing real value. It’s about making final decisions on the topics, activities, and delivery modes that are right for your learners.
Think of it as a final prep for a journey or a mission. You need to know where you go, who waits for you there, what they need or want, and what makes them happy. You decide what you will bring them and how you will get there. You must ensure you deliver what you promised so there is no disappointment when you arrive there.
Having that journey checklist will help you stay focused throughout the following stages of course development.
Your course compass – make sure you have clear answers to the following questions:
- what will you offer (title and description)
- who is your target audience (describe a persona briefly)
- What are their needs (problems. requirements)
- why it would bring value to your prospective clients (promised benefits)
- where will you offer it
- how will you provide your training (Online? Live webinars? Workshops?
Action:
- Download and use the Worksheet designed for this task: the Course Compass Worksheet Template.
- Record all your answers, create a learner persona and keep this worksheet handy to stay focused on your audience.
- Subscribe to my newsletter to get the full pack of exclusive templates to help you design course content (Requests all templates now!)
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1.2 What is your promise? (recap and finalise)
>>> Defining the value of your training
Before diving into the course structure, clearly articulate your value proposition. Focus on your target learners and the problems or needs you identified in the previous step. Your message should address these issues and outline how your training will provide a solution.
Identify Key Competencies List the specific competencies your learners will acquire upon course completion. Consider whether you aim to develop new skills, modify behaviours, or both. Clearly define what your learners will be able to do and how these skills will benefit them in their personal or professional lives.
You can create a highly effective and impactful training program by prioritising learner benefits and clearly defining these elements. These promised benefits will dictate your learning goals, objectives and outcomes.
>>> Understanding learning goals, objectives, and outcomes
Let’s clarify the distinction between these key terms to ensure a learner-centred approach.
Learning goal
Often reflects the overall intention behind the learning experience. The focus is on the benefit for a learner and what the learner achieves rather than what the instructor provides.
Select to view the example.
Example:
Learning objective
Describes the steps or tasks learners will undertake during the course to achieve the desired outcomes. Objectives are focused on individual lessons or specific learning activities..
Select to view example
Example:
Learning outcome
Focuses on what learners will know or be able to do by the end. The focus is on the benefit for a learner and what the learner achieves, not what the instructor provides
Select to view example
Example:
You can read more about the differences between learning goals, objectives and outcomes and their role in communicating your value proposition in my other posts:
From Learning Goals to Outcomes: Effectively Communicating the Benefits of Your Training
Learning Outcomes Done Right: 9 Common Mistakes. Examples, solutions, and impact on your marketing.
Boosting Course Sales: Using Learning Goals and Outcomes as Marketing Tools
Learning Outcomes and Marketing – How Incorrect language Can Sabotage Your Course and Marketing
TIP:
Why bother with defining learning goals, objectives and outcomes?
Don’t skip this step because all your course content and marketing messages will revolve around benefits. Defining dem is a process that involves defining goals objectives and outcomes. Especially outcomes are important as they set expectations, communicate the course’s purpose, and determine instructional goals and strategies. If well-defined, they can empower learners and enhance their motivation and engagement. They are also a starting point in your marketing communication. These statements describe the result or a change that you promise to deliver.
>>> Writing your course benefits (learning outcomes)
Writing down your course goals, objectives, and outcomes may seem complicated, but I have some tips and free tools to help you. The other good news is that you should already have some groundwork done during course planning (Stage 1), and here you are, working to fine-tune it.
TIP:
How do you write learning objectives for online courses?
Follow these tips to write better learning outcomes.
Select the dropdown headings below to view the details.
Begin by defining the training outcomes and the changes you want to see in learners. Once the destination is clear, you can plan assessments and course content accordingly.
Select strong action verbs like “analyse,” “create,” or “apply” that clearly describe the desired outcomes. Avoid vague or ambiguous verbs that may lead to confusion.
Read about using action verbs and get a cheat sheet to write better outcomes:
https://gerta.eu/action-verbs-get-the-cheat-sheet-to-write-better-learning-outcomes/
Write clear and measurable objectives using the SMART model (Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic, and Timebound) to ensure learners’ progress can be observed and assessed.
Organising different cognitive skills and knowledge levels is very helpful in writing learning outcomes and prioritising them from basic to more complex levels.
For more about Bloom’s Taxonomy levels and practical examples fo to this post:
https://gerta.eu/revised-blooms-taxonomy-levels-sample-outcomes-and-activities/
You should also Incorporate Relevant Assessment Criteria and Consider the Course Format. Ensure that assessment methods can measure outcomes and that the course format is suitable for delivering them.
The ABCD structure can help you break down a learning outcome into four essential components:
- Audience (Who?),
- Behaviour (What?),
- Condition (How? When this happens?),
- Degree (How much? To what extent?)
For more details, tips, and examples, see my other posts:
- ‘How to write learning objectives for online courses’.
- ‘Action Verbs: Get the cheat sheet to write better learning outcomes‘
- ‘Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Explained: Levels, Sample Outcomes and Activities’
- ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy: How Can It Help You Design Better Online Courses?
- ‘Three domains of learning: Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor’
Action:
- Finalise your course outcomes and benefits considering all the tips above. Focus on communicating the value you are offering to your learners.
- Subscribe to my newsletter to receive the Writing Learning Outcomes and Benefits Worksheet included in the pack. Requests all templates now!
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2 Create a detailed structure (organise your content)
In Stage 1 (Planning your course), you should have brainstormed your course content. Now, you take your draft content further and organise it into a proper structure. In this step, you keep working with your course roadmap, adding course topics until you are confident about all the areas included.
This step aims to turn your course outline and roadmap into a detailed course structure listing every element you will build.
2.1 From roadmap into a course structure
>>> Step back and review your roadmap
Review where you parked this at the planning stage. You should have at least an outline of your course roadmap with many possible topics. Visit the article about Stage 1 of course planning for detailed guidance on brainstorming topics and creating a roadmap.
>>> Create a detailed course structure
This step involves creating your detailed course structure and production plan, which you will use later during the development stage of the course production process.
Organise your course into sections, lessons, and topics and plan what and how you will teach within them. Be as granular and detailed as possible.
TIP:
Check these important considerations to keep in mind when you are working on finalising your course structure.
Select each dropdown heading to view suggestions.
Planning your topics involves referring to your research on your audience – the problems they have and their needs.
There are many ways to approach creating your course structure, and it is an iterative process. You can Start from the Big Picture and take The Zoom-In approach, focusing on broad concepts or themes and gradually breaking them down into smaller, more granular topics. You can also start small, focusing on individual problems to solve or specific skills or tasks learners need to accomplish, and zoom out and gradually organise these into broader topics or sections.
The exercise you are doing here is to generate as many tasks learners will be able to perform, skills they will have, and behaviours or competencies they will learn as you can.
Remember your learning goals and outcomes from the previous step and make sure that whatever you add to the course can be linked back to the learner’s needs (e.g. a person loves gardening but spending too much wishes to make their gardening more sustainable and less expensive. For learners, the outcome could be around being able to do gardening cheaper, not buying but propagating, transplanting, and growing from collected seeds.)
At some stage, themes should emerge, and you should organise them into sections. You can do all this using PostIts wall or online tools like Trello, Notion or Mural.
Consider how you will present the information.
Select the best methods and activities to deliver your content – remember – they must deliver your training promises. Cater to different learning styles and your learners’ needs. Consider techniques such as storytelling, gamification, and collaborative learning; what types of activities and assessments will you include? How will you keep learners engaged? How will you make sure you won’t overwhelm them?
Decide which tools and platforms will best deliver your content, their limitations, and what they allow for. Explore platforms like Vimeo or YouTube to host your content. Or perhaps something like Synthesia to manage your video more efficiently? Will your course be hosted on an LMS (learning management system)? Platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, or Kajabi are great options, each offering different features depending on your needs. What is the structure or framework suggested by the platform? If there are pages, you will often need content for a page (title, heading, summary, etc.), a video, and maybe additional text. Can you add assessments? If you use videos, consider how you will host and keep them up to date.
Consider what you will call elements of your course – are you dividing it into modules, sections, or lessons? It has to be clear to you and your learners. Make sure that custom names can be used within the constraints of the platform you are planning to use (e.g. you may want to call your learning units’ sections’, but the platform allows only for lessons – it may be confusing for learners to hear and read about sections, but in the interface see lessons).
>>> Tools you can use to create course structure
In terms of tools – I tend to do things digitally.
The tools I regularly use for planning and organising course content:
- Trello Boards
- Notion Boards
- Google docs/MS ord
- Workflowy
- PostIts may work for you, too. I stopped using them because I work on the go and travel a lot, plus it is not a sustainable approach.
I love the tools that allow me flexibility – for instance, moving topics between various sections before making a final decision.
When I work with clients, the choice of tools usually depends on their preferences and technical setup. The starting point can be a Word, PPT, or Sharepoint page. In my case, I usually start all my projects in Trello or Notion, keeping a high-level overview in Google spreadsheet. These PM tools allow me to organise my course projects better using sprints, stages, milestones tasks and subtasks.
Over the years, I have worked with many platforms and tolls. I created many versions of starter documents to help clients organise their content – from the course topic worksheets starter to course roadmaps to detailed design documents covering every step of the course creation project.
Here are some examples of course design templates:
Action:
- Create your detailed course structure now using one of the approaches described. Don’t overcomplicate it. Only use tools you are comfortable with. Make sure it works for you!
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TIP:
Subscribe to my mailing list and get all these templates for free!
3 Design your content (write it)
This step is a big one. Designing, in this case, means writing detailed lesson plans and creating storyboards and scripts so that all the foundations are in place for development.
Before you start designing your content, make sure that you have completed the previous step and have the course structure you are happy with.
3.1 Create Storyboards
Take the detailed structure from the previous step and create a storyboard for each section or module to outline how the content will flow. When you are happy with the content flow, move to writing content for every element.
>>> When to consider creating storyboards:
- Storyboards for animations and videos: create them before writing scripts. Include an overview of what is going to be in every scene. You can make them very high level. It is good to include elements like VO (voice-over – what will be said), visual elements on the screen (plan visuals that will appear on the screen scene by scene), and text on the screen.
- Storyboards for workshops: write workshop plans (step-by-step scenarios), including content to be covered, ideas for slides and visuals, and the duration of each section. If more than one presenter is expected, you can include roles. Write possible questions the audience may ask and ensure you have answers.
- Storyboards for presentations: create a presentation mock-up with the content flow, including an outline of speaker notes (what you will say), suggestions for visuals (visuals that will appear on the screen), as well as text on screen ( text that will be appearing while you are talking).
TIP:
Use storyboards for prototyping and visualising the content flow
It may be a new concept for you. If you want to know more about storyboarding in learning and get some free templates and examples of use, visit the following posts:
- Why should you use storyboarding in eLearning (Storyboard templates available here!)
- How to storyboard: Storyboarding with learning cards (ABC Curriculum Design (printable engagement storyboard cards available here!)
- Storyboard Tools and templates (an overview of various online storyboarding tools and resources)
Action:
- Create storyboards for all elements of your course requiring that level of planning and visualisation
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3.2 Write scripts and other course content
In this step, you want to finalise your raw content. You are not focusing here on polishing the visual look but on finalising the core of your training, ensuring the continent flows nicely, and delivering the right content to your learners. If you created storyboards, it is time to take content design a step further, write text for all your lessons, and complete text for slides and speaker notes. If you plan any multimedia content, write scripts for your videos, audio, and interactive activities.
>>> When scripts and detailed content are needed?
- For animations and videos, write a VO script (what will you record and develop).
- For audio, write a script (what you will record)
- For workshops and webinars, write content for every section of the storyboard (what you will say). While you do not need to adhere to this script 100%, it will give you an idea of how long you need to cover that content and reduce it if necessary.
- For presentations, you can write an outline of speaker notes (what you will say), including suggestions for visuals (visuals that will appear on the screen), as well as text on screen ( text that will appear while you are talking).
- For LMS pages, write content for each section (what will be written and shown). It is a good idea to decide on the standard page elements, create a template and reuse it to write content for each page following the same structure.
- For video-based lessons, write scripts. Include elements like audio (what you will say) and visuals (graphics appearing on the screen).
- For interactive activities, write all text content that will be in the slides or on pages.
- For quizzes and assessments, write content for all questions, answers, and feedback.
Essentially, every single element from your detailed course structure should have text content written at the end of this stage, and you have a solid foundation for development.
3.3 Approaches to Course Content Design
I usually recommend one of the approaches below:
>>> Approach 1:
Write everything in a document or series of documents, and when the text is ready, copy it to your LMS or online platform.
If I go with this option, I tend to have a separate document for every single element (e.g. lesson, video, audio, quiz, etc ). It is easier to track the completion of milestones this way. I usually use Detailed Design Document or Board in Notion, Trello or spreadsheets and track the progress of each element within the section or a module with tags, labels, and statuses assigned.
>>>> Approach 2:
Write content online, in the live or test environment.
The content can be written right on the platform, but stick to the detailed structure, track writing your content there and have a QA review process. This approach works mainly if your training is linear and is delivered on an LMS or online platform or built on tools like AS Rise. In these cases, I tend to populate the text throughout the sections, leaving placeholders for elements like videos, presentations, audio, quizzes, etc.
TIPS:
Here are some final tips for you!
1. Create and Use Templates.
If you have elements that will be repeated, create templates. Think of them as a blueprint for your lessons, topics, and videos. Etc. Don’t spend too much time trying to figure out the perfect template. I usually start with prototyping the first version of – let’s say, a lesson page. I create it and test it a few times, making adjustments, and at some stage, when I am happy with it, I turn it into a template and use it for the remaining pages.
2. Take a staggered approach and do pilots.
Very often, taking a phased approach is the best. Let’s say you are planning to deliver six modules in your programme. You can design (write content) for a couple of topics first, then move them to development (production of actual assets, pages, videos, etc). The benefits of this model are:
- You are using the first module as a pilot – testing and trialling what works and what doesn’t, enabling you to take corrective actions early in the process. You can make adjustments in your second and following modules
- You will be ready to release content to your learners earlier (although one module at a time.
3. Track your progress
Regardless of how you write your course content, make sure to track your progress and completion status for each element. It is easy to lose track of where you are, what is in a draft, what is in progress, and what is completed.
4. Cross-check alignment with learners’ needs and learning outcomes.
When designing (writing) your content, remember that your training should not be only about delivering information—it’s about focusing on your learners and providing the benefits you promised while keeping them interested and motivated. I tend to refer back to the learning outcomes all the time, cross-checking that the content I write aligns with them and is justified by them.
5. Use your learner persona.
It is easy to go off-topic or say more than needed. Keep your learner persona handy, and check if what you write helps the learner persona with their problem or need.
Action:
- Write content for every single element of your course structure. Use one of the approaches listed above, and feel free to use my templates!
- Subscribe to my newsletter to receive the Detailed Design Template, and access to Trello Course Design Board included in the pack. Requests all access now!
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Designing your course content is a critical step that bridges the gap between planning and developing. By refining your course offerings, organising your topics, and aligning your learning outcomes with engaging content types, you set the stage for a successful and impactful learning experience. Remember, the design phase is not just about deciding what to teach—it’s about ensuring your content resonates with your learners, keeps them engaged, and delivers the promised value.
With a clear structure and detailed plan in place, you’re now ready to move on to the next phase: creating the content itself.
Stay tuned for Stage 3, where we’ll dive into the tools, technology, and processes to bring your course to life!
Note, that this post provides general information about course design.
It is important always to consider the specific context and requirements of your learning projects. If you have any questions or would like to delve deeper into the topic, please email me or book a free online consultation via my contact page.
If you like productivity hacks, check out my recent posts. You will find there tips and recommendations for tools, practices, and approaches that may help you work less and smarter:
14 Ways to Teach Online.Next
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