Course Creators Weekly #41 🗓 April 5th, 2021 - How to design a transformational curriculum

"What do you want your students to be able to do differently at the end of your course?"

This video from Andrew Barry is just under 12 minutes long. But, there's a whole course packed into it! (I really struggled with summarising it! )

Crafting your transformation:

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  Get clear on your ideal student, who they are, where they are, and what they want
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  Find the intersection of what your student wants and what you believe they need
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  Define the ONE thing you want your students to able to do at the end of your course

Signposting your journey:

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  Identify your students' level of prior knowledge—know where they're starting from
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  Connect the dots from your students' "prior knowledge" to their "transformation"
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  Identify the learning journey milestones—think of it like a map, not a linear journey
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  Create a visual map to show students where they are, have been, and will go next

Great learning outcomes:

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  Define SMART learning outcomes for the transformation and for every single milestone

Planning your course:

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  Take the learning outcomes at the atomic (lesson) level and answer these 4 questions…
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  Why should students care? What must they know? How do these relate? What next?
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  Teach students to recognise patterns and apply their learnings in new contexts
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  Use plenty of examples + create practice opportunities through facilitated discussions
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  Define next steps + give specific prompts to action to help students learn by doing

The video is just GREAT. If you have 12 minutes, you should definitely check it out. If you don't have the time, make time!

OK, this one's packed too, even though the video is only under 11 minutes!

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  Most people underprice—if you're new to this, start by doubling your price
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  Remember you can always lower your price if the market proves it to be too high
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  Remember there isn't a linear relationship between price and number of sales

On Subscription vs. Fixed Price

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  Subscription pricing gives you predictable revenue, which is nice, but…
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  They create the expectation of regular updates and ongoing value creation
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  They tend to generate more support requests

On Influence vs. Revenue

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  Consider pricing lower to increase your influence and benefit from word of mouth
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  Optimising for influence could reduce revenue in the short-term, but pay off long-term
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  Remember you'll get different types of customers at different price points
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  Fewer customers at higher price points might mean lower revenue, but…
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  Fewer customers also means fewer support requests and less demand on your time

A few other considerations:

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  Consider your own time investment per customer—make sure you're not losing money
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  Consider how much time you're saving your customers and what that's worth to them
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  Be aware of what people compare your prices with—your positioning affects this
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  Avoid comparisons by bundling multiple products/services (Amazon Prime does this)

Finally, Nat's pricing strategy at a high level:

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  Decide subscription or fixed—if subscription, guesstimate your customer lifetime value
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  Find your minimum price: estimated time investment per customer × your hourly goal
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  Decide if you're optimising for influence or revenue—if revenue, double the price
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  Frame your price against alternatives and your customers' time—is it a good deal?
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  Seem like a good deal? Increase a little // No? Maybe lower it, or try to add more value
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  Set the price and remember you can always change it later

Neville Medhora talks with Gagan Biyani about the future of online learning and cohort-based courses:

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  CBCs are, in some ways, an evolution of courses into communities
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  Communities arise organically through cohorts because of people's common goals
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  You can charge more for a fixed-period CBC vs. subscription-based education, and…
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  There's only so much value you can provide over time—therefore CBCs > subscriptions
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  For a sustainable CBC, build an audience + always have a waitlist for your next launch
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  With the right systems, CBCs can work without the instructor present everywhere
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  Like books, people buy courses but rarely finish them—CBCs are changing that
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  Great courses deliver specific outcomes, or guide students towards achieving them
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  Iterate like startups—use feedback to improve existing courses or create new ones
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  Today's CBC tool stack: combination of email, Zoom, Slack, Circle, Teachable + more
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  Some examples of great CBCs: altMBA, WoP, BASB, Section4, On Deck, Reforge

You'll find the podcast, YouTube video, and Neville's own, more thorough breakdown on his website. Check it out!

Just a quick shout-out to a brilliant resource from Julia Saxena—check it out!

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  The critical decisions you need to make before you launch
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  Which non-negotiable marketing assets you need to have in place
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  An easy-to-follow checklist for each phase of your course
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  Essential resources to help you make your launch and course a success