Ok, so I thought I would start by sharing what I look for when I’m thinking about signing up for a new course. I don’t know about you but I was never one for traditional learning models that tell you how to do something without showing the practical and the tactical sides of things. I recently started a new job with a large company. The first 30 days of employment were taking up with a detailed learning plan – “great” I thought. Except the learning was all delivered via video recordings – no opportunity to ask questions and all very theoretical – fast forward seven months and I literally can’t remember 90% of what I sat through.
Here are the 5 things I look for in an online course:
Learn by doing
Does the course give you an opportunity to put into practice what you are learning in real time. Are there exercises interspersed throughout the learning modules that will give you a chance to put into practice what you have just seen/watched/heard/read. This type of learning solidifies the lesson you have just ingested and gives your brain a path to remember – it will also highlight areas that you need to go over again to ensure you’re building a solid foundation. You will remember things that you have actually done and it allows for critical thinking to develop – a key to learning.
A key element of this kind of learning for me is that it keeps me engaged and paying attention – plus I get the positive feedback loop of the satisfaction of learning practical new skills. In my experience putting new skills into practice IMMEDIATELY is the best way of ensuring that the learning actually sticks.
Connect the outcome to a project or work
Courses that have a concrete deliverable like “by the end of this course you will have built a vegetable garden” will catch my attention over something like “learn all about planting a garden”. Having a project to work on as you learn is key in digesting and then putting into action all you have learned. I am a big fan of step-by-step training. Obviously this isn’t appropriate for learning about some esoteric skills but nonetheless in general look for something that has a framework sin place so that when you finish your course you are left with something that you have “built”
A lot of courses that are designed to deliver skills needed in the workplace will have this kind of structure – the really good ones will also connect you to a larger community of peers that you can leverage for support and even job opportunities
Over the shoulder learning
This is my big one – does the course actually show in a meaningful way what you are trying to learn. My favorite type of training like this is the over the shoulder view – where if somebody is teaching something they show you how they are doing every step that is being taught. I have learned everything from yoga to web design by taking courses like this. The beauty of online learning is that you can learn from some of the very best in your desired field from the comfort of your own home and at a fraction of the cost that an in-person lesson would cost.
Community
I’ve touched on this briefly but peer-to-peer learning is very powerful. One of the things that you give up (usually) when you’re taking an online course is the ability to ask the person next to you about something you’re learning. many classes now offer a community for people taking the course at the same time. Nobody knows what you’re going through on a course better than somebody else taking the same course. It’s also fun.
Lifetime access
I forget stuff. A lot. Having lifetime access to a course is a must for me – particularly if the skill is highly detailed or technical. I love being able to go back to a specific module in a course for a refresher if I’m in need.
So that’s it in a nutshell. The quality of online courses continues to get better and better but for now the variation in quality can still be extreme. These tips should help to weed out some of the ones to take a pass on.