Why courses ought to have a real world moment (and how this magnifies student results)
A small addition to cohort-based courses can make all the difference
Hello,
Welcome to this week’s edition of Course Builder’s Corner.
In this issue, we’ll discuss a concept that ensures participants in courses you run apply what they’ve learned outside the course. Nothing is worse than students spending time and money to learn only to have that knowledge remain dormant forever.
You’ll learn to save them from this fate.
After reading, let me know what you think by email or posting comment.
Rodney
In 1957, hundreds of people called the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to ask how to grow a spaghetti tree.
The BBC had aired a 2-minute film showing how people in Sweden were harvesting spaghetti. The show was an April Fools Day prank. According to the film, families in Switzerland had an especially fruitful spaghetti crop. A result of a mild winter and the “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil,” that nearly destroyed past crops. That's why 1957 was one of the best years for the spaghetti harvest. After the film aired, that's when people started calling in to learn how to grow their own spaghetti trees.
But why on earth were viewers in the United Kingdom fooled by this film?
Surely everyone knows that spaghetti is made from flour and egg. But it turns out that in the UK at that time, spaghetti was an exotic food. Few people knew the ingredients. It came in cans packed in tomato sauce and didn't come in cardboard boxes. So viewers had no idea they were being pranked.
What struck me about this story is not just that people can be fooled. When we lack information we can all be similarly tricked. No, what strikes me is how willing people were to immediately apply what they learned. People have a hunger for practical application, what I call the real world moment. They want to go from the realm of theory to the real world so they can see results.
But what is the real world moment in a course?
It is a task in which the participants must show their work to the world outside the safe confines of their course. Many courses are filled with practice exercises. You can think of them as rehearsals getting you ready for a live performance.
But many students only do the rehearsals and skip the performance part.
They may take many photos in a photography course, yet share none of them with others. They may do writing exercises in a writing course but never publish an article. They might create drawings in a cartooning course and keep the drawings hidden in their sketchbook.
Why do participants avoid the real world moment?
One word - uncertainty. In the safety of the course, the participants know they'll get positive and constructive feedback on their work.
But the real world may not be so kind.
So they put off the real world moment sometimes without realizing it. Days go by. Weeks. Months. The discomfort of the unknown haunts them. Meanwhile the skills they learned are slowing getting rusty.
However, it may only take a little push out of the nest and get them flying.
Some will do that for themselves. Some will be pushed by circumstances. But if you want to ensure your course provides the greatest benefit to the greatest number of students, then you'll want to give them that little push while the course is still running.
And how do we give them this much needed push?
We do so in three steps.
First, list out possible real-world moments for your course.
Second, choose one that is feasible without too much additional effort from the students.
Finally, turn it into an assignment ... and make sure the students know this real world moment is coming well in advance.
List, choose and assign.
Here are two examples
In an article writing course, I took, we learned all the basic skills required to write a good article. We learned how to generate unique topics, how to outline, how to hook the reader, how to transition, how to create a call to action ... and many other skills.
And by the end, everyone had written stunning articles.
But out of 15 students, very few published regularly once the course was complete. Most of those that did, published articles while the course was running.
Since our last assignments were complete articles, it would have been great if the instructor had asked us to publish the article on a website such as Medium or LinkedIn. The feedback the students got from people outside the course would have given them confidence to keep publishing.
In the coaching courses I've created, there's always a real world moment or two.
The students learn the coaching skill by first practicing self coaching, then they coach a buddy in the course, and finally they work with someone outside the course. That's the real world moment. And in that moment, they often feel they've discovered what they're really made of. They discover that they really CAN coach others well. It gives them confidence. Something sorely needed by coaches who have never coached anyone before.
But is a real world moment always appropriate?
The only type of course in which a real world moment isn't as applicable is the learning of "pure information."
For example, "The Great Courses" contain lectures about topics such as history, literature and philosophy. This kind of course is really infotainment designed to give the participants insight into various fields. It doesn't promise a result or improve a skill.
However, even in these cases, we could add a real world moment if we wanted to super charge student learning.
For example, a student could learn about the French Revolution, then publish an article about their take on it to a site like Medium. Or they could make a video summarizing their learning to post on YouTube.
A real world moment can always be added with just a little brainstorming ... and students benefit greatly as a result.
But if you still struggle to create a real world moment, there's one that is almost universal
And that is to have students teach at least one other person what they're learning. This study showed that when participants were told they would have to teach someone else, they remembered more and organized their knowledge more effectively than participants that were merely told they would be tested later.
The increase in learning was 30%.
Neither group taught anyone, so just the expectation of needing to each others had participants pay attention differently and organize their knowledge better. My suspicion is that if they had to actually teach, they would have learned even more.
Summary
Many people will fail to apply what they've learned without a little push.
Providing that push in the form of a real world moment will increase the number of students that get results from your course.
To come up with a real world moment for your course, list ideas, then choose one that makes sense and finally turn it into an assignment.
If you don't find one that works, you can always have students teach others what they learned since just the expectation of teaching others increases learning by 30%.
The people who called the BBC after watching the spaghetti harvest broadcast didn't need an instructor to push them to take the next step. But your students might. So make sure you create a little nudge to ensure their success.
Questions for you
What real world moments have you experienced in courses you've taken? Or if you already teach, what real world moments did you create for your students?
Reply to the email or make a post in the comments section.
Do you have a winning course idea?
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