Defining your objectives and training structure

Third part of our article series on how to create an online training course in 6 easy steps, this time, we will be talking about defining your objectives and training structure.

First of all, you will need to define your training objectives. It doesn’t matter if your training is about knowledge, savoir-faire (know-how) or even interpersonal skills, defining one or more objectives is key! In order to help you, ask yourself the following question: what elements will be learned in my training course? Need a little help? No problem, you can find the answer by finishing this sentence (our official cheat-sheet):

At the end of my training session, I would like my students to be able to...

Do you want to know how to get a good objective? We know the secret. Truthfully, you only need to follow a few simple rules to get a SMART objective:

1. Specific (clear)
2. Measurable (thanks to indicators)
3. Attainable (in line with your global vision)
4. Relevant (accessible)
5. Time Based (time to reach a goal)

To gear your objective(s) in the right direction, feel free to use action verbs such as: define / distinguish / acquire / identify / remind / recognise / interpret / differentiate / file / express / produce / modify / evaluate.

In order to help you with this process, here is a concrete example. Do you remember Mrs. Sylvestre from step 2? Let’s see what her learning objectives would be.

At the end of her training session, Mrs. Sylvestre would like her students to be able to:

1. Name the eight essential ingredients to make dough (knowledge)
2. Explain the four steps needed to make icing (savoir-faire/know-how)
3. Follow the steps of the recipe with delight and meticulousness (interpersonal skills).

Once you have identified your training objectives, let’s move on to the second part of this step, the training structure. We had glanced over this topic on our first article, but a friendly reminder never hurts, especially when it comes to a topic as important as this one.

To maximize the retention of information and help your students, split your content into sections, subdivide them into units and once more into lessons.

Make sure to balance the level of difficulty in each part in order to rank the content. In doing so, you will avoid making the rookie mistake of putting the most difficult content at the very beginning of your course. Take it slow and don’t forget to follow and reach your overall objectives.

You have officially mastered step 3!