How we classify most types of content at Badass Courses

We use some internal definitions for various content containers in our information architecture, and I wanted to jot them down here just so we are on the same page because the words are common and carry different meanings:

* workshop: these are paywalled offerings. they can be live or self-paced. often they start as live and are then produced as self-paced, but that is not required. 
* tutorial: self-paced and free, but shaped like a workshop otherwise
* lesson: tutorials and workshops are containers lessons. we often use "triplets" for lessons, so they are a "problem" video, an "exercise" for the learner to do, and a "solution" video demonstrating how the teacher would solve it
* post: article or one off video (like you'd post to youtube)

posts are the *great* because they are lower effort and are highly shareable while boosting SEO. there can't be too many quality posts in our opinion. [https://www.totaltypescript.com/articles](https://www.totaltypescript.com/articles) - these are all written, but I see stand alone videos as very similar. the platform can accept either

tutorials are *excellent* "lead magnets" and require more effort basically being a series of related "posts" or "lessons". Tutorials help build up your email list, which is where the vast majority of sales come from. [https://www.totaltypescript.com/tutorials](https://www.totaltypescript.com/tutorials) - these are contextually related to the subject matter and often "intro" level

workshops are the product, both in the live and self-paced formats. In most cases we are "bundling" several self-paced workshops into the product we are selling, but that isn't required. 

here's some lower level back-story to our IA approach with some interesting research of you like to nerd-out like that [https://badass.dev/information-architecture](https://badass.dev/information-architecture)

Workshops, tutorials, lessons, and posts. Naming things is hard.

Educational product development needs a clear plan, vision, scope, topic, venue, and timeframe for success.

<div className="with-first-letter">
  Developing and marketing educational products is a business. Beyond your initial idea, its important to plan your first next steps with thatvin mind. 
</div>

We've been shipping course products for over a decade, and over that time have noticed many patterns and practices that are useful with every project.

A well-researched plan is helpful for any business, whether you're a solo entrepreneur or part of a team.

Consistently setting and revising expectations is important.

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash">
  <li>
    **Vision:** Define the mission and the overarching summary. What's the mood
    board look like? The general ambiance and vibe?
  </li>
  <li>
    **Scope:** What's the magnitude of this project? Its boundaries? Who's
    responsible for what? How much time and energy can they commit?
  </li>
  <li>
    **Topic:** What's the specific subject matter? Who's the intended audience?
  </li>
  <li>
    **Venue:** Where will this course be hosted? Which platform or domain will
    be used? How will learners access it? What's live and what's self-paced?
  </li>
  <li>
    **Timeframe:** When does it start and when is the launch planned? How will
    updates be managed? Is there an end date? Will it grow?
  </li>
</DecoratedList>

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="vision" number={1} title="Vision" />

The vision serves as the bedrock, the central idea. 

A moodboard is useful for capturing the vibes that will signal a feel for your course and the outcomes that learners will achieve.

**Who is this for?**

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="scope" number={2} title="Scope" />

With that in mind, consider the course product's overall scope as dictated by the vision.

Is this a single course, a series, or a collection of self-paced courses?

**How big do you want to go?**

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash">
  <li>Is it a single course, a series, or a collection?</li>
  <li>What is the size of the marketplace initially, and how can that grow?</li>
  <li>
    Is this a solo creator project, or are there multiple instructors involved?
  </li>
	  <li>
    How big is this thing gonna be?
  </li>
</DecoratedList>

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="topic" number={3} title="Topic" />

Topic choice is about understanding the audience's needs and interests. It should be clear and precise.

*Crispy.*

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash">
  <li>Who's this for? </li>
  <li>What skill level?</li>
  <li>
    Their current knowledge?
  </li>
	  <li>
    Why would this matter to them?
  </li>
		  <li>
    What super power will you give them?
  </li>
</DecoratedList>

Narrow it down.

A broad, all-encompassing offer can lead to disconnection with the audience, affecting sales negatively.

Focus on concrete solutions to real problems, avoiding hypothetical scenarios.

This requires research. We like [Amy Hoy's sales safari](https://shop.stackingthebricks.com/sales-safari-101) in this house. Also see The Mom Test and Deploy Empathy.

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="venue" number={4} title="Venue" />

Scope and Topic will help dictate the venue choice. 

What's the domain?

Selecting a domain name is crucial but don't let it hinder progress. It's better to choose one and proceed, keeping in mind that changes are possible but can be cumbersome.

<AccentedTitle text="JFDI" color="green-alt" />

Short and sweet dot coms that are as topical as possible is the optimum. 

Something easy to remember and type.

Come to a consensus, try a few on, and pick the one that matches the vision, scope, and topic so this decision is in the rear-view mirror.

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="timeframe" number={5} title="Timeframe" />

Set the kickoff date, milestones, launch date, and future launch plans.

Expectations evolve over time and each of these provides an opportunity to reflect and revisit.

The vision and scope massively influence the timeframe.

Viewing courses as one-time projects can often produce an initial sales spike, followed by an inevitable gradual decline.

A long-game approach with sustained growth and regular updates can be an alternative.

<ImageWithCaption
  src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708044980/articles/5-early-decisions-of-a-course-business/neither-is-better_q7capq.png"
  width={1536}
  height={1210}
  reducedMargins
/>

Neither is "better" - but it's important to understand where on the one-off to long-game gradient the scope and vision of this product lies.

Don't spend too long answering the above questions!

Your answers can change as you make progress on the work. 15-20 minutes is the most your first draft should take, but your honest intial thoughts on these questions will help articulate and align your idea with the final product you want to release. 

This exercise will benefit you first and foremost, your collaborators/team, and eventually the learners that will buy your product.


5 Early Decisions of a Course Business

Matt Pocock and Joel Hooks discuss how Total Typescript was created.

How we Shipped Total Typescript with Matt Pocock

The Process 🌀 we use to build Badass courses: Research, Design, Production, and Delivery

<div className="with-first-letter">
  We've produced a lot of courses. Hundreds. They've generated 10s of millions
  of dollars in revenue and helped hundreds of thousands of learners level-up as
  web developers. From the beginning we've focused on quality and being
  consistent, and to do that it's important to have a process.
</div>

Not to much, not to little. Just enough process to get everybody on the same page and speaking the same "language".

<h3 class="text-badass-yellow-300 font-condensed">
  Our process has 4 distinct phases:
</h3>

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash" reducedSpacing={true}>
  <li>**Research**</li>
  <li>**Design**</li>
  <li>**Production**</li>
  <li>**Delivery**</li>
</DecoratedList>

These phases are repeated, as needed for any given project. For example, the first iteration of a new course product might be a simple landing page. The goal of the landing page is to gauge interest.

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="research" number={1} title="Research" />

<div>
	<FloatedImage
        src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708030663/articles/the-process/research_fimu7v.png"
        width={752}
        height={752}
        alt="Research chapter image"
        floatSide="left"
      />
	
We will research the market, understand our audience, work with our subject matter expert partners, and do enough research work to provide a clue. Something to go on.

Sales Safari is an online ethnographical research method invented by Amy Hoy that continues to be an amazing source of research for our products. Here's a quick ["in a nutshell" summary of the Sales Safari method](https://egghead.io/learn/30x500/sales-safari). For a deeper dive, we also love Amy & Alex's [Sales Safari 101](https://shop.stackingthebricks.com/sales-safari-101).

Sales Safari is interesting because it focuses on "customers in the wild" where they are comfortable and discussing their pain and solutions with peers, using their "local" jargon.

Another approach is the one described in The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. In many ways this is the opposite of Sales Safari, because you are actively interviewing to learn more about the struggles, pain, and solutions that your audience of potential customers might have.

This is dangerous, because what people say in interview situations is often not what they actually do IRL. They aren't lying, they are just having a conversation. There's a power dynamic at play, and they will say what they think you want them to say trying to give the "right" answer.

It's called The Mom Test because if you explain your idea to your mom and ask her what she thinks about the idea, there is a better than good chance she will tell you it's "great!"

The Mom Test structure focuses on the interviewee and says that we won't go into pitch mode or start explaining our idea. We are interviewing THEM to learn about THEM.

It's not about you is a tough pill to swallow, but it's essential to getting at the truth underneath the conversational BS.

Beyond those methods we scour the internet, analyze existing solutions, and generally consider the problem space while taking notes and building shared context.
	
		<div class="clear-both" />

</div>

<AccentedTitle text="Research never stops" color="yellow" />

<BodyImage
  src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708030656/articles/the-process/charlie-day_mrnahs.png"
  width={1760}
  height={1174}
  caption="Charlie Day in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. FX Networks"
/>

But it's very important to stop researching and start doing. That's why we think about The Process as cycles instead of a linear start to finish. 🌀

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="design" number={2} title="Design" />

<div>
  <FloatedImage
    src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708030658/articles/the-process/design_yj53qc.png"
    width={752}
    height={752}
    alt="Design chapter image"
    floatSide="right"
  />
  The most common first thought when you hear "design" is probably visual design,
  but for us design encompasses more than just the visual aspects of a project, though
  those are very important too.
  <DecoratedList color="white" type="flash" reducedSpacing={true}>
    <li>**Visual design**</li>
    <li>**Instructional Design**</li>
    <li>**Learner Experience Design**</li>
    <li>**Product Design**</li>
  </DecoratedList>
  It's the capital-D Design that leverages the context that we've built during the
  Research phase and previous cycle of The Process and shape it into something interesting
  and valuable for learners.
		<div class="clear-both" />
</div>

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="production" number={3} title="Production" />

<div>
  <FloatedImage
    src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708030661/articles/the-process/production_ktvetq.png"
    width={752}
    height={752}
    alt="Production chapter image"
    floatSide="left"
  />
  We know what we are building and why, so this is the "roll up our sleeves" and
  build. In a practical sense, for us, this is web development. We are building online
  learning experiences, and that means we are building websites.
	<div class="clear-both" />
</div>

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="delivery" number={4} title="Delivery" />

<div>
  <FloatedImage
    src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708030657/articles/the-process/delivery_a7otmr.png"
    width={752}
    height={752}
    alt="Delivery chapter image"
    floatSide="right"
  />
  "If you build it they will come" is a crock of shit. It's just not true, and a recipe for failure. You have to share it. You've got to let people know.

Call it marketing, or a "launch", but once you've researched, designed, and produced something valuable and/or interesting for your audience it's time to let them know.

Once you've delivered something to your audience, something as small as a Twitter thread or landing page, or a full-fledged 60-hour video course you've finished a cycle of The Process.

Good.

Now you can start The Process again, using your new customers and everything you learned from all previous cycles as input for the Research and Design process.

It's a loop. Or better yet a spiral 🌀

We start loose, with a lot of unknowns and circle around the problem at ever increasing resolution, sharing what we learn, building valuable resources, sharing what we build, applying principled work, building trust, building relationships, and often thankfully earning a living.
		<div class="clear-both" />
</div>


The Process

Launched Total TypeScript pre-release in Dec 2022, earning $415,000 from 1200+ learners by refining a collaborative process with Matt Pocock.

$415k Pre-Release Launch of a Developer Education Product

Matt Pocock uses a DAG to structure Total TypeScript workshops, organizing modules by dependencies and natural teaching groups.

<div className="with-first-letter">
  **Matt Pocock explains how he uses a directed acyclic graph for creating a
  workshop for Total TypeScript**
</div>

<EmbedVideo
  playbackId="Pb4CZg4pOv2STlT2I1VUO02ReK00uTrZ1cYcHAq9EacNY"
  poster="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708174591/articles/directed-acyclic-graph-dag-to-structure-developer-content/video-poster_x2xsli.png"
/>

<FancyTitleWithSubtitle subtitle="Full" title="Transcript" />

<FullTranscript>
I wanted to break down some of the process that I've been using for building out total type scripts here. What I like to do is take all the information that I want to include in a module and put it into a dag, a directed acyclic graph. The reason I choose a DAG is because, You know, first of all, it kind of looks nice, right?

You get to sort of say, Okay, I want to include all of these pieces. And then you work out which bits of information, each piece of information depends on. So I know that k and k of our depends on, you know, like, um, to understand why it's useful, you probably need to know a little bit about template literals to understand why.

Um, Why it even works. You need to understand key and key of, to understand how that works. You need to understand key of, then you need to understand unions at the base of it. There's probably more information, I'm, I'm sort of forgetting there or aligning, but this gives you a sense of it. And so basically all of this stuff then, um, gets put all together and then I divide it into groups, you know, groups that feel natural to teach together.

And like the first groups that I'm sort of looking at, you know, Kind of like unions, discriminated unions. Then I've got this sort of index access type object values, and these are groups that I'm sort of finding in my head to, You know, like it's good to have groups in general, like chunks of information that people can walk away with that's all connected.

If you trying to teach this all sort of too disparately, then. The connections might not be made that well. So once you've then got the groups altogether, then you can then just order the groups. So what I've done is I've just taken all of these different colors and I've just put them to the side here, and I've now got the list of all of the things I want to teach.

This last one here, challenges. Some of the stuff just doesn't really fit into groups, right? Like in order to understand object to discriminated union, you need to be able to understand quite a lot of information. I generally like to sort of take those really, really big leaf nodes at the end and stick them in one big block.

So we've got basically a challenges section is what I like to call it. And this I think actually is the genuine, or very close to the, the way I landed on this for this module, like the, the format for this module. So this is pretty nice. Um, there's one more thing to discuss, which is obviously, Stuff you need to know before you even get to the module.

And I like to have this sort of double red line here and have a few things in the DAG that are above that line. And that line is basically prerequisites. In order to understand this module, you need to understand what is generics and tax and types and what is a union. And both of those I think are covered in my beginner's course.

So you probably need to take the beginner's course before you take this, but it's really. Two, to just to map out the things that you want to, that you know you're not going to cover. And sometimes I'll even have another one down the bottom, which is gonna be like, uh, future material, you know, stuff that I'm not even going to cover in this section.

And that gives you a really nice window into what you are actually covering. And make sure that when you structure it, you are structuring it with those ideas in mind. And you don't need to re-explain them.

</FullTranscript>

Use a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) to Structure Developer Focused Content

Working with an info architect improved how we structure educational content, emphasizing simplicity and viewing everything as a resource or a collection.

<div className="with-first-letter">
  Working with a world class information architect is a treat and has helped
  steer our thinking about how we structure educational content for the past
  three years. It's been a challenge to migrate. These core data decisions have
  a way of locking you into previous, sometimes poor, decisions. We did an
  engagement with [Lisa Maria Marquis](https://twitter.com/redsesame), author of Everyday Information
  Architecture, and [LMM looked at our lessons, courses, playlists, series, and other media](https://egghead.notion.site/Content-Analysis-by-LMM-227060f2f49c4d1082980131fcde12f3) and came back with a simpler, straight forward way to think about
  them.
</div>

<ImageWithCaption
  src="https://res.cloudinary.com/badass-courses/image/upload/v1708288966/articles/information-architecture/data-types_md2drz.png"
  width={1536}
  height={956}
  reducedMargins={true}
/>

Early on we were overly specific at the database level and described database tables as they were used or labeled in the user interface (UI). In retrospect, starting from more generic building blocks and working towards more specificity would have been a better approach for us, and thinking about structured content as data instead of UI makes a lot sense in practice.

There were a lot of take-aways from LMM's awesome presentation, but the main one was...

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="everything-is-a-resource"
  number={1}
  title="Everything is a resource"
/>

Some resources are a collection of other resources.

It's either a `Resource` or it's a `Collection` of resources.

LMM included "special" which in practice turns out to be a collection as well, which led us to solidify our own implementation.

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="naming-is-hard"
  number={2}
  title="Naming is hard"
/>

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash" reducedSpacing={true}>
  <li>
    **Resource:** a video, article text, file, or other atom
  </li>
  <li>
    **Lesson:** a collection of learning resources
  </li>
  <li>
    **Section:** a collection of lessons, and sometimes additional resources
  </li>
  <li>
    **Module:** a full workshop, typically a 1-day workshop or shorter presenting a collection of sections or lessons (if sections aren't needed) and often additional supplementary resources
  </li>
  <li>
    **Product:** one or module modules in a collection
  </li>
</DecoratedList>

The atomic `Resource` is generally a direct reference to media. A resource is an interface or base type for specific kinds of resources. All resources share common properties such as `id`, `title`, `description`, and `type`.

In our domain, with use a `VideoResource`. This type of resources also has `mediaUrl`, `transcript`, and `subtitles` properties. Additional metadata that describes or belongs to this type of resource.

These atomic resources can be combined into a variety of collections. It makes things easier for us to think about if we give the collections names and use those to build consumable structures.

At the lowest level we have the `Lesson` which is a collection of resources that delivers a unit of learning. This is similar to building a page in Notion or other type of block editor. Stack, structure, move stuff around, edit, and present something that is coherent and meets the learning goals of the lesson.

It's great when a lesson stands alone, but they are often combined together into a `Module`. A module is like the chapter of a book, and might also contain other atomic resources like a project, overview video, or other supplementary/complementary resources.

If there are a lot of lessons, they might be divided into `Section` collections. Instead of directly adding lessons to the module, the lessons first get added to sections, which are then added to the module.

This is "chunking" and helps orient and provide structure for learners.

Finally modules, lessons, and other resources are combined into a `Product` which includes a price and can be purchased or shared with learners as a full learning experience.

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="implementation-in-sanity"
  number={3}
  title="Implementation in Sanity"
/>

The tool that we love to use to implement structured content is Sanity. It provides a delightful environment to design your content model and query it through a fast CDN for delivery to learners.

We aren't inhibited by an overly specified content model and can think and rethink what the shape of a lesson or module is based on the content, the instructor, and what the students expect in the context of the domain being taught and not the domain we used to store shit in a database.

It's great.

Information Architecture for Courses and Educational Products

"The Workshop Survival Guide" offers a blueprint for creating engaging workshops focused on learner outcomes, utilizing diverse teaching formats and breaks.

<div className="with-first-letter">
  The Workshop Survival guide by Rob Fitzpatrick and Devin Hunt delivers the step-by-step blueprint for designing and delivering a successful live workshop for a paying audience. This summary focuses on the first half of the book which covers the design and production of your workshop. The second half of the book focuses on the delivery and facilitation of your workshop and is great as well.

A successful workshop is focused on learner outcomes and facilitates those outcomes for the learners that participate. It's your job as the facilitator to design an experience that will engage and energize learners.

</div>

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="your-job-is-to-help-learners-achieve-their-outcomes"
  number={1}
  title="Your job is to help learners achieve their outcomes."
/>

You'll design a Workshop Skeleton that focuses on learner outcomes and iterate on that skeleton.

The workshop will consist 60-90 minute segments that are filled with 5 teaching formats: lecture, small group discussion, question and answer, "try it now", and scenario challenges. These segments will be punctuated with generous breaks to allow learners to recharge.

What you will not focus on is creating elaborate slide decks, and instead you will use slides sparingly to enhance and clarify the various learning formats.

Workshops are different than a classroom in two important ways.

<DecoratedList color="white" type="flash" reducedSpacing={true}>
  <li>
    **It's your responsibility to design a learning experience that will renew
    and refresh learners and keep their energy and attention.**
  </li>
  <li>
    **You are not limited in any way or stuck with the binding constraints of
    the typical classroom lecture format.**
  </li>
</DecoratedList>

Your workshop will leverage the the most appropriate style of teaching and interactive exercise for the subject you are teaching.

To ensure that your workshop is a success, you have to do the work beforehand. You aren't winging it or delivering an off the cuff lecture.

Your workshops depends on you delivering a series of [[trail of value nuggets]] that give learners tangible "a-ha" moments. Every one of these is like a gold coin in Mario increasing your goodwill score as your learners level-up.

Every droning boring lecture or arbitrary questions that result in an ever decreasing number of hands going up depletes your goodwill health bar and spends the a-ha tokens you've worked so hard to gain.

When they signed up for your workshop the learner agreed to give you a significant block or their time, attention, and energy. It's a contract between you, the facilitator, and the learner. When you violate that contract by being boring, or asking the learner to do low-value tasks they will start to distrust you. For the learner, if they aren't receiving a constant flow of value, they will assume they've wasted their time and check out completely.

You've lost them.

They show up with faith in your ability to deliver value and if you don't deliver that goodwill quickly fades and they will be on their phones before you know it.
To create a trail of value nuggets you've got to [[design a trail of value nuggets]]. This doesn't mean the final deliverables like slides or exercise. Those are important too, but here you'll be focused on the fundamentals, the outline, the big picture, or what Rob calls [[The Workshop Skeleton]]

<BodyBlockquote color="cyan">
  Making slides first is a huge mistake and will ruin your workshop be trapping
  you in the details before you’ve figured out the fundamentals.
</BodyBlockquote>

Understanding and designing for the [[learning outcomes]] that your learners want to achieve is the most important activity that you should be working on when you sit down to research and design your Workshop Skeleton.

Rob's other book, The Mom Test, is an excellent resource for researching learner outcomes. We also really like Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman's 30x500 and Samuel Hulick's Value Paths framework.

The Workshop Survival Guide describes three pillars of a successful workshop.

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="the-audience-profile"
  number={2}
  title="The Audience Profile"
/>

You've got to understand who you are designing the workshop for. This is how you know what to include and what to cut. Be specific. Be crispy.

Why are they showing up to this workshop?

What will they be able to take away with them?

How will they "win"?

You've got to understand your audience if you have any chance of developing strong learner outcomes.

<SkeletonHandSeparator id="the-schedule" number={2} title="The Schedule" />

DO NOT underestimate the importance of coffee breaks.

Breaks are critical to your workshops success. For every 60-90 minutes of content you need to give learners 15 minutes to unwind and process what they've just taken in. Stretch their legs. Get some caffeine flowing. Chat a little. Ask casual questions.

Design your workshop around the breaks.

<SkeletonHandSeparator
  id="learner-outcomes"
  number={3}
  title="Learner Outcomes"
/>

What can they do now that they couldn't do before this workshop.

Designing learner outcomes is the absolute 100% no-question most important job you have as a facilitator.

Not vague outcomes or loose objectives.

Concrete, no-bullshit, "this is your new super power" learner outcomes.

With a half-day workshop you can expect to get roughly 6 learning outcomes accomplished. That's about 30-45 minutes per learning outcome, but the goal isn't to hit the "perfect number" or cram as many outcomes as possible into a day of learning.

<BodyBlockquote color="cyan">
  spend more time per Learning outcome as opposed to trying to squeeze in more
  of them.
</BodyBlockquote>

Learner outcomes are a cluster of ideas. They are the thesis of your presentation composed of sub-outcomes the come together to form the basis of what the learner needs to know, believe, or be able to do.

It's a fact that you'll have way more ideas and content than you can possibly hope to cram into a single workshop. Your job is to curate resources with a hyper-focus on learner outcomes. Not deliver some vague topic, but a clear set of high-value takeways.

The first draft of the Workshop Skeleton should take about an hour to create. Review your research, think about the learners that will be at your workshop, and most importantly capture the absolutely essential learner outcomes that you can think of.

Stop there. Sit with it for a few days.

Spending time focused on the Workshop Skeleton will allow you to iterate and think more deeply on the value that you'll deliver for learners in the form of outcomes. Keep your Workshop Skeleton close at hand so you can simmer with it, stare at it on your phone or in your favorite notebook, and work it like a piece of raw value clay that will be modeled into crispy learner outcomes.

This rough skeleton is probably shareable. You can get feedback extremely early. You can ask collegues or potential learners what they think.

"how does this feel?"

<BodyBlockquote color="cyan">
  much of becoming a better facilitator isn’t actually about getting “better”,
  but rather about doing stuff ahead of time which makes your life easier on the
  day-of
</BodyBlockquote>

Your workshop will consist of a flow between 5 [[essential teaching formats]] that support the learner outcomes within your Workshop Skeleton. The formats are the building blocks of your workshop and should allow you to effectively fill in the space between coffee breaks with crispy value nuggets that keep your learners active and engaged.

<AccentedSubtitle color="cyan">Lectures</AccentedSubtitle>

**Lectures** should support your Learning outcomes and help extract lessons-learned from other Teaching Formats, but shouldn’t overstated their welcome

Your workshop is not a series of lectures that talk at the learners until they are all staring at their phones or glazed over asleep with their eyes closed.

Lectures should start with a sections key learner outcome, add a few supporting arguments, and not meander into anything that isn't related to the learner outcome.

<AccentedSubtitle color="yellow">
  Small group and pair discussion
</AccentedSubtitle>

**Small group and pair discussion** allow students to wrestle with clear questions with ambiguous answers

This format is challenging but can be the ultimate teaching format that allows learners to engage and more deeply consider the core learner outcomes of your workshop.

Being able to design and facilitate small group (and pair) discussions is a workshop super power and spending time developing these skills will allow you to deliver successful workshops on almost any topic.

Small group discussions are facilitated and have a purpose. They aren't vague soft questions. They are crispy essential questions that dig into big ideas. These discussions are brief, 2-5 minutes, but the overall exercise will take 10-15 minutes of actual workshop time.

The discussion prompt must support the current learner outcome.

Really great discussions happen when there is no right answer and the question is very clear.

It's your job to facilitate the discussion by instructing learners explicitly and specifically about what they are supposed to be talking about.

Not just saying it out loud, but presenting it visually on a slide that clearly states the question and goals of the discussion.

<BodyBlockquote color="cyan">
  Good prompts allow for good conversations, and it’s your job to figure them
  out, in advance, and ensure that they’re clear, interesting, and relevant.
</BodyBlockquote>

if you're lazy in the design of the discussion prompt you'll lose credibility with learners.

<AccentedSubtitle color="green">Q&A</AccentedSubtitle>

**Q&A** has a ton of problems, but should still be included after each Learning outcome (or before each break) to catch misunderstandings and act as a schedule spring

Unstructured Q&A sucks. Only confident learners will participate and it's just generally a bad teaching format. Q&A does NOT make your boring lecture interactive.

They do sometimes reveal overall structural flaws in the material.

Q&A is the first thing you'll delete if you are running late. Q&A gives you wiggle room in the schedule.

<BodyBlockquote color="cyan">
  Instead of vaguely asking if anyone has “any questions"”, be more specific and
  encourage them to ask questions which are relevant to exactly what you just
  talked about (and include a helpful reminder about what those things are)
</BodyBlockquote>

An alternative is the "Post Up" where everybody writes down a question on a post-it note and puts it up on the front wall. This provides you with a mind-reading super power as a facilitator!

**“Try it now”** builds skills through a bit of hands-on practice, though the prompt must be carefully refined to be neither too easy nor too hard

Learners need to DO something to really internalize the learner objectives where learners will form groups, work from a clear prompt, and then discuss what they've done.

The task needs to be right-sized.

Goldilocks. Not too hot and not too cold. Just right.

Assistance can be baked into the exercise providing clues, waypoints, hints, and how-to so that learners will be able to succeed even when the task is slightly too difficult.

Avoid making them **[[draw the rest of the fucking owl]]** with a far reaching task and instead consider how you will divide the exercise up into clear achievable sub-tasks in a step-by-step way.

Sometimes learner objectives will require several related try it now exercises.

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  id="try-it-now-exercise-build-skill"
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  title="Try it now exercise build skill."
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**Scenario Challenges** help foster judgement and critical thinking be asking students to understand, evaluate, and decide how to act in a difficult situation

A scenario challenge requires learners figure out what they they need to do. They provide learners with the opportunity to gain experience which leads to better judgement ant the ability to think about problems related to the learner objectives.

"What would you do if `{BLANK}`?"

"What's wrong with `{BLANK}`?"

The first task is to evaluate the situation and identify what matters with some class-wide discussion. The second task is about deciding what action to take and doing it.

A well designed scenario task can easily act as the structure for a full 45-90 minute section of a workshop and combines many of the formats above into a cohesive holistic format.

One thing that you won't be focused on when designing and producing your workshop is a slide deck. Slides are an important tool, but you don't need a lot of them. They don't need to be littered with stock photos or even have a lot of visual styling.

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  id="do-not-focus-on-creating-cool-visual-beautiful-slides-or-presentations"
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  title="Do not focus on creating cool visual beautiful slides or presentations."
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You can make them look nice, but this should be well at the bottom of your overall priority list. Instead slides will be very focused on punctuating key moments within your workshop.

Do not spend a lot of time and energy on slide deck presentations for your workshop. This is a mistake that many workshop facilitators make.

Slides are used sparingly and for a very small set of intentional purposes.

There are 3 types of slides that you'll have for learners that will effectively enhance their experience and not drag down the overall flow of your workshop.

<AccentedSubtitle color="cyan">
  Essential slide 1: Learning Outcome summaries
</AccentedSubtitle>

This is a single slide that clearly states the outcome that the learners have or will achieve.

The outcome is the title of the slide. Maybe the only text. Clearly stated and obvious. Any additional text will be minor and support or restate the learner outcome.

<AccentedSubtitle color="yellow">
  Essential slide 2: Exercise prompts
</AccentedSubtitle>

Again these are a single slide, clearly presented that articulate what a learner can expect from an exercise and what they are expected to do. for particularly complex exercises it might be required to orient the learner with the slide and direct them to more detailed instructions within a different document like a README or handout.

<AccentedSubtitle color="green">
  Essential slide 3: Resources lists (and intro/outro)
</AccentedSubtitle>

People LOVE resources and slides that contain additional resources are valuable for the learner. These resources are the source material and next steps from your own research. A curated high signal list of value nuggets that learners can used to take their learning outcomes to the next level beyond what is covered in the workshop.

You should now have a well-scheduled Workshop Skeleton that focuses on learner outcomes. It won't be perfect, but your Workshop Skeleton is an asset and you can deliver this workshop again combining what you know back into the Workshop Skeleton. The first iteration is the most challenging, but if you care enough to put in the up front work, it is sure to be a success.

One of the long term goals of our workshops is often to convert them to self-paced courses that learners can use to achieve the learner outcomes at scale without you being present in the room with them. In our experience the best courses are the result of play testing the material in the workshop format and many topics translate directly to self-paced courses and books.

If you'd like more details check out Rob's awesome book [The Workshop Survival Guide](https://www.amazon.com/Workshop-Survival-Guide-educational-workshops/dp/1071344374?crid=3KY0GBBEXY69M&keywords=workshop+survival+guide&qid=1655835661&sprefix=workshop+survival+guid,aps,126&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=joehoobuiblo-20&linkId=e70ed879306501c60c13e7b1db851967&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl). We also think his book [Write Useful Books](https://www.amazon.com/Write-Useful-Books-recommendable-nonfiction/dp/1919621601?qid=1655835947&refinements=p_27:Adam+Rosen&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Adam+Rosen&linkCode=sl1&tag=joehoobuiblo-20&linkId=44f0820228190cde9627a2b40e2fca22&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl) makes an excellent sequel.

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