When you're designing a course you're trying to reach people. So, it's really useful before you start making the course to spend some time thinking about who the course is for. Defining your learner means you can really target the course, making it relevant (and valuable) to them.
Brainstorm who your learners are
We recommend getting a group together to brainstorm all you know about your target audience - your learners. Ideally these are people "close" to the learners. For instance your group might include those who: have taught this course before, are involved in marketing, potential employers and so on.
Start by drawing a rough outline of your learner. Then use the questions below to generate discussion and record the salient points.
Here's some learner attributes you should consider:
Demographics and background
Age?
Gender?
Ethnicity?
Education and training background?
Employment situation?
Experiences they're likely to have had?
Current skill level/prior knowledge of course content?
Goals and motivations
Where do they want to get to?
What does success look like for them?
What will they take with them when they finish the course?
What motivates the learner?
What reasons will the learner have to continue and complete the course?
What activities or hobbies does the learner like?
Barriers
What is getting in the way of their success?
What are their challenges?
What are the stumbling blocks in terms of their own skills and abilities, the resources available, other people (especially stakeholders), and even the constraints of time and space?
What barriers will they have to engagement? Achievement?
Engagement
How do you envisage they'll be working through the courses?
What strengths will they bring to their learning?
How does the learner like to operate: alone, in a group, or some other way?
Do they like to do and build things or do they like to read and think about things?
Define the design requirements
Once you've done your brainstorm, it's time to take the answers to these questions and turn it into what it means for your course design. You may find it useful to capture sentiments or attributes and respective design requirement in a table. For example:
By doing this, you end up with a sort of "rule book" to follow as you design the course. Things that, if you follow them, are more likely to mean your learners are engaged, challenged and supported in the way they need.
This table and your view of your learner is also the perfect thing to check off against your goals or flavour - Are the goals and flavour meeting your learners' needs?
If you've completed identifying your audience as your first step in planning, and you're thinking "where to next?" a great next step is to look for themes in your table and pull these together to define the flavour. Check our our article Course planning - Define the flavour.