Design Your Own Course (book review)

Recently I’ve recorded some sessions for an educational content creator course (check it here: https://edunation.com.pl/kurstworcow). This reminded me that I haven’t written a review of one of the best books on the topic – Course Design Strategy: The Art of Making People Learn by Ethan Honary. The title may look like it refers only to course design itself – but in fact it covers much more than designing a course. It includes many interesting facts about the process of learning, and the ways we can adjust our teaching methods to make them more efficient and enjoyable.

Interestingly, the author is not a teacher! Ethan Honary is a training consultant and a course designer. That gives him a unique perspective that may change your teaching approach.

The book will help you understand various strategies and insights on:

how to make lessons memorable
how to understand what your learners expect from you
how to work on feedback
and generally how to make learning an easier and more satisfactory process.

Book Organization

The book is divided into 16 chapters. The journey begins with the most important aspect of an educational process: the learner. The first chapters focus on the psychology of a learner, understanding the basics of neuroscience, and the process of learning. The next chapters help you learn more about making memorable content, structuring it logically and managing the cognitive load. Final chapters give valuable information about various types of exercises as well as giving and receiving feedback.

Content

This book will not give you ready-made solutions. It will offer you some principles, will make you think, and reflect on your own teaching approach. It will help you understand that teaching and training, in general, are both science and art. You already master the art part of teaching on your own, using practical knowledge combined with your own personal style and unique expressions. Yet you might need some help in using evidence-based research to understand the brain, psychology, and how to make people learn. This book will provide you with that knowledge.

Additionally, a great book on learning can’t rely only on theoretical approaches and ideas. You will also find some interesting exercises and activities that will help you not only understand the point, but also use the knowledge you’ve gained in a practical and applicable context of your own classroom.

Personally, I found this book really refreshing. After reading so many teacher-written books on the methodology of teaching, I definitely needed to look at teaching from the perspective of an outsider.

Recommendations

The great thing about the book is that it helps you look at your everyday teaching from a different perspective. As I mentioned, the author is not a teacher, so some things might be already familiar to you. Still, they are presented in the way that will show you a fresh perspective on education.

You may think that since you’re not the course creator, this book isn’t for you. However, I believe that every teacher should sometimes read something about education by someone out of educational loop.

I personally found this book not only refreshing but also inspiring, and that’s why I believe every teacher should take a look at it. I’m sure you’re going to have a lot of fun!