Podcast E042: The Power of Design for Your Online Course Slides and Workbooks with Emily Hall

In today’s episode, guest Emily Hall shares some amazing advice on how to create slides and workbooks for your course so that they enhance your course – and don’t distract your students! Emily is “passionate about communicating powerful messages in beautiful and authentic ways.” 

LINKS MENTIONED

Join us for the Topic and Title Challenge for a Rockstar Course at TopicAndTitleChallenge.com. 

Get Emily’s help with your slides and workbooks at this link. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.” ~ Steve Jobs

• Don’t forget the visuals!
• Plan everything out first. How can I visualize this message?
• You have 3-4 seconds to use your slide as a “billboard” to give the message.
• You want your students to listen to you and use the slide to reinforce your message.
• Break free of the templates!
• Keep it minimal and avoid the extras (page numbers and logos are not needed on every slide). 
• Make sure each slide has ONE idea on it. Ask yourself, “Am I communicating only one idea here?”
• You’ll have a lot more slides than you think. 
• The number of slides does not equal the amount of time it takes to get through the presentation. 
• For pacing, try for about 30 seconds to a 1 minute per slide. The most important thought is to stay fairly consistent per slide for a cadence that feels balanced. 
• Text vs. Pictures vs. Both… “None of them are wrong as long as they are relevant.” 
• “If it doesn’t add to the message, it doesn’t belong there.”
• Scripting can be helpful if you struggle with recording. 
• Tie your information together and connect the dots for yourself to organize your thoughts. 
• Bring in storytelling to increase memory retention.  

Emily works on content development with her clients… new information should be tied to a story with story-telling elements. You want to tie your stories to the types of experiences your audience has already had. 

• Ask yourself, “How did I learn this?” because that story can be powerful. 
• We draw connections to things they have already experienced.
• Use examples, metaphors and references to pop culture.
• Your students will visualize themselves as the hero in the story and it will decrease their objections to implementing your course. 

Make sure your images are licensed correctly for the way you are using them. Even when you work with a designer, get the licenses for the images used. (You can’t just pull random images from Google!) Consult your attorney to get specific advice. 

Make sure your workbooks are printer-friendly (so you don’t use all the ink for your students)! Use colors as accents. Give people enough space to do the assignment in the workbook. Consider adding fillable PDFs so students can type directly into PDF. 

Top 3 Pieces of Advice:

1. Plan Your Content First
2. Less Is More
3. Everything You Include Applies to Everyone

There’s no one right way to do your slides!