But, as they say, "Fast, high quality, cheap - choose no more than two." How to navigate among the endless variety of educational programs and choose the right one? How can you save money? These are the questions that are being asked by many.
Some of them can be found on the Internet. A large number of articles and recommendations have been written for potential students, which tell you how to look for courses and what to look for. Do they help? It often happens that the information in the preview is scarce enough to make an informed decision and exclude possible risks. Or, on the contrary, you are promised that you will become a professional in 2 days of training, but this, as you understand, cannot be.
And if we talk about the other side of the question, about recommendations to educational institutions, then this information is practically absent.Of course, there are requirements for the design of educational programs for children, for general developmental and general education programs for adolescents, but this is another area. Our question is about finding and taking courses, receiving additional education, and, in general, developmental programs, at a conscious age and for specific goals.
And as a result, among all the diversity, the issue of the complexity of choosing a training format, program, educational institution or personal trainer becomes even more relevant.
As a person who wants to develop, explore new directions and make my work more effective and progressive, I have a lot of questions at the moment of searching. For myself, I have developed a list of criteria, a kind of filter and a checklist through which I pass all the available information on the chosen educational project, adjusted for the current need.
Here's the list:
- Immersion depth
- Minimum entry threshold
- The quality of the content provided, relevance to the declared program and the market
- Convenience of the training system
- Networking - networking and networking
- Availability of license and certification
- Teacher
- About money ...
and several other criteria. I would also like to listen to your criteria.
The most difficult and resource-consuming thing is to collect information for a complete answer to each of the described points. At the same time, no one will reimburse you the time spent on searching and collecting information, and even more so on the uselessly completed course.
Therefore, there is a proposal to introduce mandatory conditions for registration and content. So to speak, to form the initial standard for launching educational programs in the form of courses, webinars, and so on. Let's fix our requirements as whoever pays calls the tune.
Let's go through the criteria described above.
1. Immersion depth
It may not always be necessary to immediately plunge into the jungle of new methodologies, directions, tools. And it is certainly not always advisable to buy an expensive course right away. Sometimes you just need an understanding of what they can give, what tasks to solve, in achieving what goals they can help, in order to connect them at the right time in the future. Thus, you save both your resources and your business.
There are two options, either you are looking for information yourself, or you use a prepared webinar / course / meeting for a quick surface dive.
I propose to come up with a categorization of educational programs so that everyone immediately understands what he will receive.
As an example, I offer my own, and since the depth is associated with swimming, then the classification is as follows.
1. Froggy:Superficial - to understand the purpose, list of tools, use cases. Includes only superficial theory, mostly new vocabulary. Well, it seemed to flounder, I realized that it was cool, but I didn't get the buzz. Or in other words: from "free" to "cheap", very superficial. Mostly used in presentations and webinars.
2. Swimming pool:Medium-introductory - first point + more immersion in theory + there may be examples from practice. Perhaps a couple of practical mini-tasks without feedback. You begin to understand how and where it can be applied in life, what tasks are being solved, but only in theory. I have already learned to swim on the surface. Or in other words: from “cheap” to “acceptable more”. They showed carrots, carrots are useful, but they have not been washed or peeled. Often given in webinars or short courses.
3. Free diving:Shallow immersion is sufficient to start using it somehow in life, since all the same, maximum knowledge will come through experience. The first point + the second point + practical tasks with full feedback. You are already diving under the water to the depth of inhalation. You swim like this, colorful fish, corals, algae. You feel it with your hands. But in practice, a flock of jellyfish swims up, and you don't understand which are poisonous. Or in other words: from “acceptable” to “expensive”, the carrots are washed, tasty, but firm.
4. Scuba diving:Deep dive with your case study or perhaps with a personal coach. But be prepared to pull skeletons out of the closet;). Well, or you're all like that now in a suit, scuba diving and jellyfish are not scary. But then… :). Or in another way: from “expensive” to “very expensive”, but it is adequately and fully applicable in life. The carrots were washed, grated, poured (whoever likes what, sour cream, butter, and so on), they gave a spoon.
5. Mariana Trench: Full immersion. You are so completely immersed in it ... and all around the darkness and ... In short, do not poke your nose here. This is not covered by the courses. This gives only a full-fledged education in N years, with immersion in that very thing ... in order to be able to filter, purify and turn it into spring water. Well, or gain a lot of experience.
This will, at a minimum, reduce search volume and time spent, as a maximum, will give the audience an understanding of the quality of your teaching staff and materials.
2. The minimum entry threshold
Based on the first point, we see that for each block a different degree of preparation may be required so that the teacher and students walk at the right pace and speak the same language. This can be both technical background and just an understanding of a particular area and terminology.
Some educational institutions filter participants at the entrance. When resolving this issue, it is desirable that the following points be taken into account:
- A complete description of the requirements for the preparation of potential students was formed and presented.
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- Maintain communication. If a potential listener has not passed the entry threshold, provide feedback. Send individual links to information (see section 2) in gratitude for choosing your institution. Feeling appropriate and cared for also increases the chances of returning and purchasing the course.
- If you do not have minimum requirements, then select a separate introductory block to synchronize terms and concepts with the audience.
In general, do not forget that the design of the program, advertising, communication and other interactions with the audience is the face of the company.
3. Quality of the provided content, relevance to the declared program and the market
This question is multifaceted and can cause a lot of controversy, so I will write in general terms, to which I draw your attention.
So, a small checklist:
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- Quoting in professional communities and among potential employers
- Adaptation for the Russian listener and our reality
- Alienability of blocks of the educational program
- Working with feedback, reviews, statistics and analytics.
Other. Special attention to practice and examples provided.
It would be ideal if each educational institution ran courses and webinars on this checklist, and also added a short review of the results to each course.
4. Convenience of the training system
Here, too, there can be highly individual requirements.
For my part, I would like to note some nuances.
- Save progress and quickly jump to a breakpoint
- Excluding everything unnecessary from training pages (UI design)
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Yes, yes, this is also one of the main criteria for choosing a course. I took it to a separate point to emphasize attention.
To meet this criterion, it is necessary to have a sufficient reputation, confirmed by the expertise of the teaching staff and reliable partners, thanks to which interesting listeners with their unique knowledge can be attracted. After all, each student contributes to the further development of educational programs.
Therefore, establish contacts and form a beautiful page with a list of partners and participants.
6. Availability of license and certification
- Indicate the presence of a license for the right to conduct educational activities.
- Indicate the possibility of issuing a Certificate / Diploma / other type of official paper on the completion of the course / advanced training and so on.
- If certification tests / theses and other types of final attestations are carried out, then they must be carried out according to the applicable theoretical and practical topics of the course.
- Do not ask questions that do not carry a semantic meaning. For example: What year did NNN University open? What is the founder of the MMM methodology? other.
- If the student has not passed the certification, then the question arises for both parties, and not only for the listener.
7. Teacher
Also a multifaceted theme with individual characteristics.
Briefly about my suggestions and wishes:
- Neat appearance and pleasant tone of voice
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For more involvement, you can create a small welcome to the course, conduct a webinar / seminar, etc., to understand the level of the teacher and his option for presenting information, since this is all very individual. Often the teacher is among the top criteria for choosing a course.
8. About money ...
- Let's learn to be responsible for the quality of materials and work with feedback. On some sites, there are various “quality assurance” options: money back (https://udemy.com), free trial (https://coursera.org), free first lesson, introductory webinar, promotional webinars, and so on. And then most of the courses are about quality and quantity, but in them neither one nor the other. Or connect to existing sites where you can host courses with such a policy.
- Adequate pricing depending on the training option, course content and relevance, support option during the course, training level, teacher level.
- The cost should pay off not only to you, but also to the listener.
But, of course, all this cannot be implemented qualitatively if there is no mutual correspondence.
That is, there are certain kinds of wishes for the listeners:
- If you have chosen a course, but you understand that you do not have the required level of training, then please respect yourself and others. Prepare yourself or use the information provided.
- Don't always look at the big name of the institution or the high / low cost. Calculate your resources based on need, payback, opportunity and feasibility.
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I'm ready to take part in all activities.
In the end, I would like to once again focus on mutual respect and the value of time. Now it is more than relevant.
A special appeal to educational institutions. You have already done a lot of work, there is very little left to do to get closer to your audience.
Thank you for attention. All beaver and grated carrots!
PS
If this article arouses any interest, then I'm ready to go through the criteria and a checklist for several educational institutions and educational programs, for example. It may be possible to supplement or shorten something, as well as provide useful information for readers in order to shorten the search time. Now the description is formed based on the results of the courses I took earlier.
UPD
Changed the title so as not to be misleading.