I have been an online course creator for about 5 years and have about 15 courses that I sell to school teachers on how to improve their teaching and relate to their students in more effective ways. I have a lot of experience in this area having been a school administrator and School Professional Developer for the past 15 years. My courses up to this point are popular with students and receive what I considered "good" reviews. The courses had the typical type of curriculum that teachers would find in an online college class since my first experience in the online world was in fact, creating online university classes.
In my old courses, there were a few videos, some discussion boards, stuff to read and some practice-based activities to do. While I used module objectives to guide the content, designing a mission for the course and for each module was more inspiring and motivating. During Marissa's training I realized that although the course had meaningful information, and I tried to change it up by using several modalities, it could be a lot more fun by designing in some points of unstoppable momentum. I am now designing a totally new course and using what I have learned in the EPM course to make the modules more focused on the module mission and future self vision. I think the new design will provide peak emotional experiences that will keep my students wanting to keep learning new content from week to week.
During the course, I couldn't wait for Tuesdays and Thursdays to see the new content that Marissa would provide. I want to create courses that people can't wait to open and work through just as I did with EPM content. I feel that I can now create exactly that kind of course for my students. The only overwhelming thing for me now is how to find the time to now go back and recreate my 15 older courses in the same image! But not a bad problem to have, I think! lol
I also learned new ways to approach marketing - the one biggest area that I most dreaded in my business. I had seen people use many of the techniques that Marissa taught us in Module 4 but I never really understood how to implement those ideas in my own work. I gained a lot of good insight from module 4 that I can use to expand and grow my business.
I am looking forward to our live event and hope to continue gaining great ideas that I can use to build and grow my business. I have totally enjoyed EPM and what we have learned in this course! Thank you, Marissa for a great learning experience!
What is your biggest takeaway from EPM?
I really liked how Marissa blended static slides with video and made it fun to learn the information. I took another course from another provider that basically said fill up each module with a bunch of videos under 10 minutes each. I was not interested in watching their information and did not find it fun to learn. With this class, I looked forward to getting to my computer every Tuesday and Thursday to see what new information I would get. I also liked the Friday Tech sessions.
How did EPM help you become successful?
It motivated me to finish the learning modules and put together a new and much improved course. I have developed over 15 online courses in the past and they have sold well and been popular but none of them have the special "pizzazz" that I believe my new one will have. It has taken me twice as long to produce this one since I am creating meaningful videos but when I finish, I want to go back and experiencify my other courses to make them better as well.
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
Same as how it helped me become successful. I don't have the course completely ready to deliver yet but I have written all of the scripts so now it is just a matter of creating the presentations and putting together the videos. I have already sold some spots in the course and I am hoping that when my current students see the new course, they will tell many, many others.
What has been the biggest change in your business?
I am creating a new website on Heroic. It is not finished yet because I am working on developing the product but I think it will be good once I get it set up and start sending traffic there. I appreciate the chance to use this new tool.
What are you most excited about moving forward with your Experience Product?
Seeing how students respond and where I will need to make revisions and iterate the product to awesome. I think it is shaping up pretty awesomely already so I hope my students will think so too. I am looking at course development in an entirely new way now and have lots of ideas on how to improve my old course collection.