Last week, I started this online journal about my journey into the unknown in 2024.
Today is Thursday, and I remembered with a jolt that I said I would do that. So here’s what I’ve been doing for the past week.
I’ve made progress on my online course, and have found a topic that I think will work. I want to make a course about the various research methods people can use when writing a memoir. Here’s how I got there:
1. I made a list of my skills and knowledge and experience. That’s a standard step in online course creation but I did it differently. I simply found similar lists I have made in the past. The thing is I have tried many, many times to conceptualise an online course and always failed. So there’s a lot of work already done.
2. Based on that list, I brainstormed some ideas for topics. One was a course I tentatively called “21st Century Skills for 20th Century People”. The basic idea is that there are many older people who struggle with what I loosely think of as “tech” and that I could use the fact that I am also older and my considerably skills as a tech explainer to help those people. The other idea was much more loosely formulated but the thought was to offer training in various research skills. That was tentatively called “How to do research like a journalist.15 ways to validate your online course idea.
3. I then set about doing some research on those two topic, basing my methodology on this guide: 15 ways to validate your online course idea.
4. What learned was that there’s a fair amount of online material offering tech skills for older people but – crucially – there is a motherlode of material aimed at helping people to write their memoirs. Which means there is a market for a niche course in that area. Bingo: an idea is born.
I’ve revamped my plan for making that course and work begins in earnest next week.
Picture: Laura Fuhrman, Unsplash
