How to Create a Cohesive Course Structure

Do you want your course to serve its purpose right? Then, you definitely need to ensure it is well-structured and helps your students stay focused on the outcomes. 

Your course structure helps the students to understand how the learning process is organized and how they can expect to achieve the end goal. And when it comes to evaluating results and monitoring your student’s success it’s easier for you to manage and assess. 

Yet, what can prove to be the best framework for you to structure the course? How can you make sure it is organized? In this article, we will discuss 

• The connection and sequences of modules 
• The optimal format and content type for your modules
• The balance between theory and practice, and 
• Examples of course structure flow you can follow

5 Key ways to make your course structure clear 

First thing first, what does a clear and successful course structure imply? The components of a well-structured course include 

• the learning objectives you set, 
• a logically organized flow of content, 
• and engaging activities suitable for your students’ preferences
• assessments and feedback systems you use to monitor progress. 

So, before we can develop any of these components, the very first step would be to perform audience research. This is because you need to focus on that one specific group within your audience. To begin, you can ask yourself the following questions.

• How does this group within my audience relate to the subject of my course?
• What skills do they already have?
• Where are they starting with their journey with you?
• What are they expecting to get from your course?

Supposing you already know what change your audience is looking for, let’s move to structuring your course. 

Start with the learning outcome

One of the easiest ways to brainstorm and organize modules is by beginning with your learning objectives. You can break them into milestones and dedicate a module for each. So, you need to think about the end result you want to provide to the student. 

And here the tricky part comes. 

We make the result to be so general and huge that the whole course becomes frustrating for the students. Of course, you can make a whole 90-hour course and try to cover everything from A to Z. The question is, is it going to be effective for your specific course topic? 

“Nowadays, things have changed radically. People want to get results fast. They want also the certainty that their investment is going to the place that they needed to be in order to get the result that they want. So, you as a course creator should practice radical honesty with yourself and with your students. And we want to create that type of trust with our audience because we want them to not only purchase one product, we want them to be in our circle, in our learning universe for a very long time”.

Mariana Pena

Instructional designer

It is always a great idea to be realistic about 

• how much material your students are ready to learn
• how much material you plan to cover 

For your learning outcome not to just sit on the paper, we also need to make them as specific as possible. 

“I think about what I want my students to be able to do by the end of the course. And then I work backward. And that becomes my goalpost. It is my northern star. I work from that. And that's  the piece that you really have to be careful about because you got to think about, am I trying to have them do way too much in this?”

Jessica Terzakis,

Course creator, curriculum designer

Once you have the specific outcomes, brainstorming the modules will be much easier. You’ll know exactly what content to include and what to leave out. Let’s look at an example. 

Unspecific goal: "Learn about marketing."

Specific goal: "Learn to develop and launch a social media marketing campaign using Facebook Ads and Google Analytics to measure effectiveness."

With the second example, the potential modules we can include in the course examples are way more clear. For example, you can dedicate modules for 

• Setting campaign goals
• Launching a Facebook ad campaign
• Introduction to Google Analytics
• Measuring Campaign Effectiveness with Google Analytics 
• You get the idea!

You can see how easy it is to develop the module structure right after we are clear on the course outcome. Now, the question is, which structure you can follow? 

Choose your course structure framework 

The course structure format you can choose for delivery mostly depends on your topic. What does this suggest? It means that the way you organize your content should align with how the material flows. For example, if your course includes a process like creating a social media campaign, the best way to deliver that would be the step-by-step instructions. 

1. Step-by-step course structure 

In this structure format you build each lesson on the previous one. This mean, you guide your students through your sequence of topics and complete one phase before they can understand the next. 

Going back to our social media ads example, each module would cover a single stage of the process. So, we start with audience research, move through ad creation, and finish with analyzing campaign effectiveness. 

• Structure

Module 1: Setting campaign goals

Module 2: Creating Facebook ads

Module 3: Launching and managing ads

Module 4: Using Google Analytics for measurement

Module 5: Optimizing campaigns 

1. Results and answers structure 

Do you plan to discuss different scenarios of a particular problem during your course? Then we can pick these scenarios you suggest and include them in the structure. For example, let’s say your course tries to help the student understand why their social media posts do not get enough engagement. In each module we present a scenario where engagement is low. And as part of the lessons we give a detailed explanation of how they can resolve it. 

• Structure 

Module 1: Low engagement despite regular posting

Module 2: Posts aren’t reaching the right audience

Module 3: Weak call-to-actions 

1. Flexible structure 

This type of structure is like a flexible course that students can access at their own pace, using it as a go-to guide whenever they need information or a refresher. 

So, what is the difference? Instead of following the strict path we saw in the case of previous structures, learners can explore the content that’s most relevant to them at any given time. It is particularly useful for students who are already familiar with some of the material but want to deepen their knowledge on specific points.

• Structure 

Managing Personal Finances

Module 1: Budgeting for financial stability

Module 2: Debt management and repayments

Module 3: Best ways for investing

Now that we are more clear on the structure, let’s see how you can actually organize your topics to fit the structure. 

Organizing course content into modules

First, let’s start with a big brainstorm. 

What are the main subtopics you want to cover in your course? Think of all the key areas that will help your students achieve the learning outcomes you've set. 

From our audience research, we already know the knowledge level of the students on this specific topic. And due to the outcome we set for the course it’s clear where they should be by the end of the course. 

So, what we need to do is create the result roadmap that will guide the students from the starting to the ending point. You can even make a visual representation and create the actual map with the milestones. 

“The roadmap is going to be structured in a way where they can take that as a checking point. And you as a course creator, you have to remember this when you are creating your modules, when you're closing each section”.

Mariana Pena

Instructional designer

How can you achieve it? Let’s suppose you are creating a 3-month course. This means you have about 90 days to deliver the results and the outcomes we set. To make that process even easier, you can divide the outcome into specific objectives and dedicate a module for each. 

A course module is a single unit of your course that focuses on one specific part of the subject you're teaching. And each module will include several lessons. One lesson is a single class within the larger module. In their turn, a single lesson will help you achieve the lesson objectives. 

When it comes to selecting the topics, don’t be afraid to get creative. You should write everything down—even the smaller ideas that pop into your head. 

TIP: To make sure you’re really on the right track, do a keyword analysis. This will help you figure out what your audience is actually searching for online. By targeting these keywords, you’ll be focusing on the topics they care about most. 

For a keyword analysis, you can use a free tool like Google Keywords Planner. You can check the average monthly searches for a particular topic and understand the interest levels more easily. 

Let’s suppose we are creating a course about easy meal preparation. We want to check if we should also focus on budget-friendly meal preparation as one of our modules. In this case, we can see that 1K-10K people search for this topic monthly. 

You can also other tools, such as Answer the Public if you need to brainstorm course lessons for your modules. 

Now that you have your module ideas, you can group them together by eliminating some of them or merging. 

Think about the order in which you'll teach them. What makes the most sense for your students? Should you start with the basics and build up? Or is there a topic they need to understand before diving into the next one?

So, as you organize, ask yourself: “Does this flow logically?” If you're ever in doubt, think about how you'd explain the topics to a friend. That’s often the best way to ensure your course content makes sense. 

Choose your content types and include them in your structure 

As we organized modules and lessons into a structure, let’s think about the particular type of content you can choose to include. 

The goal here is to understand which medium is the best to deliver the course content. You will need to think about 

• If the medium you choose is suitable for delivering the particular lesson in a clear way. 

If you're explaining something step-by-step, like how to use a software tool or follow a recipe, a video tutorial or screencast might be best. Visual learners will benefit from seeing the process in action. Yet, if it’s more theoretical, like explaining marketing principles, a written guide or infographic can work as well. 

• If the medium you choose is also how your students prefer to learn 

Again, depending on your topic and audience, some students prefer watching videos, while others love diving into text-based guides. 

“If your audience is used to video content, we cannot sell them an e-book. If you build your audience on your podcast, I am going to suggest that we still have video content, but primarily we're also going to convert the lessons into a private podcast list”.

 

Mariana Pena

Instructional Designer

• If your medium is also accessible to your audience 

Can all your students access the content in the way you’re delivering it? For example, if your videos should have captions. Or if downloadable materials can be accessed on different devices. The goal is to ensure that everyone, no matter their learning needs or technical setup, can engage with your course. 

The most popular content formats you can consider and include in your course structure include:

Video lessons

Videos are super popular for online courses because they bring a personal touch. You can explain concepts, walk through examples, or demonstrate something visually.

Pros

• Videos add a human touch to your course by letting students see and hear you, which makes the content feel more relatable and interactive.
• Most engaging format for content

Cons 

• Recording, editing, and producing high-quality videos takes more time and effort 

Audio lessons

Audio content works well for more discussion-based topics, storytelling, or any content that your students can get without needing visuals.

Pros

• Recording audio lessons requires less time and fewer resources compared to video production.
• Audios allow students to listen on the go. They can still listen to your course, whether they are exercising or multitasking, which makes learning more flexible.

Cons 

• It’s easy for the students to get distracted 

Downloadable materials

Some learners love having something tangible, and that’s where PDFs and worksheets come in. You can provide step-by-step guides, cheat sheets, or exercises that students can print out or fill in digitally. These are great for reinforcing lessons and offering students something they can refer back to after the course is over. 

Pros 

• PDFs can be downloaded and accessed offline 
• If information changes or needs to be adjusted, you can quickly edit and re-upload PDFs.

Cons

• Unlike videos or audio, PDFs lack the personal touch of seeing or hearing you, which makes the content feel less engaging.

Integrating assessments and feedback 

Assessments serve as checkpoints that let students apply what they’ve learned. They help reinforce key concepts and give you insight into how well the material is sticking.

“The video, audio materials, and worksheets are great. But above all, we have to create points of feedback because that's the most important part. If we don't have a way of giving them feedback, the actual transformation will not be there. And we know this from many, many years of research in education”. 

Mariana Pena

Instructional Designer

But assessments aren’t just about grading. You can make them fun and exciting. That is why you can consider adding:

• Quizzes and tests

These are great for quick knowledge checks. You can add them at the end of each lesson or module to test your students' understanding of the material. Quizzes can be as simple as multiple-choice questions, true or false, or even short answers.

• Practical assignments

Such assignments let students apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios. For example, you can ask them to create something based on what they’ve learned, such as a marketing plan or a web design mockup. 

• Review sessions

This is a great way to foster a learning community, especially in the case of live courses. You can organize discussion sessions and analyze the projects. During these live feedback sessions, your students can ask questions and get real-time advice. It’s also a great way to encourage engagement and interaction.

What makes your course structure great? 

If we were to summarize the above-mentioned points, this is what a well-structured course should look like. 

• Clear progression. Each module should build on the previous one, moving from introductory concepts to more advanced topics. For example, if you're teaching a course on social media marketing, you’d start with understanding different platforms and basic strategies before advancing to topics like analytics.
• Well-organized. The content should be grouped logically, making it easy for students to follow. Each section or module should have a clear focus. Try not to mix topics in the same module. It will only confuse students.
• Balanced learning experience.  A good course blends theory and practice. Let’s suppose you are creating a graphic design course. After learning the theory of color and layout, students should be tasked with creating their own designs to put those principles into action. 
• Focused on outcomes. Everything in the course should work toward a clear outcome or goal. Students should walk away with the skills or knowledge they were promised at the start.

Wrapping up your course structure journey

Creating an organized structure for your course is key to keeping students engaged and ensuring they achieve their learning goals. By following the tips we discussed, you can create a logical flow from one topic to the next. This is how you can create an experience that keeps students motivated and coming back for more. 

With Uteach, you can organize your cohort courses even more easily. It helps you create and sell courses in any format, maintain interactions with your students, enrich the learning experience, and analyze all the insights. Join Uteach for free and make your cohorts accessible to students worldwide.