What is a learning arc and why does it matter?

A learning arc (also called a course arc) is the journey you’re bringing your learner on. It’s how one step leads to another, builds on the previous step, and helps them get to point B. It’s both the larger picture and the connections between the pieces. It’s the forest and the trees. 

It’s a story. 

In quite a few of my 16 years as a writing teacher, I saw many a literacy narrative (this is an assignment sometimes assigned in a first year writing class that is a story about becoming literate in the very broad sense of the term). One of my most frequent pieces of feedback was:

“Don’t forget to bring your reader along for the ride.” 

This means don’t forget to thread the ideas together so we know how we’re getting from the last scene or sentence to the next. Don’t leave me guessing.

It’s both purposeful and transparent.

This applies to learning experiences as well. 

Remember your learner doesn’t know how step 1 and step 2 are connected. They’re coming to you to learn something, so you need to be transparent about the reasons you’re doing Step 1, how they’re going to help you get to step 2, and the impact it’ll have on the overall process. 

In other words, be clear about how we’re getting down the path and how this next step builds off the previous one and helps me get to the next one. 

When learners know the reasons for the things they’re being asked to do, they’re more motivated to do them. They can see how the seemingly unrelated thing or tedious thing will help.

It can help them find a pathway into to answering your questions or doing the activities in a way that will help them moving forward.

You create a solid course arc that takes the learner on a journey where they can see where they’re coming from and where they’re going (we’re talking panoramic views). A course arc needs to be transparent along the way, and the goal is making the steps interwoven and connected. 

How the hell do I do that?

1. You start with the big goals and work backwards. List out the big goals for the training or course. What smaller goals do they need to reach to get to the big ones? You’re going to map these backwards. It might look like this: 

2. Know your learners.Knowing who your learners are, why they need to learn this thing, what change they’re going to get out of it, and why is important to both double checking the goals and moving on to determine content and activities. 

This is true for both courses and training. If the training is required, this can sometimes create resistance - knowing this about the learners can help you get ahead of initial resistance to engaging with the learning experience. 

This also includes knowing what your learner is coming with. What level are they? Don’t teach calligraphy basics in an intermediate class. Provide references if they happened to miss some piece of information, but be clear it’s an “if you don’t already know this, go check out X.”

This is why talking to stakeholders is so important, and learners as stakeholders are often forgotten about.

3. Using the goals map, your knowledge, and what you know about your learners, you can start plugging in the content and activities that they’ll need to reach the small goals. 

How? This is where alignment comes into play. If your goal is for your learners to have an idea for creating passive income as the large goal and your smaller goals are to figure out what you love to do, a list of what you’re good at, and map that onto a list of passive income that’s lucrative, then you’ll want to be sure that you’re moving your learners from identifying what they love to creating a list, then identifying what they’re good at and creating a list, and finally drawing connections between all those things. I like a good visual, so the one here gives a basic outline. 

Then take it a step further. When you’re asking them to do the identifying, what content do you need to give them? What do they need to know from you? You don’t have to write it all out, just identify it as the topic. 

How will they apply that information? What questions will you ask them? How will they answer them? Where will they answer them?

How will they put it in a list? What should they consider? 

4. This is the big step: Connection. This is where you draw the connections between the content and the content engagement and the content application and the goals. Be prepared, this could and should get messy. But this will help you be able to articulate the connections that you know are there as the expert. 

For example, if we stick with our course on passive income, when you’re giving students the information, tell them how they’ll use it. 

When you’re telling them the questions to answer and where to answer them, explain how answering these questions utilize the content and set them up for the next step. 

When you’re asking them to put it in a list and what they should consider, tell them why. Tell them how this step of making a list builds on the content, the questions they answered, and the next step you’ll have them take to eventually reach point B. 

These are the core of getting a course map started in a way that makes the learning arc transparent to both you and the learner.