Oh hey, I’m Gwen!

and It’s my honor to help you Create an awesome coursE

Are you a frazzled content expert, coach, or consultant who desperately wants to get a handle on creating a course?

Well, guess what? I’m a course designer who loves helping people like you organize their ideas and turn them into courses that share their expertise and passions.

I know what you’re feeling, especially if this is the first time you are creating a course. Let me share a quick anecdote…

But I don’t know anything about cars!

When I graduated from college, I didn’t have a job (getting a job was not as straightforward as our parents made us believe). So I went to graduate school. 

As part of my research assistantship, they told me I had to create a course on converting gas-powered cars to natural gas. And I was to create this course for experienced mechanics, most of whom had decades of experience.

They asked ME to do this. A girl who had never even looked under the hood of a car. At that time, the most experience I had with cars was learning how to ration $3 on enough gas to make it to class for a week, a bottle of grape soda, and a pack of cookies from the closest E-Z Mart. And the only thing I knew about creating courses was being a student in one!

Escape TO New York?

Did I already feel like a failure before I even started? Yes. 

Was I afraid I was going to get fired from my assistantship? Yes. 

Did I run away to New York City to hide and take my unemployed chances in the corporate jungle? No (I did that a little over a year later).  

Instead, I sucked it up and figured out what I needed to do.

I needed to read the manuals. I needed to condense down all of the information I had about CNG (on paper, courtesy of the good ol’ days). And then somehow make it all fit into a course on converting cars. I didn’t need to be a mechanic.  I needed to be a curator of information.

I also needed a plan for the course.

Let’s see, my former teachers had agendas, worksheets, textbooks, quizzes, hands-on activities. Some lectured, others did demonstrations, and others made us discuss things amongst ourselves. I had to pull from my own experiences as a student to get this course to be something I could present to the professor who assigned me this project (and not get fired).

Workbooks Seal the Deal

And guess what? I pulled it off. Once they sent the workbook I created for the course off to the printer to make COPIES, I knew it was in the bag (and I still had my job). Let me tell you! Seeing the course in action, the mechanics reading the materials I wrote, following the activities I created, and answering my questions on the tests was AWESOME!

That experience started my 28-year career in course creation. I’ve worked with individuals and teams on their course development in corporate, academia, non-profit, and government. I’ve inspired individuals to create their own courses by showing them how to not be overwhelmed by their content, but by making a plan to guide the way for an awesome course.

Now I’m looking forward to working with you and learning about your course. Are you ready?  Let’s do this!