How to Conduct a Needs Analysis Before You Create Your Course (+ free worksheet!)
If you want to build a course that is super helpful to others AND plays to your key strengths as a content expert, then you need to make sure you do a bit of prep work beforehand. The key to creating an invaluable course (before you even start writing it) is to first answer this question - “What problem is my course solving?”.
Knowing what problem your course is solving is so important. It helps you identify where your audience is (skill/knowledge-wise), and more importantly, where they want to be. Answering this question will also help you identify the problems your audience is having related to your course topic and enable you to help them solve those problems. To answer what problem is your course solving, you need to do a bit of research. You must ask both yourself and your ideal audience a few questions. In more technical course design terms, you need to conduct a needs analysis.
Needs analysis overview
A needs analysis is a series of questions you should ask both yourself and the people you are writing the course for, also known as your audience. Their answers will help you to answer what problem your course is solving.
To get started conducting your needs analysis, check out this list of questions to ask both yourself and your ideal audience.
Questions for your needs analysis
Ask yourself:
Why do I want to build an online course?
What problem am I trying to solve?
Is there a new perspective or way of doing something that I can leverage to solve this problem in an online course?
Ask your audience:
What are your learning goals in this topic area?
What skills are you trying to learn regarding this topic?
What are your current skills in this topic area?
What gaps in online courses and general training are you seeing for skills/abilities you want to learn?
What would you like to see in an online course about this topic?
Note: While it might be your first instinct to ask friends and families what they’d want to get out of taking your course, this is not, and I repeat NOT the best group of people to talk to. When conducting your needs analysis, you must ask people you could see being your ideal audience. If you still need to identify your audience, check out this free worksheet.
Conduct a Needs Analysis Worksheet!
Click here to download!
