Thoughts on Creating High Impact Short Courses
by John Hand

•  Make your CFU experience a workshop instead of a seminar.

• Let students work on something rather than simply listen to a lecture. Structure your session to have as much interaction and hands on practice as you can. Use your handouts to deliver background information. This approach takes creativity to implement, but it pays huge dividends. An involved student is a happy student.

• Don't start at the beginning! Start with a real nugget of content.

• Do not think in pure linear-sequential terms where you begin with the background or history and then move forward to the most current and valuable information. Jump right into the good stuff, the practical stuff, the "insider's secrets," and then backfill the foundation info. Teachers make a mistake waiting for the last half hour of class to deliver the best content.

• Let the class know where you are taking them. (Use your excellent handouts.)

• Give them a list of the questions you will answer. (Answers mean more if you know what question they connect to.) Lay out a roadmap of the session ahead. Create easy-to-read handouts with diagrams, background info, and places to take notes.

• Be ready with the "front lines" info and "insider secrets."

• Students love lists like:
      Here are the three most creative developments of the last two years…
      Here are the biggest mistakes to avoid…
      Here are the five things you absolutely need to know…
      Here are ten things that will save you time…

• Do some original research if you can.

• A simple survey can payoff with original findings. Think about how you could send out a questionnaire to your colleagues to divine some great new information to bring to class.

• Pick your examples or cases with panache. A case study from Harvard Business Review energizes students more than a case study from your Uncle Charlie.

• Have pathways for students to continue learning.

• Give them a list of web sites to visit, magazines to subscribe to, a bibliography, organizations they can join, other classes to take. Make your class the beginning.