Who is this guide for?

This guide is for those who are members of the course development team of DreamTeam (Staff Asia)
and who will actively participate in the process of developing a new course for the particular learning
platforms.

Step 1: Research – Research – Research

When the curriculum of the course is finalised, your first step to developing a course is to research. The
quality of your course will depend on how well you have researched for the course.

So, what is online research?

Online research is a research method that involves the collection of information from the internet.

The internet has made researching a topic more accessible than ever before. Instead of making a trip to
the library, people with internet access can simply pull up a search engine, type, and click away.
However, in addition to making it easier to access information, the web has also made it easier to access
misinformation. However, by following some simple rules, you can avoid being fooled or misinformed by
a phoney, inaccurate, or biased web source.

1. Know Where to Begin

Decide where to start your search. First of all, search the topic of the course in the government websites
of the UK. You can use the following sites to begin with:

● https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ (For Job Roles in the UK)

● https://www.gov.uk/ (For anything regarding the UK)
● https://www.hse.gov.uk/ (For Health and Safety topics at the Workplace)
● https://www.nhs.uk/ (For nursing and medical issues)
● https://www.nice.org.uk/ (For guidelines on different topics)
● http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/
● https://www.citizeadvice.org.uk/ ns(See the Education Resources)
● https://data.gov.uk/
● http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ (For any regulations and laws)
● https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/
● https://gds.blog.gov.uk/
● https://www.local.gov.uk/
● https://www.great.gov.uk/

Besides, you may search for the topic of your course using 'UK' with the topic you're searching for.

For example, if your course topic is 'Medical Secretary Training'; then, search 'Medical Secretary UK' or
with the name of the first module/chapter – such as – 'Medical Secretary Roles and Responsibilities in
the UK - Free pdf'.

You may find out many government websites and guidelines for Medical Secretary as PDF files or
website contents in those sites. If you don't, then search with different keywords.

Repeat the process with different keywords until you get what you are looking for.
 2. Search for Books

You will need at least 10 books to make an excellent course. However, you must know how to search for
the books that will help you develop the course or the specific module of the course.

Note:

● See the publication date and place of the book you want to take the materials from.
● Make sure that the book is published in the UK.
● Avoid downloading any book that is too old or outdated.

The following websites can be of great help to you:

https://www.officialpublicationsonline.co.uk/publications/browse?subject=00-17-001&page=2

(It's a premium membership of the OPO Library.)

https://www.pdfdrive.com/

http://gen.lib.rus.ec/

Other websites to find books:

https://openlibrary.org/

https://archive.org/details/texts

https://manybooks.net/

https://bookboon.com/

https://sci-hub.se/ (download research papers from top tier journals)

https://epdf.pub/

https://kupdf.net/

https://edoc.pub/

https://b-ok.cc/

You may also search for PDF books in the torrent sites such as:

https://www.torrentdownloads.me/

https://www.planetebook.com/

https://manybooks.net/

https://www.thepiratebay.org/
Note on Purchasing Premium Books:

If you find a premium book that is well organised and can easily be formatted in the articulate friendly
format, we will buy the book instantly after reviewing the book.

3. Search for Specific Information You Need

If you still need some information that you could not find in the books or the government websites, you
can always google it. However, make sure you collect the information from a trusted website;
otherwise, you may become a victim of misinformation. Avoid websites that are unreliable and can pose
a threat of plagiarism.

Step 2: Collect All the Materials You Need for the Course
Make sure you have collected the materials in a single folder containing the name of the course. If you
want to make a separate folder for each of the modules of the course, that's better.

Make sure that you don't collect materials that are specifically written for any particular organisation
or university.

If the materials can be modified to serve your cause to develop the course, you can do it. However,
make sure that you don't waste your time on anything that's not necessary for the course.

 DO NOT collect anything that is not written concisely.

 DO NOT add anything to the course that is irrelevant for the course title and for the
learners.
 DO NOT repeat any information in the course unless it's absolutely necessary.
 AVOID collecting materials that are based on the USA, Australia, Canadian or any other
governments. However, when you are assigned to develop a course for the US market, you
must follow the US standard. Otherwise, it's always for the UK market.
 AVOID collecting materials that are difficult to format in an articulate friendly version.
 AVOID collecting materials that are out of date.
 AVOID collecting materials that are not standard in terms of language and structure. Try to
avoid materials that are too difficult for the common people.
 AVOID the materials that are biased or contain slang.
 AVOID mixing up materials from too many sources for one module.
 AVOID using $ (dollar sign), instead, use £ (pound sign) converting the value.

Step 3: Plan Your Course

Before you get into the details of creating your course, take some time (20 minutes or so) to think about
how you can organise the contents of your course.
The idea is to think about all of the significant areas of the course once, briefly and at a high level, so
that when you get into the details for each module, you have the start of the final plan in place.

In this 20 minutes or so, you should be able to get a clear idea about the structure of the course and
have the skeleton of the course fixed on your head or your notebook.

However, your approach to developing the course should be module by module. It would be best if you
planned for each module as well. Every module of the course must be self-sufficient and should cover all
the information that it is supposed to.

Make sure that the flow of information seems natural and well structured. Don't mix materials from 3
or 4 sources. Try to cover one module from one source only if it's possible. Otherwise, a mixture of too
many sources can damage the flow of the texts, and it can make your course look unprofessional.

Recommended Length:

The recommended length for each course is 15,000 to 20,000 words. Sometimes, it can be even 10,000
words based on the curriculum. However, if the curriculum demands a bigger course, it can be extended
to 30,000 words (maximum).

The recommended length for each module is between 1000 words to 4000 words. If a module exceeds
4000, consider dividing the module to 2 or 3 modules (if possible).

Step 4: Formatting and Writing (if necessary)

Once you have collected materials for all the modules of the course, you may think that your work is
almost done. However, it's only 50% done at this stage.

If you can rewrite something to make it simpler or more concise, only then, you're encouraged to do so;
otherwise, don't attempt it. However, it must not be more than 5% of the total course. And you must
highlight them in yellow and show it to your team leader for quality assurance.

You must format your course in a way that the articulate team finds it easier to understand how they
should design the course on articulate.

● The recommended font is Calibri.

● The size of the font in the standard paragraph should be 11.
● The size of the main titles should be 14 and bolded. The subtitles should be bolded, and the font
size should be 11.
● The name of the module at the beginning must be capitalised, and the font size should be 16.
● You may Italicise some lines or words to make them stand out.
● Using bullet points is recommended to make your course more comprehensive.
● You may use pictures or diagrams that are necessary but be sure that there are no logo or
website names on the image.
● Be sure to check if there is anything that is hyperlinked in the course. To get rid of many
hyperlinks at once, you may select all (Ctrl+A) and then use the command (Ctrl+Shift+F9).

For better understanding, see the formatting of the other courses that have been developed earlier.
Formatting for Articulate Friendly Version:
Please, click on the following LINK to learn more about the formatting in articulate friendly format.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n2wwqpjYuJzM1tpetGUdicVOKPZMnkbV/edit

Step 5: Image Selection (30% of the total images)

Every articulate slide needs an image. You must provide 30% of the total images for a course. Note the
following points on image selection:

 If you provide screenshots, table, or info-graphs in a slide, there's no need to provide an

additional image for that slide.
 If an info-graph is described throughout 2/3 slides, use the same info-graph in all of those 2/3
slides.
 Provide the images that are most crucial for the course and can be hard to find or confusing for
the articulate member.
 Use https://www.freepik.com/ to provide the links of the images. If you cannot find a necessary
image in this site, you can search it in Shutterstock.

Step 6: Fine-Tuning
It's the most crucial step of the course development process. In this step, you need to make sure that
the materials of each and every module do not contain any discrepancy. For example, a reference to a
page no. 230 or chapter 6 that does not exist in the course. When you're revising the course:

● See if there's any spelling error or American spelling. Using Grammarly would help you in this
regard.
● See if there are any grammatical mistakes. Use Grammarly but be sure to check every
suggestion Grammarly makes. Sometimes, Grammarly gives wrong suggestions.
● See if every slide has a title that is relevant to the content. If any topic continues to 2/3 slides,
then those 2/3 slides will contain the same title/sub-title.
● Check if every slide has been formatted well to make it articulate-friendly.
● See if there's any figures, paragraphs, words, or any other things that refer to something else
that is not in the course.
● Be sure to omit the website links from the texts.
● You may provide links of the Government Websites if you have not taken anything from that
site.
● Lastly, use some keywords to find out if there's any discrepancy in your course. For example,
‘www’, $, 'see more', 'find out more', 'chapter', 'book', 'page', 'section', 'paragraph', 'video',
'appendix', ‘exercise’, 'appendices', 'figure', ‘diagram’ etc.

● Click HERE for more keywords.

To be Submitted:
You need to submit 3 files once you complete all the steps to develop a course.

1. Course File (Articulate Version)

2. Curriculum Breakdown File
3. Source File (containing all the links of the sources you have used in the course)