Offer a course, or offer an experience?

CE courses are designed to meet the requirements, but usually not much else. Maybe that is why the common opinions about CE revolve around the words “necessity” and “dread.”

The solution is to make the experience as important as the content; licensees can learn the information in an appealing and interactive way, come away interested and empowered, and having met their requirements. So which do you currently make: courses, or experiences?

With Table Mesa, your answer from here on out will be experiences, because we give you the means to take an ordinary course, and make it extraordinary, and here’s how we do it.

Think of yourself as a CE restaurant

You are serving up some amazing courses to your licensees. However, before licensees take a course, they see your profile, where you keep those courses.

People don’t mind a sketchy-looking restaurant if they have already been there, but first impressions matter for new customers. That means you should take the time to build out your provider profile before you start on your courses.

If you have already built out your Table Mesa profile, then you’re ahead of many. If not, check out this article to see the benefits and how to do it.

“You eat with your eyes first”

If you are a CE restaurant, then obviously, you have a menu, which is on your provider page. However, most Table Mesa licensees do a general search for courses that meet their wants and needs. Think of it in this way: we have a universal menu where every provider’s courses are included, and to get them to order yours, your courses need to stand out from the get-go.

Reading the menu
Well the first thing people notice on a menu are the pictures, which makes sense, because the human brain understands images 10x faster than words. Each course on Table Mesa has a course picture, so make the most of it by choosing clear, informative, and captivating images.

Then people notice the names of courses. The names should be short and to the point, so that what you’re offering is never a question, but interesting enough that they remember that course name over others. Would you gravitate towards “Package CEU Course for Florida LPN Requirements” or “One and Done Florida LPN Package?”

Then comes the big point: the price. Even the most appetizing thing on a menu can be immediately removed from desire by the cost. Check out other courses for the same topic or requirement, and be comparable or better priced. Licensees will notice and be more likely to choose you.

Can’t decide what to order?
A huge part of ordering anything is knowing what other people think. People today, especially with online products, look for recommendations, and with Table Mesa, recommendations come in the form of a star rating.

Every person that takes a course gives a rating, and the better the experience, the better the ratings. In other words, your course needs to be appealing before, during, and after a licensee takes it.

Packing your CE full of flavor

A course can be served up in a bunch of different ways. In a live setting, lectures, handouts, and Powerpoints are the most common because they work. Online, people are consuming audio and visual information far more than words or presentations, and for good reason:

• People are 2x more likely to remember information from a video than reading the same information
• A picture is 5x more likely to evoke an emotional or thoughtful response than words
• Podcasts and audio lectures have more listeners in a day than there were US college students in the 2016 school year

Bland courses do not get repeat customers
Licensees may try your course if it’s bland, may even finish it, but chances are, they won’t giving great reviews or coming back for seconds, and that is a huge problem for CE providers.

You should be using all the “spices” available to make your courses stand out, so licensees want to take your courses now and in the future. With Table Mesa, you can include videos, sound bites, graphs, tables, and other audiovisual elements throughout a course.

Keep licensees engaged by inserting quizzes every few pages to check what they remember. Get feedback on your courses and curriculum by adding surveys at any point in the course. Include multiple tests when you have multiple topics to teach in a single course. You can learn more about all the different options available with the Course Builder here.

Making courses that “taste as good as they look”
The course building help that Table Mesa offers is for you to take your courses to their greatest potential. We don’t make great courses; we give you the means to do so.

By the time you finish building a course with us, it will be beautiful, thanks to our platform and tools, but packed full of “flavor,” thanks to your efforts and expertise. This is the winning combination that will help your courses get better exposure, higher completions, and better reviews, not to mention make them more likely to take your courses in the future.