Reflecting on your online course: 3 questions for a useful post-mortem

Just finished a cohort of your course or even just a workshop?

Sit down and reflect on it!

That's how you improve continuously.

Here are my 3 go-to questions and guidelines for a useful post-mortem.

But before I show you the questions:

Get into the habit of taking notes during the cohort already.

At the end, it isn't uncommon to feel exhausted and have your memory of how things went fail you. This way, you'll have plenty of material to draw from.

Now to the questions...

1. What went well?

Write down everything that worked and that you want to repeat.

Also, perfect opportunity to celebrate success and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

2. What didn't work?

Write down what didn't meet your or your students' expectations. These are your opportunities for improvement.

Also, note what felt like a heavy lift for you. That's an opportunity to simplify.

3. What ideas do I want to try next?

By the time you reach this part, you're probably overflowing with ideas for what to do differently.

Don't censor yourself.

Now, take your ideas and turn them into concrete action steps.

What will you try out and when? This keeps the momentum going.

This is only useful when you do something with it!

If you want to go the build-in-public route, why not publish your reflections, lessons learned, and next steps?

Other course creators can learn from it and prospective students will appreciate the transparency.