HOW TO BUILD AN ONLINE COURSE FOR MENTAL HEALTH

Written By Tom Barron

Building an online course for mental health requires a complex mix of high quality research, structural awareness and applied empathy. 

Having built mental health courses for a variety of companies, like Kyan Health, The Attachment Project/MindOnly and Stresscoach, I’ve summarized my experiences into a 6-step process for those looking to build their own.

1.CHECK YOUR PURPOSE - SET YOUR INTENTION.

Credit to Denise Jans

Why are you doing this?

You and your course development have to have a clear purpose and intention.

Set yourself up by establishing a one line statement that summarizes your intention.

For example, it might be

“this course is designed to educate healthcare professionals on the value of using technology in their daily working lives”.

From this one liner, I know: 

  1. The course should be aimed at people with a non-technical background and have an educational angle.

  2. The practical application of the information should be clear for the healthcare professional.

  3. If I have to decide between highlighting the practical implications and more theory, I choose the implications.

Depending on your audience, core theme and purpose, these points will change. Regardless, you will be able to come back to your intention when you have to make a decision - of which you will have many.

2.DO THE RESEARCH - YOU ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR WEAKEST SOURCE.

Credit to Towfiqu Barbhuiya

Regardless of what your topic is, without proper research, you’re building a course on unstable foundations.

This is true of any course, but particularly important when it comes to health (mental health is health).

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when it comes to researching your chosen topic:

  • How relevant is this research to my topic?

  • What methodology has been used - do I understand it? Is it appropriate?

  • Are there any measures of validity and reliability to consider?

  • Is the source from a peer-reviewed journal?

  • How credible are the authors?

  • Are there any conflicts of interest?

  • Does the research outline the limitations, too?

  • How recent is this research?

  • Are there any meta-analyses or systematic reviews I haven’t considered on this topic?

It’s worthwhile giving time to consider these questions (and their answers). Rushing ahead without proper consideration will only cause delays and difficult decisions later in the process.

Remember: you are only as good as your weakest source.

3.ESTABLISH YOUR FRAMEWORK - UX MEETS STRUCTURE.

Credit to Ben White

User experience is a word that’s regularly thrown around these days. It’s probably overused.

However, when it comes to any good (mental health) course, it is absolutely vital.

UX should be a constant consideration when you establish a course framework because change, especially in the field of mental health, can take commitment, engagement and time.

So, by considering UX as a key aspect of your course structure, you:

  • Recognise the effort your user is putting in.

  • Are more likely to offer engaging content/experiences.

  • Offer at least implicit (by design) but potentially also explicit guidance on successfully reaching user goals.

  • Support the fact that mental health can be complex and improving it can sometimes take longer-term commitment.

  • Increase the likelihood you retain your users (a key metric for any good course).

4.APPLY YOUR EMPATHY - CREATE WITH A NEEDS-BASED APPROACH.

Whatever your topic is, you’re now ready to create.

When it comes to the field of mental health, we need to create with empathy.

The course should be meeting a need of the user and you should regularly check-in with yourself as you create the content, to ensure you don’t stray too far away from your intention and purpose.

Across the entire process of creating your mental health course, you can:

  • Imagine who the user is - create a persona if it helps.

  • Consider what needs they may have? What are they trying to solve?

  • Think about how this course fits into their lives. How can they apply this new knowledge?

And further more specific questions can be asked of your sections/chapters:

  • Is this content relevant?

  • Does it flow well from the last section onto the next?

  • Is there a “wow” moment? What is really landing? What is that difference maker?

Creating your course based on the needs of your users ensures you are on the right path. It doesn’t matter how good your research is, or how well planned-out the framework is, if your content is not founded upon empathy and helping the needs of the user, it will not be useful.

5. THE THREE GUIDING PRINCIPLES - TIME TO REVIEW.

Credit to Daniel Kudela

When it comes to building courses (for mental health), I usually align my work with three guiding principles.

  1. Engage the user.

  2. Deliver high quality.

  3. Retain the user.

These points have been briefly mentioned in above sections, but once you have a full draft of your course, you’ll want to review it with this three-pronged approach.

Why? Well:

  1. If your course is not engaging, you will not attract any users.

  2. If your course offers low quality, it will not actually meet the needs of your users.

  3. If you are not offering engaging content, nor any quality, users will not come back to your course.

6.TEST, TEST, TEST - YOU DEFINITELY MISSED SOMETHING.

Credit to David Travis

At this point, it’s tempting to “just go live”.

Well, you can do that, and you will learn a lot from that too.

However, generally speaking, it’s advisable to do some testing before your course is met with “real-life users”.

Testing is a vague word, it can mean sending the course to your mum, your old teacher or someone from the desired target audience. You can invest a lot of time into testing, by:

  • Conducting A/B tests for two versions of the course/section/exercise.

  • Conducting user interviews, or focus groups.

  • Planning a testing phase (2-4 weeks) in your course development plan.

Or you can also keep it simple!

Regardless of your approach, it’s important to get feedback and establish if:

  • Your course is appropriate for the topic and target audience.

  • The flow from beginning to end makes sense.

  • There’s any obvious areas of improvement or bugs to fix.

 

THOMAS BARRON - MENTAL HEALTH COURSE DEVELOPER

That’s it! These 6 steps are designed to be an introduction into digital mental health course development.

If you prefer to have an expert build the course for you, just reach out and contact me.

I’d be happy to help!

Mental health is health.

Tom Barron
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