I’ve curated 100 pathways. Here’s what I learned.

It’s said that the best way to get really, really good at anything is deliberate practice.

I’ve recently curated 100 playlists, with more on the way.

Along with understanding how to combat content chaos, I've spotted some adjustments to make and avoid pitfalls in curation. 

Here are the top tricks I use to make my curated pathways much more impactful:

1. Define skills with more context

Don’t copy-paste generic definitions. Tailor your skills definitions so they're aligned with your business' and learner's needs.

A quick Google search will give a neat-looking textbook definition. 

For example, Wikipedia's definition of ‘data analysis’ is, 

‘Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making.’

If you fail to define it with context, you will most likely miss out on key resources to choose from to include in your pathway.

There are many definitions for ‘Data analysis’ if you give added context for whom this will cater to.

Provide context to your skills based on the organizational needs.

Prioritise what you want to focus on and what your employees need, then start refining them.

2. Refine skills through the learner’s perspective

Your skills now have more context, but what happens when you need to define similar sounding skills with subtle differences?

Let's look at ‘Strategic Management’ and ‘Strategic Decision Making’. They both branch out from ‘Management techniques’ and have some similarities in their definitions.

So how can you retain the nuances of each skill?

Define them from the learner’s perspective.

Ask why yourself why they would want to engage with that asset and not why you want them to engage with it. Now read that again, slowly… 🔂

Here's how those two skills would be defined differently based on different perspectives:

A good learning strategy has a lot of other factors in play. In fact properly defining your skills is a quarter of the battle.

For now, let's assume you have everything in control, and you're all set to curate a pathway for your employees. What's next?

3. Treat your playlist like a 5-course meal. 

A five-course meal consists of an appetiser, salad, hors d’oeuvre, main course and dessert.

For the next 5 seconds, shut your eyes and imagine it dished out in front of you... Impressive, isn't it? 🙂 

So what exactly makes it impressive? It’s a combination of three factors:

• Specially created curated, i.e. head-turners 👀
• A wide selection and variety of dishes, i.e. wow factor 🤩
• In adequate quantities that don’t overwhelm you, i.e. digestible 🍲

Here's a guide we like to follow at Filtered: 

• Asset 1 - Introduction (Why) 
• Asset 2 - Explainer (What) 
• Asset 3 - Methodology / Application (How) 
• Asset 4 - Go deeper (More) 
• Asset 5 - Optional Item(s) (Extra reading) 

This isn’t set in stone, you can treat your learners to a six or seven-course meal from time-to-time. The important thing to remember is not to overwhelm with too many options.

Here is an example of how pathways look when done right, 👇

No matter how you decide to design your pathways, just make sure to keep them structured. We've found that in 92% of cases, reviewers preferred structured pathways over a collection of relevant content.

A pathway to learn more about ‘Pathways for learning’

It only seems fitting to end a blog post on pathways with a pathway. So here is a pathway to learn more about, ‘Pathways for Learning’.👇

Definition: Pathways for learning are the chosen routes a learner takes through a range of e-learning activities, allowing them to build knowledge progressively.

Asset 1 - Introduction | Learning in the zone of proximal development - Video, 7 mins.

Asset 2 - Explainer | Content Curation 101: Everything you need to know - Blog post, 6 mins.

Asset 3 - Methodology / Application | A masterclass in curating learning pathways and playlists - Video, 45 mins.

Asset 4 - Go deeper  | Should you order learning content by relevance or create structured pathways? - Blog post with a video, 6 mins.

Asset 5 - Optional Item | How to write an effective content curation brief - Blog post, 3 mins. 

If you’re still unsure about curating with Content Intelligence or are missing some steps to get to this stage, then our team of experts can help in a 30-minute Content Clinic. 🤙

You tell us all about your pain points (or have a virtual coffee with us. I swear we don’t have a caffeine problem!). 🎯

And then you decide whether curating with Content Intelligence is for you or not (no strings attached 😉).