Teaching what you know is a great way to give back to your community, grow your reputation as an expert, and to even make some extra income. But, just because you're an expert doesn't automatically mean you'll be able to effectively transfer your knowledge and skills to others.

Taylor Bell works for egghead, and one of his main focuses is helping instructors plan courses through an academic discipline known as "instructional design". Specifically, the "Understanding by Design" methodology is used. This process ensures that instructors are able to effectively teach what they know and be confident in learners retaining the knowledge.

From a high level, it's a three stage process of determining the desired results, determining the evidence that proves the learner is achieving those results, and developing a plan that results in the learner being able to apply what they've learned to other scenarios.

So if you're interested in writing better instructional blog posts, recording better videos, and just becoming a more effective teacher in general, check out this episode!

Homework

  • Think of something that you could teach to somebody else, and try to frame it in the three stages of UBD. Email Taylor your homework - taylor@egghead.io

Resources

Guest: Taylor Bell

Host: Kent C. Dodds