This is one post in a collection of six, detailing different steps in course planning. See the main Course planning post for links to each of the stages.
How does this text look?
Think about what your eyes are doing when they read this page... and your initial 'thoughts' when you first landed on the page.
Do you think it looks REALLY GREAT?!!
OR, perhaps the mish-mash of "styles" really makes you unsure where your focus should be?
This is why style guides are so useful.
A style guide is a set of rules for the way your courses should be presented for both visual and text elements.
For this article we're focussing on a text style guide (often called an editorial style guide). Rules in a text style guide are things like how you should use headings, bullets, what style to use to emphasise particular text, whether you're allowed to use contractions and so on.
Most brands and companies have a "style guide" to ensure their look and feel is consistent across imagery and text. Setting a style guide for your courses is one of the simplest things you can do to make sure your courses look professional. Small inconsistencies in spelling, formatting or tone may not seem like a big deal. But you can see from the example above that they can clutter and confuse - detracting from the learning.
Plus, when you have a style guide, you don't waste time thinking about whether you should capitalise or not. You've got a rule. Added up over hundreds or even thousands of small decisions over a course, it makes a difference. So having a style guide can be a big time saver.
We really love mailchimp's style guide. It's clear, easy to navigate and easy to follow. Plus the tone they recommend is friendly and direct - perfect for learning.
The sections that are particularly useful for your designing courses are:
Mailchimp and the writing for the web advice above provide a great base, but your context will always mean some personalisation is needed. Once you have your base, bring in the style questions that will crop up repeatedly in your courses.
Gather examples to answer (and illustrate) all these points as part of your style guide.
Block styles can be one easy way to make the style guide your own and set up some style and consistency in your course. For instance you might specify the styles as having these uses:
Use Reading for linking to the PDF documents explaining each framework (instead of as an appendix page).
Use Pullout for defining key terms within the content (other terms that are not the most important ones can be defined using the glossary).
Use Tip for best practice ideas or things to keep in mind.
Use Example for workplace scenarios they may have come across.
Use Quote for bringing in the voice of a fictional mentor/peer.
Block styles help to differentiate text and signal purpose so when learners are glancing at the page they can think “oh here’s a key term to remember” etc. And using block styles in this way can also help to just visually break up the page a tad.
The last step is to make sure people a) know the style guide exists and b) follow it. A good way to do this is to bring people into the process. Ask people for their thoughts and help them get some buy in. Then, have the style guide as part of your review checklist when developing a course.
Style guides = clean, professional courses. Get a style agreed (and recorded) early on to save time throughout development.
We have a new iQualify skills course dedicated to all things formatting - Fantastic formatting for looks and learning. In it, you’ll see loads of examples of how small differences in formatting (for example using headings) can make a big difference to your courses to make them more appealing, easier to read and easier to learn from.
The course above focusses on using formatting techniques without changing the actual words too much. But, style guides do include advice on writing and tone. So, check out any of these articles for more advice on best practice in writing for the web (and learning).
Style guides are often overlooked in the rush of course building. But if you spend the time to set one up, you’ll find you save a lot of time when you’re building and reviewing courses. Not to mention, it gives learners a much better impression of your course and organisation. So, don’t forget this small, but important step in the course planning process!
