Traditionally, most experts have tried to reach their audience by broadcasting information (i.e. publishing books, blogs, CD’s, DVD’s and/or speaking in keynotes, workshops, seminars.).
But there’s a fundamental weakness in the broadcast model: while they get the information to your audience, they don’t help your audience stay focused. Think about the last time you read a business or self-help book. It probably had some helpful insights you could apply to your professional or personal situation. You may have had a burst of energy and enthusiasm as you were reading the book, but what happened a week or two later, though?
The challenge of staying focused with personal and professional development amid the trials of work and life is hard. That’s why we designed ruzuku to help give your participants get a leg up on this challenge—to help them stay on track.
Ruzuku includes two forms of structure to help people in your learning community stay on track:
- Steps last a specified number of days, and students receive an email reminder when steps start and end. It’s easy to forget to log in to a course after signing up for it, but everyone checks their email! These email reminders help attune students to the “pace” of the course, much like the week-by-week structure of a traditional college class.
- Activities are presented in a clear “to-do list” format for your students that they can check off activities as they complete them. This structure not only helps participants keep track of what they need to do—it also gives them a tangible sense of progress as they move through your course. We also show a indicator of who has completed each activity, providing a sense of “social motivation” (think of it as positive peer pressure) for your participants.
As with everything we do, we’re continuing to look for ways to enhance and improve Steps and Activities as well as find new tools for helping your students stay on track.
