Something I have wanted to do for a long, long time is develop a course, my own course, on law for landlords.
You may remember, if you visit this blog regularly, that I mentioned something about this in my roundup the other week.
As I said in that post, lots of people emailed me after receiving my newsflash asking about whether they would be interested in a law course for landlords, saying “Yes, count me in!”
So I have more or less spent my time since then putting it together.
Developing an outline
The first thing I did was draft up a course outline. What was I going to have in the course? I have decided to do it in ten parts, or modules, each delivered over a period of two weeks, so the course in total will take about twenty weeks.
Quite a long time! But necessary I think as landlords are busy people and so won’t have time to read great screeds of stuff every day. Little by little is the way to go.
Sourcing software
I then had to source the software I was going to use. One piece of software I have wanted for ages is Articulate Engage which allows you to create these brilliant interactive diagrams. It is a really good way to explain complex things, and just looks so cool. So I have lashed out and bought it.
The first interactive diagrams I did were for the Easy Law information page I put up. These give details of the course content (or rather prospective course content as I reserve the right to change it around a bit) and the pricing. You can have a look at them here if you are interested – aren’t they great? I love the little clicks it makes when you change tabs.
The main problem with articulate engage is that it uses flash. So if you are reading this on an iphone or ipad, you won’t be able to see them. But most people have a ‘proper’ computer or laptop as well as their iphone or ipad (if indeed they have an iphone of ipad) so I don’t think this will be a massive problem.
I have done quite a few diagrams already for the first part of the course, which is going to be a general introduction to law. There are also going to be articles, videos and some quizzes. And pictures. I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sourcing pictures.
For the quizzes, I have found this great wordpress quiz plugin called mTouch Quiz. Its been developed by a professor of Mathematics in New York so it should be reliable! I will probably do one or two quizzes per module and I may use it to do an exam at the end, if people want this.
The next big thing
The other big thing I have had to do is create a discussion area. But I will talk about that next time.
If you want to read about the course you will find the information page here.
A brilliant idea Tessa. Its funny how all the people I talk to lately who are really in the know are leaning towards education as a way of professionalising the PRS.
You can get Flash for iPad and iPhone now too.
Thanks Ben. Flash for ipads / iphones? Yay! I suppose it must be the new ones as I could not read the diagrams on my iphone.
I am really enjoying doing the course and the research is helping me re-discover a lot of law I had forgotten.