Course Creators Weekly #34 🗓 February 15th, 2021 - You Need Two Groups to Power Group Learning

This is a great article from Andrew Barry, fundamental to his idea of Transformative Online Courses and his teaching at On Deck Course Creators.

First, 9 reasons why group learning works:

• 
  Groups keep us accountable to show up and do the work
• 
  We learn more from the struggles and failures of others, than we do of our own
• 
  Having a mentor to guide us and answer our questions helps us learn faster
• 
  Sharing ideas with others helps us see more clearly, and it keeps us honest
• 
  We learn through feedback—particularly, giving feedback helps us internalise ideas
• 
  We're able to build and sustain our momentum with the help of others
• 
  Groups are constrained by their commonality, and that helps us find focus
• 
  Healthy competition pushes us beyond our comfort zone—in the end, everyone wins
• 
  We stop feeling alone, and start feeling part of a community in pursuit of a goal

What types of groups do we need?

• 
  Destination Groups, led by people who are already where we aspire to be
• 
  Journey Groups, led by people who are a step ahead, but still on the journey with us

Why do we need different types of groups?

• 
  Destination groups excel at 3, 7 and 8, but Journey groups are better at 1, 2, 4 and 5
• 
  Destination Groups can be intimidating, but provide better focus and guidance
• 
  Journey groups lack constraints, but can be more supportive and keep us accountable

Want to learn more?

• 
  In this thread, Andrew further breaks down Journey Groups into 3 distinct subgroups: Mentor, Peer Supporter, and Accountability Groups
• 
  Here's the second part of Andrew's article: How to Design Transformational Group Learning. I'll share my own summary next week.

• 
  Have other people with an audience endorse you/showcase your work
• 
  Join somebody else's podcast as a guest—share your knowledge with their audience
• 
  Stop trying to be so interesting, and instead, start getting interested
• 
  Listen to other people—earn the right to talk about yourself
• 
  Implement advice from someone you admire—tell them about how they helped you
• 
  Give people quick, small wins—quick and easy tips with instant, mind-blowing results

Check out the video for more details and examples!

You might not think of yourself as an expert, but maybe you just need to fix your definition of the word. According to Ryan Gum, there are 3 kinds of experts, and you could be at least one of them:

• 
  Results-based: the expert you might be thinking of—someone with reputation
• 
  Role-model: someone on a journey who shares what she learns to help her peers
• 
  Research expert: someone who curates () and shares what other experts know

Here's the key lesson…

• 
  To teach something, you don't have to be the expert that everyone knows