Frameworks templates to help students master your content

By Claire Chen

Instructor Partnerships

Summary

Read on to discover why and how to use frameworks to teach your course content.

Frameworks are visual and pithy ways to visualize information. They make it easier for students to recall information. Here’s a sample collection of framework types organized by format.

Acronyms

You might already be familiar with the below acronyms - you might even have used these in your own learning. Why not use them to teach the concepts for your course? There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Remember that you already have everything you need to create your course curriculum in your head - now you're just deciding the best way to teach it.

S.M.A.R.T: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound: 5 traits of a well-designed goal
S.U.C.C.E.S: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible Emotional, Stories: from Made to Stick, to remember traits of good storytelling
B.E.D.M.A.S: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement: a negotiator’s position if they reach impasse
P.E.M.D.A.S: Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract: order of operations in mathematics

Graphs

Distribution curve: Outlines the expected distribution of statistics.

Cross the Chasm

J-Curve: Demonstrates a loss in value in the short-term and growth in the long term.

J-Curve of Habit

Hockey stick: Often used to show exponential growth after a long period of slow/no growth.

Hockey stick growth

Shapes

Concentric circles: A core idea or focus, within a greater context. Example: Concentric Circles of Customers (Wes Kao)

Hub and Spoke: When a central idea has contributing ideas or factors that aren’t dependent on one another. Example: Hub and spoke distribution paradigm

Pyramid: Knowledge or ability that can be built upon. Examples: Content Hierarchy of BS (Wes Kao), Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Content Triangle (David Perell)

Venn diagram: Demonstrates how different concepts are similar and dissimilar. Example: Ikigai

Hierarchy: Demonstrates structure and dependency between factors. Example: Minto Pyramid Principle

Steps: Shows a linear sequence. Examples: Sales funnel, Jake Knapp's Design Sprint

Flywheel: Shows how actions/outcomes fuel further action. Examples: Marketing flywheel, Nir Eyal's Hooked Model, and Charles Duhigg's Habit Loop

Canvas: Visualizes complexity in a concise, single view. Example: Course Mechanics Canvas (Wes Kao)

Matrix: A grid that demonstrates 2 intersecting spectrums, usually a 2x2 or 3x3. Example: Eisenhower Matrix, Growth-Share Matrix, and SWOT

Triangle: Demonstrates the relationship between 3 traits. Example: Lean Startup Engines of Growth and Project Management Triangle

Additional resources

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