Curation Best Practices

The Skillsoft Curation Team has put together a list of curation best practices used within our own content. There are four main areas to focus on - planning, building, content discoverability, and iterating and improving.

Planning

  • Content aggregation is information collection based on a common topic, using one or more related keywords.
    • Historically, content providers have done well at content aggregation.
  • Content curation is the collection, organization, and online presentation of content related to a particular theme or topic.
    • Content curation helps users make decisions that give them exactly what they need in a concise delivery method.
  • Key components should include (but are not limited to) business objective, time line, resourcing, and, most importantly, success metrics.
  • Treat curation like a project with specific deliverables, and determine a way to measure success.
  • Determine the types of content the target user needs/wants, their prerequisite knowledge, and the modalities that work best for them.
  • The key is to curate content in a way that meets the needs of the target audience, but also to not overwhelm the user.

Building

  • You can use various consumption methods (weekly goals or assignments), or think about proficiency levels (transitioning a learner from beginner to expert).
  • Think about the flow of content and keeping users engaged.
  • Provide choices and options when possible.
  • Consider the appropriate amount and types of assets – you don’t want to overwhelm a learner but you also do not want to provide insufficient resources.

  • Understand how any assessments will be applied. Are you testing that the learner completed the assignments and can apply their new skills?

Content discoverability

  • Consider factors such as expertise level, topic areas, competencies, skills, and content length/duration
  • These factors improve the discoverability of content through search results, defining relationships between assets, and providing recommendations to learner based on similar topics or other similar learners.
  • This important data can also help learners know if the content they are consuming is appropriate for them.

Iterating and improving

  • Repeat the process above as part of continuous improvement. What was the impact and did it meet your expectations? Are there any additional improvements to recommend?
  • Your first curation model may change or evolve over time. Don’t think that you curate once and it is set forever.
  • Your curation model needs to be maintained, bugs need to be addressed, and new features or components need to be added.
  • Continually revisit your curation to ensure it is up-to-date and efficient.
  • Establish criteria for the frequency of updates, the types of updates, and how that is communicated. These lead to the success of the program.
  • Ask the following questions:
    • How can the model be expanded? Consider new topics and content assets to keep things fresh and relevant.
    • How is new content added or other content removed?
    • What is the process for adding new modalities?
  • Use metrics to measure success and study usage patterns. When possible, obtain user feedback.
  • Collect and review learner and stakeholder feedback regularly to address challenges and plan new features or processes. Possible methods for gathering this feedback includes:
    • Surveys
    • Advisory panels
    • A/B testing