Ideation: ideas for new video content in ELT

Coming up with great ideas for ELT courses is an exciting and creative process. However, sometimes the ideas come quickly and sometimes it takes time and effort to find the right approach. 

Coming up with new and innovative ideas can be a challenge for a publisher, consultant or a production team, but with the right ideation techniques and the right people in the room, you can easily generate new and interesting ideas to help make a course more engaging and effective for the teachers and students who’ll be using the materials.

We’ve realised over the years that many of the best ideas can come from the shyer or less confident people involved in a project. So to stop the loudest voices in the room from always taking the lead, here are a few techniques that will help bring out the best from everyone and get the team to focus:

One popular ideation technique is Brainstorming by gathering a group of people together to generate ideas. During a brainstorming session, participants are encouraged to share any ideas that come to mind, no matter how wild or impractical they may seem. By allowing for free-flowing ideas, brainstorming can help break through mental blocks and generate a large number of ideas in a short amount of time.

Another ideation technique that can be useful for coursebook video content development is Mind Mapping. This technique involves creating a visual representation of your thoughts and ideas by connecting related concepts and ideas with lines and branches. Mind mapping can help you organise and structure your thoughts, making it easier to see connections and potential themes for your course.

A third technique is called SCAMPER which stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse. This is a method which can help to spark new ideas by looking at a product or concept in different ways. This technique can help you come up with new and creative ideas.

Another technique is called Reverse Engineering (or Reverse Brainstorming) which is the process of taking something apart and understanding how it works, and then applying that knowledge to create something new. You can use this technique by analysing other successful video strands in the industry and identifying what makes them effective, then use this understanding to develop your own unique content.

Finally, it is important to also consider the voices and feedback from the students. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one interviews to gather feedback and gain insights on what works and what doesn't. This can help you identify gaps, focus on areas for improvement, and generate new ideas for future iterations and editions.

In conclusion, there are many different ideation techniques that you can use to help generate new and innovative video ideas for an English language course. By using techniques such as brainstorming, mind mapping, SCAMPER, Reverse Engineering, and gathering feedback from students, you can easily come up with some fantastic new ideas to help your coursebook achieve its goals.