Are your Learners at different Levels?
If your course students keep coming back to you every time they hit a wall, the problem probably isn't them. In this episode, Dr. Catrina Mitchum works through a live course design consultation with Tim Maile, an IT solutions specialist building a course to help people stop fearing technology and start actually using it. What unfolds is a masterclass in the difference between teaching a tool and teaching someone how to learn.
What We Work Through
The reframe that changes everything: why "different knowledge levels" is probably not the real problem your course needs to solve
Why confidence is a learning variable, not a bonus outcome, and how to design for it on purpose
How letting learners choose their own technology and mini task is not chaos but actually good course design
Why the "why" behind a learner's goal matters more than the skill itself, and the case for a journaling component in a tech course
How to build troubleshooting directly into your course structure so learners can work through friction without defaulting to you
The two types of troubleshooting that need two different responses: task-level roadblocks versus system-level disruption
Why naming technology realities out loud (software changes, buttons move, two-factor authentication is not going away) protects learner confidence instead of undermining it
If you've been trying to figure out how to design a course that works for learners at wildly different starting points, this episode gives you a real working example of how to think through that problem without just building more content.
About Tim Maile
Tim Maile is the owner and operator of TKM PM and IT Solutions, where he makes IT work for people, not the other way around. With over 20 years of on-the-ground experience as the unofficial IT person in the room, Tim specializes in solving tech problems and building genuine confidence in the people who use technology every day.
Website: https://www.tkmitpm.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TKMPMIT
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tkm-pm-and-it-solutions
Book an appointment: https://calendly.com/tkmitpm
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tkmitpm
You've got college students who can scroll TikTok in their sleep but cannot attach a file to an email. You've got semi-retired folks who want to pay their gas bill online without bugging the grandkids. The gut reaction when your students look this different from each other is to build different tracks for different levels. This BS Breakthrough makes the case for a very different read on the situation, and a much simpler course structure on the other side of it.
What We Work Through
Why "different starting points" and "different knowledge levels" are not the same thing, and why mixing them up sends you down a structural rabbit hole you do not actually need to go down
How to spot when your students share one skill gap, even if their tech, jobs, and ages look nothing alike, and what that means for the way you build the course
The case for letting learners pick their own technology and their own task, and why giving up that bit of control is what makes the course usable for everyone in the room
How to build troubleshooting into the course structure itself, instead of telling people to "email when you get stuck" and putting the work back on them
Two different kinds of stuck (your steps did not work vs. the technology changed on you), and why each one needs its own decision tree
A three-step gut check for figuring out whether your own course is solving for the right kind of variation in your audience
If you have been trying to design a course for students who feel like they are all over the map, the takeaway is not always more tracks, more pathways, or more content. Sometimes it is one course, one skill, and a structure that lets each person plug in their own context. Press play, see if Tim's situation sounds like yours, and steal what works. Go back and listen to the full episode with Tim Maile, the live course design consultation this BS Breakthrough is pulled from. Listen there for Tim's links and the original troubleshoot.
About Tim Maile
Tim Maile is the owner and operator of TKM PM and IT Solutions, where he makes IT work for people, not the other way around. With over 20 years of on-the-ground experience as the unofficial IT person in the room, Tim specializes in solving tech problems and building genuine confidence in the people who use technology every day.
Website: https://www.tkmitpm.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TKMPMIT
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tkm-pm-and-it-solutions
Book an appointment: https://calendly.com/tkmitpm
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tkmitpm