6 Tips for Writing Compelling & Effective CEUs
Have you decided to create a continuing education unit (CEU) to reach potential customers in the building and construction industry? Great choice! CEUs—whether presented in person, via live or recorded webinar, or as a self-guided course—can be a smart way to demonstrate your thought leadership and increase awareness of your products and services.
Unlike many marketing tactics that have to fight for the attention of the target audience, CEUs are sought out by your potential customers, often as a necessary piece of their ongoing professional development. Two of the most common platforms for CEUs are the American Institute of Architects (AIA) (for architects, of course) and Interior Design Continuing Education Council (IDCEC) (for design pros). Architects must complete 18 AIA-approved CEU hours annually, with at least 12 hours in Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) topics, to maintain AIA membership and professional licensure. Interior designers must complete IDCEC-approved CEUs to maintain credentials.
This means you’ll have a captive audience of prospects who chose your course and are ready to spend some quality time with you and your offerings, so you want to make the most of it! Although we’ll include some AIA-specific requirements, the following tips will help you create a compelling CEU course for AIA, IDCEC or any other platform.
1. Have a Clear Goal in Mind
As with any marketing piece, you’ll do best if you know what you want the result to be for yourself and your audience. Your overall goal is likely new leads and eventual customers, but how do you get there? A CEU is a chance to not just tout your products but demonstrate your expertise, positioning you as a trusted potential partner with deep knowledge and passion for your field. Think about what you want prospects to know about your business or product, and what valuable knowledge you can provide around it to help them gain a better understanding of your particular industry niche.
2. Put All the Pieces Together
At some point you’ll want to think about how to present your course visually, but first, make sure you’ve got all the written content in place. Every AIA presentation must include the following:
A course title
A course description
At least four learning objectives (LOs)
Written content that’s at least 5,710 words
Sources (preferably recent links from neutral, respected industry organizations, publications or news outlets)
A 10-question multiple-choice quiz
A glossary with at least 10 terms
3. Attract Learners With Your Title and Course Description
As potential learners are skimming lists of available courses, you want your title and description to draw them in. Popular courses often promise to offer one or more of these elements:
New or cutting-edge information (e.g., words like “advances,” “innovation,” “future,” “next,” “better”)
Help understanding compliance, regulations, and standards
Ideas about the practical and aesthetic aspects of design and construction
Information about sustainability, health/wellness, and/or accessibility
The course description gives prospective audience members a bit more detail about how your CEU will fulfill the promise of the headline. Although there’s no hard and fast rule about length, one paragraph of 100–150 words will suffice to give enough detail while remaining concise.
4. Make Your Learning Objectives Clear, Desirable, and Goal-Oriented
You want learners to get a good sense of what they’ll walk away with—hopefully deeper knowledge and new inspiration. LOs should express the outcome of each section of your course with goal-based words like “understand,” “discover,” “explore,” “find out,” “identify,” etc.
5. Give Your Course Flow and Momentum
So what should those LOs be about, exactly? Courses can use whatever structure you want them to, but a compelling CEU will feel like each LO builds upon the last, culminating in a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding about the topic. One tried-and-true formula is:
LO1: Cover history or basic background info on the topic
LO2: Get deeper into scientific or technical aspects of the topic
LO3: Talk about design, installation or application considerations, both practical and aesthetic
LO4: Walk through case studies to show how the material, product or theory applies in real-life situations
6. Tell Your Brand’s Story (Indirectly)
AIA-approved courses and many other CEUs are required to be brand-agnostic. However, your audience knows who’s providing the course, so even talking about your product or offering without naming it can be a powerful way to tout its attributes. Depending on your goals and particular marketing challenges, some smart approaches include:
Going into the pros and cons of various materials, of which your product is one; this allows you to talk about the strengths and advantages of your offering (though you must do so without using brand names)
Challenging myths or misconceptions about your topic, which can indirectly address any hesitations or roadblocks to adoption of your offering; this can be a great place to subtly point out the drawbacks of outdated or less-effective competitor products
Talking about a common challenge faced by architects or designers that your product offers an innovative solution to; a section with case studies can help illustrate how your product can help them
Bonus Tip: Qualify Your CEU for HSW Certification
Since 12 of AIA’s 18 required annual hours of education must pertain to Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) topics, CEUs that qualify are in higher demand.
What are HSW topics? They’re aspects of building and design that tackle:
Health: improving the physical, emotional, and social well-being of occupants, users, and any others affected by buildings and sites
Safety: protecting occupants, users, and any others affected by buildings or sites from harm
Welfare: enabling equitable access, elevating the human experience, encouraging social interaction, and/or benefiting the environment
To qualify, 75% of the course content must be on acceptable HSW topics. What that really means is 75% of the learning objectives must include HSW content, so if you’re going with the standard four LOs, at least three of them must be HSW-oriented. Even if your CEU content already contains HSW information, it’ll have a better chance of qualifying as an HSW course if the LOs strongly reflect that.
In addition to all the content pieces listed above, you’ll need one additional chunk of copy: HSW Justification. This is a paragraph explaining how the content teaches HSW for the public. A standard format for HSW Justification is:
This course addresses how [X material, practice, etc] can [advance X HSW goal]. In addition, it addresses issues of [X, X, and X]. This content is eligible for HSW as it fits the definition of “[Health/Safety/Welfare],” clearly impacting “[quote the contents of the category].” Specifically, the content of this course addresses topics relating to [X, X, and X].
Let Us Help You!
At Colfax Wordsmiths, we have years of experience in creating the content for AIA and IDCEC CEUs. If you engage with us, we’ll start with a discovery process that helps crystallize your vision and align your course content to your brand and your lead-gen goals. Hopefully this article will help you prepare for a fruitful first call, armed with ideas and inspiration to create a compelling and effective CEU!
Sources:
https://aiau.aia.org/course/details/transforming-ideas-into-impactful-presentations
https://www.aia.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/AIA_CE_Standards_October_2018.pdf
https://www.aia.org/health-safety-and-welfare-hsw-ce-guidelines
