I build courses the same way some people plan trips.
Not in a straight line. Not from chapter one to chapter fourteen.
But as a map.
When I begin a new class project, I don’t open the LMS first. I open a blank canvas. At the center sits one word: Project. Around it, ideas start to gather. Development. Course. Process. Learning. Evaluation. Implementation. Reporting. Quality Matters. Industry expectations. Student experience.
It looks messy at first. It always does.
But tourism exists in space and time, and so does learning. There is a before, a during, and an after. There is planning, execution, closure. There are stakeholders—students, industry partners, accrediting bodies—each with their own language and expectations.
Pudliner (2007) reminds us that modern narratives, especially digital ones, shape how we understand experience. In many ways, this mind map is my teaching weblog. It captures the movement of thought before it becomes a project or course.
A course is not a stack of assignments. It is a journey with a beginning, middle, and end. It is a constructed experience in time. The LMS is simply the delivery mechanism. The real work happens here, in the mapping of relationships.
Where does evaluation live? How do assignments connect to outcomes? Where do discussions and reflection sit? How does industry practice inform theory?
The map answers those questions visually before the project or course or even the students ever log in.
Tourism teaches us that experience must be intentional. Course design is no different.
Before I write the first module, I draw the journey.