You started out with lots of content to choose from, and you narrowed that down but now the question arises: what is the right order and structure? What will be the chapters, subchapters and paragraphs? Moreover, should that structure be shallow and broad, with lots of main chapters, or deep and narrow, with fewer chapters and more levels?
To start with the last question: the word isn’t out on what’s better. Research has been done, mainly around user design, but the answer is not simply that breadth is better than depth. There are useful guidelines, though. Intuitively, there is such a thing as too broad and too deep. More important is how you group elements thematically and how clearly you label your elements.
Think about what your learners need and know. What are they expecting to learn? Let’s say you are introducing a new work process in your course. Chapters can be the elements of the (theoretical) model behind it or each chapter represents a real-world situation. Which one you choose clearly affects your structure and type of content. The existing knowledge of learners plays a crucial role as well; build from what they know.
Creating the right hierarchy and structure is very impactful to how your learners will experience the content. Understanding the content you present starts with a clear division into chapters, subchapters, paragraphs and so on. You could say you are telling a story with your content; the hierarchy and structure is your narrative. Think about the red thread in your story and how elements connect to each other.
