As a learning experience designer, my to-do list often feels like a living creature, always growing and demanding attention. So I get it. When I sit down with a faculty member, the conversation often shares a common starting point. They know their course needs a refresh and some TLC to help students be more successful, but they feel too overwhelmed to even start. In that moment, I feel a deep sense of recognition. We’re all being asked to do more with less. How do we make progress when a full-scale revision feels impossible?

It always brings me back to an idea I explored in a previous post: the “Plus-One” approach. The concept, from Thomas Tobin and Kristin Behling’s essential book, Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone, is that making one small, intentional change is far more sustainable than a massive overhaul. It’s a philosophy of small wins. But it always raises the same crucial question: where do you start?

To help answer that, I’ve put together a short guide for a 15-minute “course tune-up.” Think of it as a self-consultation, a series of questions to help you find the one change that will make the biggest difference. This isn’t about adding more to your plate; it’s about making your course flow more smoothly for your students and, just as importantly, for you.

A 15-Minute Conversation: 4 Questions to Find Your Quickest Win

Before your next term begins, block off 15 minutes, grab a coffee, and use these four questions to find your next “Plus-One.”

Question 1: The ‘Pinch Point’ Diagnostic

“Where do students most often get stuck, confused, or disengaged in your course? Or on your end, what task creates the biggest grading or course management bottleneck?”

• Why It Works: What I appreciate about this question is that it immediately hones in on the biggest source of friction. A pinch point is just a sign that a process can be improved. Solving it is the perfect candidate for your next “Plus-One,” as it can save you hours of answering emails or grading.
• In Practice: A business professor might realize, “Students do well on the case study summary, but they always struggle to apply the theoretical framework correctly.” Their “Plus-One” could be creating a short video that walks through the framework with a simple, non-course example, or providing a graphic organizer for students to structure their analysis.

Question 2: Clear the Path for Students

“Let’s think about a busy student juggling four other courses. When they open your online course module for the week, how obvious is their very first step? Is there one small tweak you can make to the layout to make that path crystal clear?”

• Why It Works: From my experience, one of the biggest pinch points for students is simple uncertainty. It’s the root cause of all those emails we get with the subject line “question” or the simple, frustrating message: “I’m confused.” When they know exactly where to start, their cognitive load is reduced, and they can focus on learning. A simple layout change is a high-impact “Plus-One.”
• In Practice: A common pinch point is inconsistent “information architecture” from one week to the next. A powerful “Plus-One” could be establishing a consistent structure for every weekly module (e.g., always starting with an “Overview” page followed by “Readings” and “Assignments”). An even quicker win could be creating a single, short explainer video that walks students through the organization of the entire course site, so they know exactly where to find everything from day one.

Question 3: The Power of an Alternative

“Where in your course could an element of student choice have the biggest impact? Is there an assignment where students could benefit from having more options in how they demonstrate their learning?”

• Why It Works: This is one of my favorite questions because it opens up a conversation about flexibility without prescribing a solution. A lack of options can be a real pinch point for students who struggle with a single mode of expression, and adding a choice can dramatically increase the quality of their work.
• In Practice: My favorite part of these conversations is the moment when an instructor realizes, “My students all seem to struggle with the formal essay. What if I pilot an alternative where they can create a 10-slide deck with detailed speaker notes instead?” This gives students another way to succeed and often makes the work more engaging to review.

Question 4: The Action Plan

“Of these potential pinch points we’ve talked about, which one feels like the quickest win? What’s the one small adjustment you could make that would do the most to smooth out the flow of the course?”

• Why It Works: For me, the real magic of the “Plus-One” philosophy is all about building momentum. This final question helps turn a good conversation into a single, manageable to-do item.
• In Practice: What I find most rewarding is when an instructor pinpoints a tangible first step they feel confident about, saying something like, “Honestly, just making a template for my weekly announcements would solve half the problems. That’s my ‘Plus-One.’ I can do that this afternoon.”

From Overwhelm to Action

Meaningful course improvement doesn’t have to feel like a monumental project. My hope is that this 15-minute tune-up can help you turn that feeling of being overwhelmed into the satisfaction of taking one small, meaningful step forward. It’s a process of finding the friction and smoothing it out, one “Plus-One” at a time.