Modern learners of today are looking for novel online courses to acquire new skills. Educators can cater to this rising demand by creating online courses relevant to the niche of their target market. Imparting knowledge to your learners via an online course will position you as an authority in the industry, foster a community of like-minded individuals around your business, and broaden your reach- all from the comfort of your home.
Here are some tips (the ones that actually work) if you are into the venture of creating your first online course, yes, the successful one.
Perform the research to validate the idea
Once you have the idea of creating an online course, the next important step is to check whether it is the right decision or not. Consider your goals for creating courses- is it to broaden your learner base or more revenue you aim for?
Ask the following questions to decide whether creating the online course is the right decision for you as an educator.
-Will your audience be interested in learning more about your chosen topic?
-Is your course capable of generating new income streams for your business?
-Who are your direct competitors, and how are their online courses performing?
Choose the right topic
As you can create a course on literally any topic, it’s easy to create courses that cover too much or don’t solve a problem your target audience doesn’t have. Hence it is important to choose the right topic for your course.
Creating a successful online course is all about offering the solution to your target learners’ problems. Understand your audience’s pain points before making your course, as you can organize your material in a better way.
Consider the following aspects to find the right course topic.
-Survey your target audience
Ask open-ended questions to your audience via email or social media about their biggest struggles and what they need help with. This can give you significant insights into the problems they face, and you can come up with online courses that solve those.
-Consider the current experience and knowledge level
Understand your audience’s experience and knowledge level to choose whether your course has to be broad or narrow.
-Visualize the big picture
Think about the benefits your target audience will get if they buy your online course.
Make a course outline
Start with a paper and write down a few lessons you plan to include in your course. First, break it down to the topics you want to include in your course with each lesson. Next, follow a logical order and make your content idea evolve naturally from one to the other.
Keep in mind that teaching is all about guiding your learners through a concept, step-by-step.
To clarify this, define an objective for each of your lessons.
Let’s look at an example of an online course outline for the course SEO link-building basics.
Lesson one: Introduction to link building
Learning objective: Learners will learn about the importance of link building and its basics.
Topics covered:
–Why links matter
–Link building myths
-Link-building strategies and tactics you should avoid.
Select the course format
Different online courses come in all forms and sizes. You can teach your learners concepts using texts, audio, recorded video lessons, live workshops, or even a combination of any of these.
Undoubtedly, videos are the most engaging type of course content as learners grasp the concepts pretty quickly. It also gives a premium feel to your online course. But, videos are the most time-consuming type of course format.
Whereas the text is considered the easiest to produce and edit. And, coming to live workshops, the engagement is really high.
When choosing a format for your online course, consider some of the following questions.
-What is the format you are comfortable with: Are you comfortable delivering your classes as audio, or do you love being on camera?
-Or is writing your strength? Try identifying your personal interests and skills when choosing a course format for your online course.
Think about your target audience’s preference
Are your students interested in reading material or binge-watching lessons? Depending on your audience’s age and skill level, you can choose what format to choose or what all combinations to select.
Consider the type of lessons you are delivering
If you teach your learners a skill or perform an action in your online course, a video lesson would be the right choice. Whereas, if your learners need to refer to learning materials regularly, course content in the form of text will be a better choice.
The best bet would be to mix and match different types of formats to get the best out of all.
Choose the right platform to publish your course
After creating your online course, you have to bring it to your target learners’ hands and get paid for your efforts. For that, you need the best platform to host and sell your online courses.
The good news is that many online course platforms are available in the market. But the catch is most platforms take a share of your revenue and don’t offer you much flexibility over the other aspects of hosting a course.
So what’s the best alternative? Nothing can beat the advantage of creating your own online course platform to sell your courses. You can use course management software from a reputed service provider like Pinlearn to build an online tutoring platform to host self-paced online courses. Being a ready-made script allows you to build EdTech businesses like Udemy, Coursera, or Khan academy with all the essential features you require.
Create the actual course content
After sorting out the course outline and format, you can actually start creating online course content.
From the overall course outline, choose lessons one by one and jot down all ideas for each lesson. It’s okay not to create lessons in order. Instead, you can start with any lesson that you find more interesting.
Additional tips when creating an online course
You don’t need all fancy equipment to get started
In fact, if you want to create an online course now, you already have everything you need with you already. Start with your phone camera to record your videos, and then you can use the revenue from your online courses to buy new gear as your course starts to bring in revenue.
Look for opportunities to add more value to your content
To add more value to each of your lessons, add extra materials like practice books, community access, live classes, and more. This can also help you charge a premium for your online course.
Conclusion
Creating your online course, the first one, can be a bit challenging. But, with the right planning and assistance, it’s easier than you think to start selling. If you already have the knowledge and experience, it’s a great way to make a passive income while doing something you love.