10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course
10 steps to creating a wildly successful Online Course
1. Pick the Perfect
Course Topic
Your course topic must
be something that you LOVE. If you are not passionate about your topic,
it will be obvious if you don’t love your topic and will make your training
about as engaging as a cardboard sandwich.
Don’t
feel like you have to teach a university-level profession. Think about
your skills, talents and life experiences that you have been through. Cooking
your favorite dishes, interior design, writing non-fiction, overcoming the
death of a loved one… the list of possible course topics is endless.
In
short, if you love your topic, you are good at
your topic and you have experience (formal or life) in
it, then you have a topic that will work for you.
2. Ensure Your Course
Idea has High Market Demand
Hands
up who wants to spend weeks of their life creating an online course, for
absolutely nobody to buy it? Nope. Didn’t think so.
Once
you have picked your online course topic, the next step is to conduct a number
of market research tests to see if it has a market demand or not. Many
course creators make the mistake of thinking that if there is a lot of
competition in their topic area, then their course idea won’t
fly. But actually, this shows that there is a high chance of there being
a strong market demand for that course idea and is therefore well worth investigating
further.
The
main three things you want to be checking for are:
1.
Are people talking about it?
2.
Are people asking questions about it?
3.
Is there a gap in what the competition is offering?
If
your answer to the above three questions is ‘yes’ and your idea is similar
but different to what is already out there, then you
have a course idea that has a chance of being a best-seller.
3. Create Magnetic and
Compelling Learning Outcomes
Don’t
underestimate the importance of learning outcomes. If you don’t do
this for your online courses you could severely risk your
reputation and your bottom line – let alone make the course creation process a
frustrating one.
Would
you hand over your money to someone for a product you don’t understand and you
have no idea what it will do for you? Of course not.
Just
because you know what your course will give your students, it
does not mean that they will know.
If
your students don’t know HOW your course is going to help them, they are
unlikely to enroll in it.
Learning
outcomes clearly explain, with measurable verbs, what the learner will be able
to do, know and feel by the end of your course.
What
skills will they be able to demonstrate?
What
new knowledge will they have obtained?
What
feelings will they have moved away from or to?
Having
clear learning outcomes also ensures that only the RIGHT students are joining
your course – which means higher completion and
satisfaction rates and lower refund requests.
4. Select and Gather
your Course Content
This
is the stage where many course creators start to risk falling into ‘The
Hole of Eternal Procrastination’.
The
main reason we get stuck here is often because of the sheer volume of
information we have in our heads or all around us in books, on our hard drives,
in our notepads and so on. The art at this stage is not just about what we should
include in our course, but what stuff we need to leave out.
This
is where the research you will have conducted in the market testing phase and
your learning outcomes, now come to serve you again. As you are sorting through
your piles of content, throw out anything that does not directly relate to
achieving a learning outcome.
Secondly,
make sure that every learning outcome does have content aligned to it.
Only
include content that answers your audiences burning questions, or fills gaps
not met by your competitors.
5. Structure Your
Modules and Course Plan
This
is the stage where you now take a look at all of your content and start
grouping together your similar themes, tips, and ideas into modules and then
ordering the lectures within those modules into the most progressive and
logical manner so that they form a flowing sequence of lessons.
6. Determine the Most
Engaging and Effective Delivery Methods for Each Lesson
Now
it’s time to decide on the best way to deliver your content.
You
need to be aware of the different principles of adult learning, learning preferences
and all of the different ways that you can deliver your training to really make
sure that your training is as engaging as possible.
Will
you have videos, reading content, activities, audio content?
What
type of visuals will you have?
Will
you have community learning areas?
You
need to make sure that you have a balance of visual, audio and practical
methodologies so that everyone is engaged and provided with the optimum
learning experience.
7. Filming, Recording
and Editing your Online Course
This
is the production phase.
By now
you should have a thorough course plan, all of your content together and know
exactly how you are going to deliver each element of your online course.
Now
it’s time for the fun part – getting on camera.
Of
course how you deliver your training is entirely dependant on what your
audience will prefer to engage with and what method delivers your learning
outcomes most effectively.
However,
at present the most effective method of delivery is video.
This
could be ‘talking head’ video which is when you are in the shot on camera.
You
could also have ‘green screen’ talking head videos.
This
means that you are recording with a green background behind you – where you
have a green screen, you can have anything behind you during the editing
process. It could be a video behind you, animations, or just a still image. I
use the green screen so that I can have my PowerPoint slides up behind me in
the post editing phase this is great for my more classroom type training
Another
method is called screencasting which is when you are recording
your computer screen – you can choose to include a webcam type video of
yourself on top of this.
You
can learn how to edit your videos very easily yourself
– I use a piece of software called Camtasia.
This
allows you to quickly cut edit replace your green screen, fix your sound, add
logos, text and pop-ups to your videos; save them as an mp4 and then upload
them to your online learning system.
8. Setting up your
online school
The
first thing here is to recognize that there are three major ways to sell your
online courses.
1.
online course marketplaces
2.
learning management systems
3.
plugins or software on your website.
There
is a very big difference between online course marketplaces and
learning management systems.
A
learning management system is your own Academy that you can link to your
website and fully brand as your own platform. It makes online course creation
simple and easy to sell your learning products. My recommendation is Thinkific (I
host all of my courses on this platform), but if you’re still early in the
platform selection process, here is a list of all of the
things you should look for in an LMS (Learning Management
System).
9. Getting the perfect
pricing models and feeding into a bigger education based business model
Make
sure you have strategized how and where your online course will fit into your
overall business model.
- Is it going to just be a free lead magnet into
your primary product and service?
- Is it going to be an income stream in its own
right?
- Or, is it going to be your primary income
stream?
Each
of these will mean that your course needs to be designed slightly differently,
provide a different volume of value, have different marketing methodologies and
put your followers and students into very different types of funnels.
This
also will considerably affect the pricing that you need to apply to your online
course so that it appropriately matches the position it’s given within your
business.
There
is no right or wrong or even guideline price for an online course as it
depends very much on what it is that you are delivering. But as a starting
point, my recommendation is to analyze and benchmark your idea against
competing products within the marketplace – have a look at what your
competitors are charging and what for, then find out how yours can be different
and better. When you’ve made yours better, then price yours slightly higher.
Never
price yours lower because that will just make yours looks like it has less
value than your competitors.
10. Launch and Ongoing
Marketing
If you
think the work is over now that you’ve completed on your online course think
again now the real work begins!
Too
many course creators make the mistake of thinking that once their course is
created, they now have an income stream. You need a launch and
ongoing marketing strategy to promote
your course and enroll students.
- Will you run early bird discount promotions?
- Do you have a content marketing plan that will
sell your online courses?
- Will you run ads?
- Do you have a list to market to?
- Can you partner up with influencers?
- Will you run an affiliate program?
- How will you use social media?
Online tutoring is one of the best way for tutoring students at their on place. Online tutoring become for popular these days just because of its demand.
These are the main requirements for bring an online tutor:
- You have in-depth knowledge of the subject.
- Familiarity with the subjects structure.
- An enthusiasm to teach.
- Ability to deploy various resources effectively.
- Good communication skills.
- Being able to ask the right questions.
- Listening to the students.
- Flexibility in approach to match the needs of the student.
- Ability to encourage students.
If you’re an educationist & want to understand how to set up an online class, here are some tips to help you. You can very easily set up an online class in just a few minutes using a few simple steps, with either a mobile device, tablet or laptop.
- Select the perfect live streaming app & solution for yourself. There are a number of these in the app stores these days. All you need to do is look around, read about each of them, their features & carefully select the best one that suits all your live streaming needs. Most live-streaming apps like Google Hangouts, Skype, Zoom, etc. are great for conducting online classes with a few or even more students. Right here to read more about live streaming apps & solutions & decide which one is the best for you.
- Download the app & follow the instructions given in it to set up an account. This should be very easy & takes only a few minutes to do.
- Once your account has been set up, go in the settings menu & look for broadcasting options. In the case of Google Hangouts & Zoom, you’ll have to look under the ‘Start a new meeting/session/stream’ option. There, you’ll find the various options that help you set up and start an online live stream class & the various customizations that are available for you.
Select the ones that are best for your online class & move on to the next step. - Set up your camera, video & audio settings. Since visual representation forms the basis of an online class, you’ll want to make sure that your camera, video input/output & audio input/output are working properly before beginning the online class.
- Next, send an invite to your students. Most live-streaming platforms are secure & allow private live streaming sessions in which users can join using a certain ID or meeting number, for instance. Share a customized link of the class with all of your students & ask them to join the online class. In case you aren’t sure if the app you have downloaded is Secure Online Video Platform.
- Voila, your online class is set to begin. If the application has certain prompts like ‘Go’, ‘Begin’, ‘Start Streaming’ etc., then click on those to finally get started with your online class.
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