how long should an online course be

How long should your Online Course be?

• Typical Course Length. An average course these days ranges between 2 and 4 hours of video instruction (and most courses are now video-based, in case you didn’t know).
• Typical Lesson Length. ...
• Let’s do some math. ...
• A Pound of Salt. ...

Full Answer

How long should courses be?

Fifteen to 30 minutes is the “sweet spot”. Courses should be as long as needed, even if they’re 90 minutes. Shorter is always better. People can’t concentrate. Five minutes. Tops. How can studies find such different conclusions?

Should you make your online course twice as long?

If, on the other hand, people come away from it without half the answers they wanted, you probably needed to make it twice as long and include supplements -- in the case of an online course, things like workbooks and checklists -- to deliver the most value.

How do I narrow down the duration of my online course?

To make it easier, we’ve come up with four universal steps for narrowing down your optimal online course duration. And the first one, as with anything in business, starts with your customers. This step begins with a couple of questions, such as: What are your students’ goals for this course? What are your goals for your students?

How long should a video course be?

In practice, you might create a course that only has a few short 5 minute videos to teach something simple. For a more in depth flagship course you might make 25-50 video lessons each 5-20 minutes long. Getting the right course length can be a fine line.

How long is an average online course?

The length of online classes varies. Some can be completed in as little as five weeks, while others take longer. On average, online courses last eight to nine weeks, especially those offered through universities.

How many hours should an online course be?

You should plan to devote a minimum of three hours per week per credit, plus an additional hour per class each week to review materials. For instance, for a three-credit online course, you will need nine hours of study time and one hour of review time each week.

How long should online course videos be?

A large-scale study from researchers at MIT that used data from 6.9 million video watching sessions. The top of the second page has recommendations for the types of videos that work best, including a recommendation that videos should be shorter than six minutes in length.

How many modules should an online course have?

For a shorter course, you probably only want 3 to 5 main steps or modules that will comprise the bulk of your course. Every module contains several lessons that teach the actual course.

How long is a short online course?

The length of an online course depends on the end goal you want your students to achieve. Typical online course lengths can range anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours, depending on the type of course and complexity of the information you're teaching.

How long should online sessions last?

User engagement drops off sharply after about two minutes. It doesn't seem to matter whether your video is 26 seconds long, or exactly two minutes—engagement stays about the same. Between three and six minutes, engagement really goes downhill. Between six and 12 minutes, engagement levels out.

How long is too long for online training?

Most experts confirm that a good length for a web-based course is somewhere between 15-30 minutes. This traditional opinion builds on psychological research, specific content patterns and, more often than not, gut feeling.

How long should an elearning video be?

(6–10 minutes) There is some research that says that six minutes is the optimal length for a video. That's certainly a compelling case, and the bulk of your content should lie in this range.

How long should lectures be?

Modern best practices strongly suggest limiting the length of a lecture to 15-20 minutes, or breaking up a longer lecture with hands-on activities, as research shows that 20 minutes is about as long as humans can maintain their attention on one source of information (Bligh, 2000).

How do I structure my online course?

6 steps to creating an effective online course structure.Create an outline for your online course. ... Develop well-organized, bite-sized courses. ... Add interactivity to your lessons. ... Ensure a user-friendly navigation. ... Incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous eLearning styles. ... Ask for student feedback throughout the course.

What is the duration of course?

Course duration is the time period till which a specific course is taught. When you apply to study at a university abroad, you should always check for the duration of the course that you are interested in.

How do you layout an online course?

5 Tips for Designing Effective Online Courses in 2022Know Your Audience. ... Create Well-Organized Courses / Micro-Learning. ... Make Your Lessons Interactive. ... Incorporate Synchronous and Asynchronous e-Learning Styles. ... Make Content Accessible.

What is an online course?

An online course is a lot like an office meeting. If people feel like it could’ve been handled in an email, you’ve probably overthought it, cut into everyone’s lunch hour, and need to go back to your talking points.

What is learning curve?

A “learning curve” is more than just an idiom. It refers to the rate at which new knowledge is acquired and the expense of time in doing so. I.e., how hard it is for a beginner and an expert to pick up new information, and more to the point, how long it takes for both.

Do two courses have the same time requirements?

No two courses will have the same time requirements, but by using these four steps to nail down your schedule and video length, they should have the same result — happy, successful customers. And that makes for a happy, successful creator, too.

How to Determine the Right Online Course Length

The ideal length of an online course highly depends on your audience, topic and goals. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to finding the perfect length of a course.

How Long Should Your Lessons and Videos Be?

What is the ideal length of a pre-recorded video lesson when creating an online course?

Learning Objectives

An online course needs to achieve the learning objectives. If a course fails to achieve the learning outcomes, the duration of the course does not matter at all.

Competition

Whichever topic you're thinking about creating a course -- chances are that someone else is already teaching it.

Topic of your Course

There are certain topics, which almost everyone has a fair idea of how much effort they require to learn. Even if they don't have a fair idea, they can easily Google for related information.

Price of your Course?

Price is always a factor especially if someone is not your customer yet. If someone is your customer and a true fan, price is less likely to be a factor for them. They would be ready to scoop up whatever you have to offer

Name of your Course?

The use of certain keywords in the name of your course play a crucial role. You should decide a topic and create the course first. Decide the exact name of the course later on, depending on how your course turned out to be.

Course Format

Your online course delivery format would also play a role in determining the length of the course.

Just Do It!

Don't procrastinate forever on what should be the length of your online course.

What Is The Average Length of an Online Course?

In most cases, you’ll build a Free Online Course to generate new leads and grow your audience. These are simple courses. Short and sweet!

Do You Want to Know The Truth About Longer Courses?

Creating a Masterclass course is a good way to convince people to pay a bit more for a more in-depth product, but the truth is that if the course is over 10 to 12 hours long, most people simply won't watch it until the end. 😃

Important Questions To Help You Determine The Length of Your Online Course

Here are a few questions that might help you get a better idea what would be a good length for your course:

What Course Length do I Recommend, From One Course Creator To Another?

In this section, I will give you my personal opinion for what I think will work best for you in terms of course length, and tell you what worked and didn't work for me over the years, as I've experimented a lot with it.

Summary

I hope this helped give you an idea of what to go for in your own courses.

How long is a webinar course?

These courses are typically the teasers, the webinars, and the freebies that are given away for your email. They are around thirty minutes or an hour, and it will typically cover a very niche topic when it comes to the topic.

How long is a scuba diving course?

This course is anywhere from 2 to 6 hours long, and also tends to be a course that is split up into multiple bigger modules. It’s your longest course where you show off everything you’ve got, and you don’t hold anything back.

How long is a bird eye course?

These courses are around one to two hours in length, and are the main course of your niche. These are broader topics that don’t go as in depth, but instead show off your overview skills as you share the birds eye view of the information.

How much learning is lost in a month?

One source found that about 50% of learning is lost in less than one month, with employees reverting to their original behavior. Training should be an ongoing component of your organization, so much so that it transforms from “training” to become part of your everyday culture.

Is shorter training better?

Shorter is usually better, sure, but there are plenty of jobs and processes out there that simply need more. Identifying your requirements and then applying the lessons discussed in this article will help your training be the best fit for your employees—and make your training more than white noise.

How long should an online lecture be?

An online lecture should be no more than 15 minutes long to remain effective while not losing interest. In this article, you will learn how long an online lecture should be, why online lectures are typically shorter than in-person lectures, and the factors that help determine the length of your online lectures.

What is web based course?

Web-based courses – Web-based courses are designed to be done completely online at the student’s pace. The course is entirely laid out with all lectures, assignments, assessments, and anything else needed for the course included as soon as the student starts working in it.

What are online lectures?

Online lectures can be utilized for a variety of learning opportunities, such as: 1 Flipped courses – Flipped courses are a “backwards” take on traditional learning where students participate in online classwork (lectures, discussions, research, etc.) at home and do classwork that resembles homework, which focuses on engaging in the concept they are learning while being guided by a teacher. 2 Web-based courses – Web-based courses are designed to be done completely online at the student’s pace. The course is entirely laid out with all lectures, assignments, assessments, and anything else needed for the course included as soon as the student starts working in it. 3 Web-enhanced courses – Web-enhanced courses are similar to web-based courses, but the class meets at specific times in-person to discuss what they are learning and have the teacher address any questions. The course is still online and allows students to work at their own pace. 4 MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) – MOOCs are courses that are open to everyone through the internet. These courses are designed to be done entirely online, cover a myriad of different subjects (not just academic ones), and were made popular by websites such as Udemy, EdX, and Khan Academy. Unfortunately, these courses do not offer official certifications when completed. Their primary focus is to teach new skills or build on old ones.

What is flipped course?

Flipped courses – Flipped courses are a “backwards” take on traditional learning where students participate in online classwork (lectures, discussions, research, etc.) at home and do classwork that resembles homework, which focuses on engaging in the concept they are learning while being guided by a teacher.

What is MOOCs in education?

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) – MOOCs are courses that are open to everyone through the internet. These courses are designed to be done entirely online, cover a myriad of different subjects (not just academic ones), and were made popular by websites such as Udemy, EdX, and Khan Academy.

How long does a lecture last?

In the U.S., most high schools and colleges have lecture-based classes that last anywhere from 50 to 90 minutes. So, if traditional, in-person lectures last this long, ...

How long should a video be for high school seniors?

If you are lecturing high school seniors, keep videos less than 15 minutes long and request that the students complete work after watching the video to make sure they’ve watched the entire video.