Online courses: How to start one
Full Answer
Create a quality course that stands out from the competition (even in crowded niches). Pick the perfect topic and name for your course. Establish yourself as the ultimate authority on your course topic. Outsource parts of your course to conserve your energy for what you do best. Keep students interacting with (and buying from) you long after ...
Plan Your Online Course Creation
Part 1 of 3: Seeing the Big Picture
How to create an online courseChoose the right subject matter.Test your idea.Research the topic extensively.Write a course outline.Create the course content.Bring your course online.Sell your online course.Market your content.More items...•
In this article, you'll find an overview of the 10 major stages of online course creation:Pick the perfect course topic.Ensure your course idea has high market demand.Create Magnetic and Compelling Learning Outcomes.Select and Gather your Course Content.Structure Your Modules and Course Plan.More items...•
1. Thinkific: Software to create an online course for free. Thinkific is the perfect platform for online course creators looking for a low-cost solution to easily create, market and sell their content. Best of all, it's free to create and sell your first course.
Best Equipment & Software For Creating Online CoursesMicrophones.Lavalier Microphones.Microphone Accessories.Headphones.Screen Recording.Video Recording.Lighting and Accessories.Audio and Video Editing.
Here are the multiple steps involved in starting a career as an online course creator:Step 1 - Market research.Step 2 - Understand your student.Step 3 - Create free content.Step 4 - Understand SEO.Step 5 - Create a sales funnel.Step 6 - Build a brand.Step 7 - Build a community.Step 8 - Validate your course ideas.
It can cost anywhere from $200 to $10,000 to create an online course. The main source of expenses is the labor involved, followed by the equipment and software. If you are creating the online course yourself and not paying someone else to do it, this means that other than your time there are very few expenses involved.
How to create an online course PDF checklistOpen up your free (or paid) Canva account.Type “checklist” in the search bar.Select your favourite layout.Adjust colours to your brand colours.Adjust fonts to your brand fonts.Insert your content.Click download as PDF.Upload PDF to your online school.
List of the Best Online Course PlatformsThinkific.LearnWorlds.Teachable.Podia.Kajabi.LearnDash.Ruzuku.WizIQ.More items...•
The art of doing: How to create a mini courseChoose a course topic. For those: ... Identify the target audience. Scoping out and identifying an audience is key to success. ... Provide a transformation. The best way to do this is to solve a real problem. ... Outline the content. ... Shrink the list. ... Repurpose content.
How to Set Up a Virtual ClassroomGet Your At-Home Workspace Ready. Creating a designated space for work and online teaching is crucial for educators working from home. ... Test Your Tech Before the Start of Class. ... Set Classroom Expectations, Goals and Routines. ... Make Communication and Survey Tools Available.
What Equipment Do I Need To Use Zoom?Computer. Windows or Apple computer with speakers and a microphone. (Note: Webcams are recommended but not required.)Mobile Device. iOS or Android.Phone. Mobile device, desk, or landline.
10 Best gadgets for online classes for studentsHeadphones w/ microphone.Ergonomic chair.Webcam upgrade.Orthopedic backrest.Laptop stand.Standing desk.Wireless keyboard/mouse.WiFi Booster.More items...•
How much can you make selling courses online? You can make anywhere from $1000 to $100,000 or more per year selling online courses. Your revenue is going to depend mostly on the amount of traffic that you can bring to your courses, your conversion rate, and the price of your courses.
10 Social Media Tips to Sell Online CoursesGet Shoutouts on Instagram and TikTok.Use Twitter Polls to Build Engagement.Post Your Course to Pinterest.Don't Neglect LinkedIn.Reach Out to Build 1:1 Relationships.Share Blog Posts Related to Your Course.Make a Promo Video.Test Different Titles.More items...•
The time you will need to put a course together really depends on your specific case, however it generally takes anywhere between 25 to 500 hours to craft an online course.
Here's a few more ways you can market your courses:Create social media pages and post regularly with relevant hashtags.Advertise on social media.Boost your SEO with Google Ads.List your courses on a marketplace (such as findcourses.com or candlefox.com)Advertise or write content for relevant industry publications.More items...•
So, you want to learn how to sell online courses? Maybe they're your own courses or you're an affiliate for somebody else's courses. I'm really excited for you, because there's an incredible amount of opportunity with online courses!
Now that we’ve covered the psychology, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of creating your course! Here are the ten steps you need to follow to create an online course from scratch that people will love.
I’ve learned seven essential and inspiring lessons while testing and launching my first online course, Smart From Scratch, on Teachable.
As you may already know, I’m pretty big on online courses. I started my first online course in 2001 and transitioned it to online around 2004. Over all the time I’ve run that online course, I’ve helped thousands of people reach their goal of passing an exam so that’s a pretty successful course.
Online courses fit under the category of info products (or at least that’s what we used to call them before watching videos online was even possible). Back then, you could choose from ebooks, big-box items, or live seminars.
In this first section, you’re going to conduct some market research to help you with your course topic. You’ll do it from the perspective of finding the unique angle for your online course in the marketplace.
First, you need your online course idea. Then you need to validate it as best you can.
The next step is to figure out the format of your online course. If you spent the time researching your competition, then this will be easier to do. There are three ways to go about this.
When it comes to your medium you want to be clear on how your online course materials will be delivered. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
You may already know enough about the topic for your online course that you don’t need to do any research. If so, then that’s great. But after reviewing the boundaries of your course, you may find that you have gaps you need to fill. You may need to research specific topics.
An easy way to make online courses more engaging is to stimulate the student visually. This means pictures and videos. The simplest method of using picture and videos in an online course would be constructing your online class more like a PowerPoint presentation:
One of the most important components of creating an online course is setting a learning goal for the course . However, there’s more to it. Every online course consists of various sections, and each individual section also needs to have a clear learning goal.
Which means you need to get your knowledge together.
One way to keep your students engaged is to provide an early return on their investment. If a student feels they’ve learned something just from the first module alone, they’re a lot more likely to stick around. Nothing gets someone down faster than them feeling stupid or unproductive, which is very easy to do in a learning environment. Give them feedback, and an ongoing sense of accomplishment, and they’ll stick around.
The target audience is the group of people to whom you are writing your course.
Ideally, you should have demonstrable expertise on the subject you are teaching. That could be either by education or practical knowledge on the subject. Having real qualifications to show to your students makes a big difference in establishing trustworthiness for yourself.
It’s crucial that you decide on a specific course subject in the beginning phase of creating your online course. Be as specific as possible.
Many people fail to complete online courses because they forget to follow their timetable. A flexible scheduling system will keep e-learners productive. The LMS should allow educators to offer multiple time slots to sign up for training and mentoring meetings. This flexibility will help students get support when they really need it. Create a reminder system so that students come to class on time and teachers know when it is convenient to give students support and feedback.
To understand how much it will cost to build your own LMS, you need to take into account the following factors:
A custom LMS or LMS from scratch is created with a specific customer’s requirements in mind. Many benefits will push you to choose this kind of system:
The learning management system price directly depends on how many functions and what complexity should be implemented in your project, how many LMS modules you would like to have, etc.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, the education sector has raised the demand for digital solutions for online education. The government education system moved towards web-based learning platforms and drove the market. The corporate industry started to adopt digital transformation and raised demand on learning platforms to train their staff cyber-hygiene, data handling, and more.
When all preparations are set and done, you can proceed to the development stage. During this stage, UI/UX designers begin to create screen mockups for the future LMS based on specification and wireframes. Once the design process is finished, designers transfer all layouts to the development team. Developers use their technical expertise to turn attractive layouts into a working product. The development process consists of sprints. During each sprint, which usually lasts two weeks, developers must implement a certain part of the product's functionality.
One of the easiest ways to create an LMS system is to outsource the development to a professional IT company. In this case, you will receive top-level services at a reasonable price. This option does not force you to hire employees, rent an office, or incur other unnecessary expenses. Most IT companies already have the recruitment of professionals needed to get started with any project. Also, suppliers take responsibility for team management and product delivery.
The most important tool in your arsenal will be an online course platform. You’ll need it to host your course and build your online school website.
To make screencast videos for your course, you’ll need screen recording software, and the one I recommend is Screencast-O-Matic.
Google Docs is the most popular tool for writing text content for any purpose, and online courses are no exception. So you’ll be using it pretty extensively while creating your online course.
Canva will be one of the most important tools in your arsenal as an online course creator.
Stock photos can be an important part of your course creation process. You may want to add stock photos to your course lessons, presentation slides, course videos, or even use them to design your Canva graphics.
Although Teachable allows you to create quizzes to evaluate students, it offers only the basic features on the free plan.
Creating blended learning experiences by introducing live sessions in your course is a great way to boost learner engagement.
The topic for your online course should be either a subject that you’re already knowledgeable about or are willing to invest in learning thoroughly. Either way, you need to be passionate about the subject.
Now is the time to develop the curriculum for your online course. On a piece of paper, write down a list of the different lessons you plan on teaching online. Within each lesson, break it down to the main topics you want to cover. Go in a logical order and try to make your ideas evolve naturally from one to the other , to ensure a smooth and frictionless learning process.
Having competition means that people find the topic relevant and helpful for them. It’s also a good idea to create content that can comfortably fit into an existing, tried-and-tested space.
If you already have professional experience with your course topic, it’s likely that you’ve put together content about it in the past. Have you ever written a blog post or created a webinar about the subject? Maybe you host a podcast or run a YouTube channel for your business in which you’ve discussed similar themes? If so, go back to these materials. Repurposing existing content into your online course will help get you started and save a lot of valuable time.
Ask a group of friends, as well as your existing audience, what they think of the subject you had in mind. Test it out by sharing polls or online forms for your audience to fill out. You can make a short tutorial first, and monitor its performance. Then, follow up on the tutorial on social media or via email marketing campaigns, asking your audience if this type of material is something they’re interested in seeing more of.
In order to test your idea, use a landing page builder to create a page for your upcoming online course. Although you haven’t created the course just yet, you already know what it’s going to be about. Include a concise description of the course explaining what people can expect to learn and add eye-catching imagery to further reflect the concept. Check out these fully customizable landing page templates to use as a starting point.
Competitor prices: Start by doing a quick audit to determine the average course price on your topic. While the prices can fluctuate depending on how much of an expert the course instructor is, try to get a sense of what the going market rate is for reference.
An easy way to make online courses more engaging is to stimulate the student visually. This means pictures and videos. The simplest method of using picture and videos in an online course would be constructing your online class more like a PowerPoint presentation:
One of the most important components of creating an online course is setting a learning goal for the course . However, there’s more to it. Every online course consists of various sections, and each individual section also needs to have a clear learning goal.
Having competition means that people find the topic relevant and helpful for them. It’s also a good idea to create content that can comfortably fit into an existing, tried-and-tested space.
The topic for your online course should be either a subject that you’re already knowledgeable about or are willing to invest in learning thoroughly. Either way, you need to be passionate about the subject.
If you already have professional experience with your course topic, it’s likely that you’ve put together content about it in the past. Have you ever written a blog post or created a webinar about the subject? Maybe you host a podcast or run a YouTube channel for your business in which you’ve discussed similar themes? If so, go back to these materials. Repurposing existing content into your online course will help get you started and save a lot of valuable time.
Ask a group of friends, as well as your existing audience, what they think of the subject you had in mind. Test it out by sharing polls or online forms for your audience to fill out. You can make a short tutorial first, and monitor its performance. Then, follow up on the tutorial on social media or via email marketing campaigns, asking your audience if this type of material is something they’re interested in seeing more of.
In order to test your idea, use a landing page builder to create a page for your upcoming online course. Although you haven’t created the course just yet, you already know what it’s going to be about. Include a concise description of the course explaining what people can expect to learn and add eye-catching imagery to further reflect the concept. Check out these fully customizable landing page templates to use as a starting point.
There are plenty of reasons to create an online course. But typically, we see three reasons more often than not:
People are motivated by transformation and they are willing to pay for it when it comes in the form of an online course (delivered by the right instructor, as you’ll see in the next point). Therefore, it’s not just the topic or content of your online course that matters. It’s how that topic or content attracts the most motivated people to it.
That’s a huge missed opportunity: Establishing a community component alongside your online course gives your course members the opportunity to build relationships with each other, navigate challenges together, and get that much closer to your goals. And in the end, it spurs the growth of your business too, since your course graduates won’t be able to stop raving about their experience to everyone who will listen.
While this may not feel like much of a difference—aren’t teaching and learning opposite sides of the same coin?—people don’t actually learn by just watching your beautifully produced videos or reading your articles or posts. That might be what you teach, but it’s not necessarily how someone learns.
That’s right. You don’t need to be an expert to create online learning courses.