how to design an online training course

^{Here's what you need to do to create an effective online training program}

1. Gather Your Info. Ask the right questions. This is how you'll figure out what skills you need to teach. ...
2. Create Your Presentation. Choose an authoring tool. If your company already has existing PowerPoint presentations that you want to use, a rapid e-Learning tool will work great.
3. Arrange Practice Runs. Enlist beta testers. You need a small test group to act as guinea pigs. ...
4. Implement Your Online Training Program. Choose a robust LMS. You want an LMS that can handle multiple file types, is capable of m-Learning when you are ready for it ...

Full Answer

How to build an effective online course?

How do you design your online course curriculum or other training series? Start by following these steps (details below the infographic): Step 1 – Clarify the Target Audience for Your Courses

How to create and launch an online course?

Aug 07, 2014 · Here's what you need to do to create an effective online training program. 1. Gather Your Info. Ask the right questions. This is how you'll figure out what skills you need to teach. Take the time to identify weak areas where online training would benefit your organization.

How to start creating an online course?

Sep 29, 2020 · Design the assessments from the start as you are working up your overall course design. This allows the assignments to be integrated within the course rather than tacked on top of the course content. Take a highly scaffolded approach with assignments, beginning with a review of the syllabus and course policies and practice assignments that show students how …

How to create best online courses?

Create a course either from scratch or use professionally designed templates. Use course creation software to create a course online easily from scratch. Develop your design or layout. You can also utilize our professionally designed ready …

How to create an online course

Creating an online course is easier than you think. Pick a ready-to-use course, edit it based on your needs, and share it. Or choose a template fro...

How to design an online course

ProProfs offers plenty of appealing course templates for you to choose from. Pick a course template that resonates with your brand. Pick a theme an...

How long does it take to create a course?

Depending on your training topic and whether you use a ready-made course or template, it takes just minutes to create a beautiful course. Keep the...

How to embed a course on a website

It’s easy to embed a course on any website with ProProfs. Just copy the embed code of your course, set your preferred resolution, and paste the cod...

What are the limitations of online learning?

One of the most significant limitations of online learning is that students can’t interact with you or each other as directly. If you don’t include an interactive aspect of the course, the education students are receiving will be little better than if they simply bought a textbook and read it on their own.

Why is online learning so popular?

Many prefer online courses because of the convenience while others note challenges for interactive and engaged learning. Before you start designing your course, it’s important to recognize the differences that will make lesson plans originally designed for an in-person class an ...

What is the most popular LMS?

The most popular LMSs are BlackBoard, Edmodo, Moodle, SumTotal, and SkillSoft. If you have some software development skills, you may want to consider an open source LMS.

Is there an open source LMS?

If you have some software development skills, you may want to consider an open source LMS. These software are free to use and will allow you to manually change aspects of the code to tailor the LMS to your preference. The downside is that they usually don’t come with a customer support service.

What is the most important part of creating an online course?

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.

How to make an online course more engaging?

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:

What is the target audience of an online course?

The target audience is the group of people to whom you are writing your course.

What does it mean to get started teaching?

Which means you need to get your knowledge together.

Is teaching more than imparting knowledge?

Remember, teaching is more than just imparting knowledge. Never in human history has so much knowledge been so accessible to anyone with such a low barrier for entry. Just on your phone, you can bring up a wealth of information about Nuclear Physics with just a few keystrokes. Fifty years ago, you’d have to break out an encyclopedia or a book dedicated to the subject, and it’d be just as much work to get another point of view on the same topic.

Is it easier to drop out of online courses?

The thing with online courses is that it’s a lot easier to drop out of them: you just stop, and there’s no consequences at all, nothing to bite you for not completing. This understandably damages completion rates. A study examining sixteen online courses offered by the University of Pennsylvania revealed that the average completion rate was 4%.

Is it a waste of time to create an online course?

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.

What should the topic of an online course be?

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.

Why is online education important?

Therefore, fostering a community of learners around your course will greatly improve their experience, contributing to the overall success of your course. An active online community can help users share their learning process with a group of peers.

How to teach a lesson?

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. Remember that teaching is about guiding your audience through an idea, step by step. To make this clear in your course outline, define an objective for each of your lessons.

What to do after a video is filmed?

After you’ve filmed your content, invest some time editing your raw footage. There are many free video editing software available, from iMovie, to Lightworks, and the Wix Video Maker. Try to craft a nice rhythm to your video by breaking it up into digestible bites.

What is a paid plan?

Paid Plans act as a pay-wall, allowing users to access the content only after they pay and log into the members area within your site. One-on-one real-time lessons: In addition to the course, you may teach live lessons to students in a personalized 1:1 setting.

Do you need to run a test before starting an online course?

Creating an online course requires a lot of hard work and effort on your part, so running a test before you begin will allow you to validate this online business idea as one that will pay itself off down the line.

Step 1 – Clarify the Target Audience for Your Courses

If you haven’t done this already, or even if you have, take a step back and revisit exactly who you want to serve. Who are your ideal customers for your courses?

Step 2 – Decide on Your Theme and Goal

You'll see that the overall theme in our suggested curriculum related to both Customer Lifecycle Marketing and Keep Your Customers for Life is called Customer-Focused Marketing , so all the courses have some aspect of focusing on your customer in your marketing.

Step 3 – Identify Skill Gaps

Now that you know the theme and goal of your course curriculum, you need to pick the topics each course needs to cover.

Step 4 – Map Out the Timing

Your next step is to decide on the best way to spread out the delivery of the courses in your curriculum.

Step 5 – Decide How You'll Deliver Your Curriculum

There are a few ways to set up and deliver your curriculum, depending on what your ultimate business goals are and what your target audience prefers.

Need some ideas for what to put in your curriculum or continuity program?

Watch this video, where I went through 5 different ways to combine courses related to our Customer Lifecycle Marketing program (including the lead generation one I mentioned above):

Need more curriculum ideas?

We have a variety of programs packaged into suggested series in our Product Bundles category in our Shop:

What is an effective online course?

Effective online courses are well designed so that teaching and learning is organized in the most effective and engaging manner possible. In an online learning situation, the student’s learning experience is almost entirely mediated through some form of technology; therefore, the design of the teaching and learning experience is especially critical.

What is flexible course design?

Flexibly designed courses favor “ill structured” activities over well-structured ones; interactivity over passivity; inductive over deductive instruction; and activity over text and lecture. Such course design supports both the individual and group’s learning and promotes applied approaches to learning.

What is instructional design?

Instructional Design is a broad term that encompasses the selection, organization, sequencing, and assessment of content, tools, and experiences to help learners attain a certain set of goals. Poorly designed technology-based courses can confound learning, frustrate learners and instructors, and result in high attrition rates.

Why is a mix of media more effective than reliance on one type of media?

A mix of media is more effective than the reliance on one type of media because it satisfies the many types of learning preferences that one person may embody or that a class embodies. Particularly in print- and web-based professional development courses which are primarily text heavy, the use of still and moving visual media can help learners who are poor readers better understand content.

What is adult learning?

Research on adult learning demonstrates that adult learners share common characteristics and beliefs that can be integrated into any learning experience. Adult learners: Need to be treated with respect and recognition and their professional experiences integrated into workshops and discussions.

What is cognitive model?

Cognitive models or “frames of mind” shape the way learners perceive and process information and suggest that an individual’s ability to learn is influenced by the manner in which information is presented. Course designers should create an array of assignments, activities, and assessments that allow learners to interact and practice with content in multiple ways, on multiple cognitive levels and using multiple measures and methods to assess learning.

What is the purpose of content, activities, and experiences?

They should be highly interactive and allow for a range of levels of learning, learner entry points, and experiences. Information should be “chunked” and moves sequentially from simple to complex; concrete to abstract and general to specific, in clear, concise text.

How to create an online training program?

Here's what you need to do to create an effective online training program 1 Ask the right questions. This is how you'll figure out what skills you need to teach. Take the time to identify weak areas where online training would benefit your organization. Does your company need to improve hard skills, such as using the fax machine, potentially dangerous machinery or some process? For example, perhaps Trace is the brew master for a fledgling brewery. He’s ready to expand, but he needs to train some new volunteers on the bottling process. This is a fast-paced task and an extremely important step. Trace needs a training program that can instill these hard skills into his people. Or your company might be more in need of soft skills, including time management, conflict resolution or general company policies. It's up to you to determine this before you design your training program. 2 Align training to real world job tasks. Now that you know what your training needs are, you can divide training into small modules that apply to specific, real world job duties. 3 Check for continuity. A good training course covers all the steps to be learned in a logical order. Try to imagine you are a new employee. Would these instructions make sense to you?

Is online training good?

There's got to be a secret right? We all know that a good online training program is vital to a company's long-term success. It's like a steak dinner. You have to start with quality cuts of meat, or your meal isn't going to end up as delectable as you'd hoped. Similarly, if you don’t start with a good training program, your employees won’t develop the skills and knowledge they need.

How to design a course?

Online course design is rooted in the same solid principles of face-to-face teaching, but requires additional considerations. 1 Set out goals for the course: At the end of the course, I want my students to be able to... 2 Set skills goals such as working in groups, developing quantitative skills, or improve writing skills 3 Choose content to achieve overarching goals 4 Develop a course plan

How to improve writing skills?

Set skills goals such as working in groups, developing quantitative skills, or improve writing skills. Choose content to achieve overarching goals. Develop a course plan. That said, even though the course topic and goals may be the same as a face-to-face course, the course layout, pacing, content delivery and assignments will all be tailored ...

What is the USGS online lecture collection?

USGS Online Lecture Collection This database is a compilation of selected videotaped lectures made at the USGS. All of these lectures are suitable for viewing by the general public and upper level students (grades 8 through university). The videos are in MP4 format and are typically 60-90 minutes long. Also see USGS YouTube Channel, containing a variety of videos from the USGS.

What is traditional lecturing?

Traditional lecturing is replaced by a variety of multimedia communication tools. The default mode of communicating course content, the lecture, is generally absent or minimal in an online course. Think of this as liberating rather than constraining, as there are many means to deliver content.

Easily build engaging online training courses using our templates, assets & library

Create engaging online courses from scratch or use our professionally designed templates. Add your existing presentations, documents & videos, along with quizzes & surveys. Get reports & track learners across all devices.

Add Quizzes, Surveys or Flashcards

Quizzes test your learners on how well they learn and retain your course content. You can add short quizzes throughout your course or provide a longer quiz at the end of your courses.

Create a Delightful Course Effortlessly

Use one of the easiest online course creation tools. No download, no setup fee, no hassles! Zero learning curve. Creating an online course couldn’t be simpler.

Create a course in minutes

Make an online course easily with ProProfs Training Maker. Visit ‘create a course’ section and start your journey. No extra payment to make and no application form to fill.

Create Beautifully Designed Courses

Use course creation software to create a course online easily from scratch. Develop your design or layout. You can also utilize our professionally designed ready-to-use training templates to reduce your efforts. Customize courses according to your course objectives and personalize them by adding your company logo, brand name, color, and designs.

Add Videos, Quizzes, Surveys & Presentations

Help learners identify critical information easily through engaging course content. Use videos, images, flashcards, and presentations. It is easy to test a learner’s progress through quizzes and gain valuable feedback about the course through surveys.

Create a Course Effortlessly

Create a training course by customizing one from a library of 600+ ready-to-use expert courses, which include sexual harassment, food safety, and healthcare. You can also import and personalize content from other learning management systems. Design your own course or use professional templates from the library.

Who designed the eLearning course?

The course is designed by Marina Arshavskiy, who is an award-winning instructional designer and eLearning expert. She will help you with actionable blog posts, newsletters, and articles to learn more about designing eLearning courses. Don’t forget to check our list of Best Design of Experiments Courses.

What is an instructional design certificate?

Instructional Design Certificate (International Society of Educational Technology) Prepared by certified instructional designers and professional tutors of the International Society for Educational Technology, this course will teach you everything about instructional design.

What is Coursera course?

Coursera is a valuable platform that offers brilliant instructional designing courses for all individuals. This comprehensive program will enable you to understand digital storytelling and use them to enhance students’ learning experience. It will introduce you to a solid foundation for a digital story illustrating, its components with example stories, links to readings, and video tutorials. You will also get an opportunity to make your own digital stories, as it covers the basic process of creating a digital story. The course is organized by the experienced teachers of the University of Houston, who will help you complete your certification quickly.

What is intermediate level course?

This intermediate-level course is specifically designed to guide you along the creative process of the e-learning experience. The lectures are covered in a project-based approach so that you can test and try the techniques covered in the videos immediately. By using today’s tools and media you will be able to create unique learning opportunities and incorporate innovative methods in your own workflow.

What is micromasters program?

This micromasters program is designed to help you gain the knowledge and skills required to capitalize on one of the rapidly growing areas of education. Throughout the lessons, you will learn to develop engaging and active learning using various emerging technologies, data analytics and digital pedagogy. Apart from this, you will also get the opportunity to design a collaborative and interactive experience for students.