how to write an online training course

by Matt Reichert 9 min read

  • Know your audience. The first thing you need to do in order to create a memorable online training course is know who your audience is; meaning know their knowledge, skills ...
  • Grab employees’ attention. As a first step to grab employees attention, consider creating an eye-caching online training course title and introduction. Next, consider using humor as an attention grabber. ...
  • Create a powerful online training course structure. After you have ensured that employees’ attention is yours, think about what it is that you most want them to learn. ...
  • Address employees’ emotions. As we already know, emotions amplify memory. In fact, it has been proven that without the emotional element, it is difficult for long term memory to be ...
  • Make your online training course interactive and convenient. In order to offer employees an unforgettable online training experience, your content should be pointed out in the most interesting way possible. ...
  • Show employees the real world benefits of their online training. This last tip is of utmost importance: to create a memorable online training experience, you need to put the information ...

Here's how to create an online course for free in 10 steps:
  1. Choose Your Course Topic.
  2. Identify the Target Audience.
  3. Gather and Structure Your Knowledge.
  4. Create an Online Course Outline.
  5. Choose Your Online Course Software or Platform.
  6. Create the Course Content.
  7. Make Sure Your Content is Engaging.
May 14, 2021

Full Answer

How do I create an online training course?

Put simply, this is how to create an outline for your online course:

  • Identify the primary learning outcome
  • List the skills necessary for achieving the primary learning outcome
  • Use the skill checklist to create course modules
  • Set learning goals for your course modules

What is the best online writing course?

Write of Passage – The Best Online Writing Course for Audience Building and Networking

  • 5-week digital writing course
  • One of the best courses out there
  • 7 modules
  • Great community

How do I create an 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 and is SCORM-compliant. ...
  • Get employee feedback. An online training program isn’t effective if employees don’t like the format or find it hard to use.
  • Keep tabs on the training. ...

What are the best online courses?

“You’ll start this course with an introduction to the Scratch programming language and the fundamentals of working with sprites, costumes, and backdrops. As you progress, you’ll build your knowledge of core programming concepts and how best to use ...

How do I create an online training course?

How to Create Online Training Courses in 5 Incredibly Easy StepsStep 1: Define Your Online Training Goals and Learner Persona. ... Step 2: Create an Outline for Your Online Training. ... Step 3: Build the Content for the Online Training Courses. ... Step 4: Engage Your Learners. ... Step 5: Measure Meaningful Engagement Metrics.

How do I write an online course script?

How To Write Perfect eLearning ScriptsTurn your eLearning script into a conversation. Your eLearning scripts should sound organic. ... Keep it short. ... Brainstorm before you type the first letter. ... Leave out the jargon. ... Use vivid imagery. ... Watch your tone! ... Edit, edit…and then edit again.

How do you create a training course?

How To Create an Effective Training Program: 8 Steps to SuccessStep 1: Perform a Training Needs Assessment. ... Step 2: Keep Adult Learning Principles in Mind. ... Step 3: Develop Learning Objectives. ... Step 4: Design Training Materials. ... Step 5: Develop Your Training Materials. ... Step 6: Implement the Training.More items...•

What should be included in an online course?

Standards include learning objectives, course activities, and student and teacher interaction. Student perceptions of online class quality are key to designing an effective course. Those looking to enroll in online programs should research what schools do to ensure quality.

How do you start an online class introduction?

Keep your introduction short and clear. 2. Say hello and give a little bit of information about yourself. Don't say anything too private or personal.

Should I write a script for my online course?

Audio scripts help you ensure that the overall quality of your online course material is consistent. When writing and editing the scripts, you can easily maintain a cohesive tone of voice. Also, you can use the same structure for each module or lesson, which your students will appreciate.

What are the 6 steps in developing a training program?

Six Steps to an Effective Training ProgramStep 1: Define Your Training. ... Step 2: Prepare Your Training. ... Step 3: Practice Your Training. ... Step 4: Deliver Your Training. ... Step 5: Confirm Your Training. ... Step 6: Audit Trainee Performance.

What are the five steps in the training process?

Effective training begins well before a trainer delivers an individual training session and continues after that training session is complete. Training can be viewed as a process comprised of five related stages or activities: assessment, motivation, design, delivery, and evaluation.

What are the key factors for making an online course effective?

Previous PPIC research has identified five key factors to help ensure student success in online programs:Use a systems approach to course design. ... Provide professional development. ... Set student expectations. ... Create community. ... Take advantage of the online environment.

How do you design a course content?

Take time and figure out why you are doing this, and for whom. This will help you categorise what kind of curriculum design you want. Make sure you have all the necessary information, including the desired goals, resources, learners' interests, teachers' interests, course details etc.

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.

What does competition mean in a course?

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. Once you have a clear target audience in mind, you are best equipped for later creating and marketing the course.

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.

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.

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.

Can you rent a lesson on a video by video basis?

Individual lessons for rent or purchase: Allow users to rent or purchase your online course on a video-by-video basis. When purchasing a video, users will enjoy unlimited streaming of the lesson they’ve purchased, so that they can go back and rewatch the content at all times.

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 does it mean to get started teaching?

Which means you need to get your knowledge together.

What is the target audience of an online course?

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

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.

Do online courses require money?

Contrary to popular belief, the process of creating online courses doesn’t require a large chunk of money. If you know what you are doing, you can develop profitable online courses at no cost whatsoever. Creating successful online courses is like building powerful magnets.

Do you have to create all the content for an online course?

That being said, you don’t need to create all of the content for your online course before you start selling it. It’s always better to start off with a smaller batch of content, as this will allow you to take in feedback from your students and make improvements accordingly.

How to build a training program?

Once you’ve established course objectives and clear learning goals, you should begin to gather information to support your training programme, building a comprehensive reference of elements to include in your training material. Look at any existing course materials, talk to stakeholders or subject matter experts, review training manuals, read books on the topic and gather information wherever you can to help source course content.

What is courseware design?

Professionally developed courseware materials using instructional design techniques will focus firstly on learning objectives and what you or the client want the learners to do differently as a result of the training course or other learning solution. From there, you’ll develop a detailed outline of the course topic and perhaps create a table of course content that you use to sift the key learning points and outcomes. This begins the process of deciding what the eventual course content will look like.

Is it okay to have a sense of humor when writing a course?

It’s ok to have a sense of humour when you are writing learning courses and, in some cases, a funny anecdote or example can help the learning process. However, there is a level for this, and it should never be taken too far. Certainly, you should avoid anything that could be considered offensive or insulting as, of course, this is never going to be well received. Again, understand your training audience and keep their opinions in mind.

How long does it take to create a course?

Keep the 10-minute rule in mind, that is, any chapter (containing text, presentation, or video) should take only about 10 minutes for learners to complete.

Can you create a course without software?

Create online courses without any software installation. Courses are adaptable to different devices including laptops, smartphones, and desktops to facilitate ‘anytime’ and ‘anywhere’ accessibility. You can create a course in multiple languages. Configure over 100+ settings to develop secure courses online and provide private or public accessibility.

How many types of online courses are there?

Eighteen types of Online Courses. Before you start creating an online course, it is good for you to know what type of course it is you want to create. We have researched several online courses and concluded to specific activity patterns, each of which correlates to a particular course type.

What is professional training?

Professional training courses serve in building knowledge, skills, and competence in a group of individuals or a team. Companies are used to promote job quality, efficiency, and effectiveness while also motivating employees to make a formal commitment to growing with the institution and being more productive. Corporate training is a main use case of professional training courses and this course outline template.

What is a demonstration course?

Demonstration courses consist of a series of videos where an instructor demonstrates specific skills to students online. Workshop courses usually fall in arts & crafts, painting, sewing, fitness, content creation, anything that shows the instructor demonstrating something new that students try to imitate through observation.

What is a mini course?

Mini-courses are short to consume summaries (teasers) of a full-sized course. Like presell and orientation courses, they serve as teasers that make students enroll in a course. However, in contrast to the other two categories, Mini-courses provide real educational value: A full summary of what will be taught in the full-sized course .

What is a presell course?

Presell courses serve as a storefront of an upcoming course. They can rapidly validate a course idea and start building an email list of your potential students before officially releasing a course.

How much will the elearning market be in 2025?

The whole elearning market is expected to exceed $300 Billion by 2025, and that includes both individuals and corporations spending more and more into online learning. There has never been a better time to join the growing industry of eLearning. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.

What is a good idea to reuse your blog?

Besides, you already have the people interested in following you. You can easily record and sell online speeches and workshops; you have already been doing. Turn your training into a profitable online course!

How long does it take to create an eLearning course?

The idea behind rapid eLearning is where you use every tool and strategy you can to potentially create a course in 2 to 3 weeks instead of taking several months. So within your lessons, outline the exact content you will cover.

What is the purpose of an outline in a course?

Creating an outline that serves as a guide to the course is useful for both learners as well as for you so you can develop a more effective course .

How long should a microlearning lesson be?

Depending on how far down the path of microlearning you are going, lessons might only need to be a couple of minutes up to 10 to 15 minutes in length. There's not too much content in a 2-minute lesson so you really need to get at the heart of the topic and do so quickly if you're going that route.

What is the best tool to use to outline a project?

These are great, but with most, you will have to manually re-type your ideas into other software to use them later on. However, if you're a visual learner, mind mapping is probably the best tool for you. You can also use Trello or other productivity software to outline and manage your projects.

What is the lesson in Module 1 of Marketing?

Module 1: Marketing. Lesson 1: How to choose the right marketing strategy for your business. Topic 1: Why choose Facebook marketing. By using the modules, lessons, and topics for each new idea, you will create a system that is simple for your learner to follow.

Why do you need a script for a video lesson?

You don't want to lose your audience because you are rambling from topic to topic with no clear direction. Outlining will also help with lesson planning.

Why is it important to have an outline?

Having an outline allows you to organize these topics in a way that will make sense to your students. In addition, it prevents you from forgetting to add critical information that is relevant to the topic. Writing out what you plan to cover will also help you generate ideas.

How to train a trainer?

Write to your training audience. Use the second person and refer to the learners as "you.". Don't ignore the audience you're hoping to train by writing simply about work processes or machines. And don't write about the learners in the third-person--address them directly.

What grade should I be writing?

The average American reads at about a 7th or 8th grade level. So you should generally keep your writing at that level, too. If you're writing for doctors, attorneys, and engineers, write at a higher level. If you're writing for people who don't speak English as their first language, write at a lower level.

Is it easy to write?

It's not easy to write well. Or, as Ernest Hemingway put it, "Easy writing makes hard reading.". As a writer, you want to do the difficult work so your reader doesn't have to. And while it's true that all types of writing are difficult, it's also true that each type of writing presents its own special challenges.

Do you explain things your training population doesn't need to know?

Don't explain things your training population doesn't need to know. It's it's not necessary, leave it out. For example, if you're teaching learners to make a common household item, your training shouldn't start with a 15-minute history of that item's development over the past three centuries.

How long should an eLearning script be?

For example, you know that your online learners don't have much time to access the presentation so you are going to keep it under 5 minutes long. Brainstorm before you type the first letter.

Should you include bare necessities in eLearning?

You should only include the bare necessities in your eLearning scripts. This is due to the fact that online learners are less likely to remember the key takeaways when they are in audio form. For this reason, you should always emphasize the main ideas and concepts with text or images, in addition to your audio narration.

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Before You Start Developing Your Training Course Materials

Collecting and Structuring Information For A Training Course

  • Step 1 – Develop learning objectives and a basic course framework Professionally developed courseware materials using instructional design techniques will focus firstly on learning objectives and what you or the client want the learners to do differently as a result of the training course or other learning solution. From there, you’ll develop a det...
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Considering How Best to Deliver Your Message

  • The next step is deciding how this information should best be delivered during the training programme, thinking about your target audience, the information that is most important to include and how best to provide that information. Remember, this is a training course rather than a presentation, so you need to consider the method of delivery and a good course designer will co…
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General Writing Tips For Developing Training Materials

  • Up until now, we’ve really focused on writing for a classroom, instructor-led training course. However, these writing tips can be made more general and suit any form of training. This might include traditional course materials, training manuals, instructional materials, online training, expert guides, video modules, workbooks, and various other delivery methods.
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