Planning to create an online course but do not know how to approach it in the best way? You are not alone. When working on their first e-course, many people do not know where to start, how to study the audience, and how to arrange a course. There is no need to waste your time exploring all the possibilities in the segment of digital education. In this post, we will help you get around all the pitfalls of developing an online learning course. Just follow the below steps, and you will know what to do in order to launch an all-covering e-learning program.
Step 1 – Choose an Online Course Topic
Before you start creating an online course, you need to understand what it will be all about. Brainstorm your initial ideas, research what’s already out there, gain insight into your audience, and validate your course idea. An online course topic can be just anything you like. Perhaps you are a writing expert and can share your experience with aspiring journalists and bloggers. Do you have experience in attracting volunteers to social projects? This knowledge will be in demand by non-profit organizations. Gather all the study materials you have and turn them into an online course. You can be sure that it will fly since modern people know that they should invest in education to achieve success in their business.
Step 2 – Choose a Platform for Hosting Your Online Lectures
Once you decide on the topic of your course, start looking for a platform to make the lectures available. There are several options for you:
- You can place your online course on a dedicated platform that you create/ buy (and adapt) for yourself;
- You can add your online lectures on open platforms like Udemy;
- It is possible to publish courses on your website;
- You can post courses on YouTube.
To make the right choice, you need to know the target audience of the course. If the material is for the internal needs of the organization, then you better have it posted on the platform aimed at the internal use of company employees. In case you are working on a course targeted toward a wide audience and do not have a large budget, then it is best to post online lectures on either YouTube or Udemy.
Step 3 – Develop a Course Program
Having successfully completed the steps above, you need to proceed to a training program. In its form and structure, a training program is not much different from the usual class schedule. You can divide a course topic into several sections (modules) and decide on the best order of online lectures. Additional materials, reading lists, practice assignments, surveys – you can include in the course program just anything you need to convey the necessary knowledge to students.
Step 4 – Decide on the Lecture Format & Type
Once the training program is ready and you know how many lectures will be in your course, you need to decide on their format. There are several generally accepted formats that work best for online tutors and students:
- Screencasts;
- Video sessions;
- Tests;
- Presentations;
- Audio lessons.
You choose the format yourself depending on the content of your lectures. Screencasts and video lectures are considered the most common formats.
Step 5 – Start Content Production
If your online learning program is ready and lecture formats are defined, then you are ready to start creating an online course. At this point, you are to prepare educational material and write down a script for every video session. Writing texts for an online course is just like writing a book, whereas filming video lectures is similar to movie production. Without quality video editing software, it will be extremely difficult to create a top-notch quality online course. To make this task easier, we recommend that you read Movavi Blog and check the solutions the company offers.
Step 6 – Polish Educational Material
After you record video lectures, you can start processing and editing videos. Your main goal is to fine-tune the video picture and sound. Besides that, you can also add slides, photos, screen sharing, and other visuals to help your students make logical connections and inspire engagement with the material. These standard formats make content easier for many students to digest so that its meaning is more relatable and impactful.
Step 7 – Make Educational Material Available on the Web
You have worked hard, and all the lectures are finally ready. You can breathe easily – the most challenging part is over. The only thing you need to do is to post content on the platform of your choice and make it available for the course registrants. This process is quite straightforward and requires the following:
- Selection and publication of the course title;
- Publication of the course program;
- Creation and publication of the course description;
- The download of educational content (video, texts, audio, etc.);
- General course publication.
So, the main work is done: your online course is created and published. It can be as good as you want, but as long as your potential students don’t know about it, you shouldn’t count on large profits. The course needs to be advertised and promoted. SMM campaigns, promo emails, contextual advertising – all these digital marketing channels can help you with this mission.
What’s Required on Your End?
What skills and knowledge do you need to create an online course that your target audience would like and share with others?
- Expert knowledge that is in demand;
- Writing talent;
- Good diction;
- The ability to shoot video;
- The ability to work with audio;
- The ability to create screencasts;
- The ability to edit video, audio, screencasts;
- Patience.
Have you accumulated enough knowledge in your field and feel like you are ready to create a training course and share your insights with others? We do hope that now you know where to start and how to pack all your experience. In this post, we have described the main steps for creating your first course. Structure your knowledge in the most effective way, prepare a winning lecture program, and launch a course that will rock!
