Six Tips to Design an Online Course |
Whether you're building the first or your 10th class, these five tips will help your audience benefit the most from the experience.
There are a lot of courses available online. It's true... There are a lot.
Certain are great. Certain are good. Some are terrible.
The popularity of online courses indicates that many people try to make money by offering their own online courses and that's great! But too many online teachers create courses of poor quality, which aren't beneficial to them, or their students.
There's an art to building a great online course. And, even with many competitors an organized, well-thought out course that offers the change they require is still able to do very well.
In this post in this article, we'll be talking about how you can structure your online course so that students are getting the best from it. These six tips can assist you in gaining a clear vision of what transformation you're taking your students through and help them achieve it. If you follow these, you'll be well on the way to being able to deliver a high-quality course as well as reviews from students who absolutely love it.
If you're looking for more help in building your online course and community, join OUR Mighty Community for free and get to know other newly experienced community managers! We'd love to have you join us. Register for membership for no cost!
This post...
1. Start with the close of the
3. Test for knowledge retention
Beginning at the end
Do we have the ability to identify the issue of too many online classes?
The majority of course creators begin with a list of what they have learned and want to teach. The things they like to discuss. And they start plotting out the plan.
Here's the reason this is an error.
The best courses aren't created by the brain dump of everything you know. What makes an amazing course is to make sure you are crystal clear about the message you wish your audience to get from the course. What will they do when they finish it?
Make sure you have the ultimate goal in the mind of your. If you are building communities online, we describe this end as being a Big Purpose assertion.
A Big Purpose Statement is similar to this.
The Major Purpose of a course doesn't sound any different. The goal is to bring together a group of people who want to get a certain result. This is what the course you're taking designed for.
It's not:
- The sharing of everything you know
- Inspiring them with your skills
- The goal is to make them expert in their field (unless there's a masterclass)
The primary goal of your training is to lead your participants through a transformation of some sort. It could be a huge transformative life changes. They could also be personal, simple, and enjoyable.
Here are a few examples of transforms:
- Go from knowing 0 guitar, to singing around a campfire
- You can go from being couch potato, to slow and uninspiring runner
- Go from being a floral designer and having an enviable floral business
- Learn little about marketing, to becoming an expert in YouTube ads
It's transformations people want. Therefore, you must define what transformation you wish your participants to be able to complete. It is then possible to work backward from this and build into the course exactly what the ideal student needs to accomplish that transformation: no more, no less.
Start Your Free Trial No credit card needed.
Pay attention to the steps
Once you have a clearly defined goal for your course You can begin drawing out an outline of the course you want to comprise. This might take some research OR, if you're teaching something you've already mastered It could just be sitting down and thinking through what you've gained knowledge.
Take a blank piece paper or blank document. Record the conclusion. Ask yourself "What do they ACTUALLY need for this change? ?"
One of the biggest dangers in this area is known as the "curse of understanding." It's hard to know how to teach a beginner even if you've been able to master some thing, but it's been a while since you were an absolute beginner. Did you ever get caught up at trigonometry as your instructor began talking about the hypotenuse without providing a definition of what it is?
That's probably the curse of knowledge in the workplace. You assume somebody knows something that you think is common sense.
The answer is, focus on the actions. Consider "what steps would it take to master this?" Also, include all the information you can think of, whether you know the answer or not.
So, for example we'll say that you've got a beginner guitar course. The name you've picked is cool, and you're going to refer to it as: "Campfire Guitar Mastery: From 0 to Leading singalong ."
What would someone who's never played the guitar before need to know to go from zero to enjoying a campfire?
Here are some of the steps that could be logical:
- What is the best way to select an instrument if you don't already
- The guitar's parts
- How to find & read chord charts
- Patterns of strumming
- The first single
- What is the best way to learn effectively
- Where can I find song chords
- How do you sing as playing
- How do you find the confidence to play in the public
If you've determined what the purpose is, you'll have a clear roadmap for the best way to design an online course to help your students reach their goals. They could be lessons or modules.
DO NOT GIVE THEM more than they need!
We talked a bit about this earlier. The biggest mistake instructors make is to try and fill a course full of everything they've ever heard. We're tempted to do this due to various reasons typically, however, it gives us the impression that your students are going to appreciate this course more, if there's everything in it.
Resist the urge. Let them have what they want instead. Students' satisfaction isn't a result of an extended course. It's a direct result of an efficient program.
For the campfire guitar class above You'll note the absence of:
- An in-depth study of the development of the guitar
- Guitar lessons across the globe
- A guide to reading music
- Extensive explanations on why you should learn to play (from the course description, they are aware of the reason)
- How to build the campfire
Concentrate on the steps they need. And pitch everything else.
A tip: When you've laid out your lesson plan out, take a look at every step to see how you can take any off. If you are able to get rid of some modules and feel confident that your students can get the results they want, do it!
Get Your Free Trial There is no credit card required.
Test to determine knowledge retention
If you're planning to include exams or assessments in your class, make sure the tests adhere to the information they'll be required to recall in the future. A lot of courses see test as a way to test whether students are listening, and ask stupid questions, such as "In module 2 who was Queen England you mentioned? ?"
If you're planning to test, make sure it's testing and reaffirming the knowledge students must take into consideration rather than assessing whether they retained irrelevant details from the course.
Here are some examples of bad and good questions:
Facebook advertisements course:
- What color is the Facebook logo? (bad)
- What does "audience" refers to for your advertising? (good)
Course in Business:
- What pants color did Jake wear during the 2nd lesson? (bad)
- What were some ways to improve retention of members? (good)
Make sure all the questions are linked to the information and skills they'll actually require to achieve the objectives of the course.
Build projects
A different method to organize online course materials is by having students build a project. You can even do this in lieu of tests or tests.
If you're able to see your students reach the conclusion of your class with something tangible to prove it, that's a great thing! And they'll have higher retention rates because they've actually done the work anyway.
If you're teaching an course that requires an artistic or practical output, walking students through building portfolio pieces or projects may be the method to take.
Here are some examples of work that might be derived from an online class:
The course focuses on Web Design to Beginners
Project: A website
The course: Ruby on Rails
Project: Your first app
Training: Master Watercolor Painting
Project: Your first painting
Course: Intro to Lettering
Project: A portfolio of lettering work
Course: Pitching Magazines
Project: A completed pitch sent out
There are a lot of courses that instruct students on how to accomplish things and then leave them to apply the knowledge on their own. If you can show them how to do it by guiding them through the process and then offer them something to keep, they'll be able to say they've earned their money's worth out of your class.
Mix mediums
The last thing that will really aid in online course structure is mixing the delivery media. Learners learn differently. Thus, adding a variety of materials to your course assists students with different learning styles, and makes the course easier to access.
For instance you can create an online course using pre-recorded online videos. Students have the ability to watch or listen, plus the ability to pause and start whenever they want. You might add an outline of text or a transcript of the video to those who either prefer to read or have a disability that makes video or audio inaccessible. There is the possibility of adding live discussions where participants meet to talk about their course materials or ask you questions and do some exercises in a group.
This type of mixed delivery offers lots of benefits for your studentsby letting them discover how they are most comfortable learning.
Select the correct platform
Then, and perhaps most importantly the most important thing is to pick the right course platform. There are a lot of choices available, however only a few will allow you to do the tasks we mentioned earlier: mixing Asynchronous and synchronous instruction as well as leading live discussion and Q&As, running evaluations as well as allowing students to share their class projects.
So, choosing the appropriate platform is an important decision. If you're searching for an opportunity to create, come try ! It's got an intuitive, elegant course engine that allows you to deliver your information in almost any way imaginable PLUS it gives you the resources to sell your course. Every course comes with its own communityand is customizable and can be a mix of recorded and live content.
Get your free Trial Credit card not required.
Conclusion
In the end, the way you structure your online class boils down to focusing on what students want to change and how they can get there. If you are able to accomplish this, you'll get ahead of many of the online courses available.
So if you:
- The transformation that you're looking to grant these,
- Find out the steps needed to get there,
- Walk them through it,
- Check to be sure that the operation was successful...
You'll have a course that your students will love and talk to their peers about it, and a community of eager fans waiting for your next course!
and if you'd like to build your own course on , you can try it for free - without credit card needed.
Do you have the right tools to launch your online course?