There are many options for connecting books with online courses. Maybe you have a book and want to create an online course that will help your students with greater depth? Perhaps you've got an existing course and you want to turn lessons learned from students into an ebook?

The best strategy for you depends on many aspects. For help in your decisions, we met with Paul Angone to learn from his experiences as an author who leverages online classes.

Author of three books, including the popular, 101 Questions You Need to Ask Your Twenties, Paul used an online course to grow his audience and income for his work as an author. In our interview, he shared the steps he took to develop his very first course and build a thriving community around the course.

  Take a look at the video below to learn how Paul designed his course and leveraged student insights gained from the student community to write his next book!  

Why An Online Course?

Paul Angone is a full-time author, speaker, and consultant. Paul Angone is the top-selling author of three books. They include 101 Questions to Ask in Your Twenties: (and let's be truthful, it's you're in your 30s too), 101 Secrets For Your Twenties, and All Groan Up: Looking For Self, Faith and Work!. He is frequently a guest speaker for companies and universities around the world, and developed AllGroanUp.com, an online community visited daily by millions of people around the world.

However, Paul wasn't always an author. Actually, the time he started writing five years ago was only the beginning of his journey into publishing and growing his community.

After completing his Masters in organizational leadership, Paul came up with an approach to finding your distinctive flavor in the world. It was designed for the millennial generation, and Paul's approach helps individuals discover their unique strengths and purpose. He initially published these ideas in his debut book 101 Secrets For Your Twenties.

The book touched his readers, and more than just millennials. Soon Paul was inundated with questions and emails from people saying how important the book was However, many encountered difficulties - they understood the significance of finding their Signature Sauce, but didn't have a clue how to go about the issue. How can they implement these principles in their lives to make a lasting impression?

Paul saw the opportunity to aid readers to take action by providing practical lessons and exercises. Creating an online course appeared to be a natural next step.

"I was looking to break ideas down for students to guide them through the process. I was not able to do this with everyone given the amount of questions I received, and so online courses were a great fit. I was confident that I could go even deeper than the book and bring about real change for people's lives with an online course."

- Paul Angone

Paul created this Course The Signature Sauce and used it as a resource that can aid in the implementation of his book application. In addition to having generated additional income for Paul's business, it has also provided students across the world make a difference in their lives.

Lessons For Creating Your First Online Course

When he created his first online course, Paul began by defining what he wanted to have in his students. This for him means taking life decisions that reflect their core values and individual strengths, and becoming transformed into living more purposeful lives.

Because he already had a solid foundation for his course topic through repeated reviews and conversations with the audience, Paul created his course according to the framework he had already established. After conducting prior research, Paul had developed ten steps to finding your secret sauce. He developed 10 modules into his online course to expand on the book's content and enhance learning. Below are some of the important concepts Paul employed to be successful in his very first online course:

  Refining the course topic  

If you're thinking to create a course based on the book, ensure that you have both excitement and know-how about the topic. If you're just creating an additional course in order to earn extra money, your program won't be a success.

"I pictured millennials fully living their calling and purpose which really enticed me to design this course. Pay attention to the things that get you excited. Creating and launching a course at first isn't easy, therefore it is important to establish an overall goal for your actions to assist your self to stick to the plan."

-- Paul Angone

If you're wondering what the amount of overlap should be between your book or online course Paul advises that a good general rule of thumb: 50:50. Paul shared, "most publishers want to see about 50% new material. Don't shy away from including content you've already published into the world. What your target audience has read and enjoyed is likely the material that's the most powerful, and merits reiterating in your course."

  Lesson Design  

Similar to many of the successful course creators, Paul used a variety of content formats to create an engaging learning experience for students and enhance student achievement. Below are a few examples of different formats and types Paul employed for his online course

• videos. For each of the 10 modules Paul made a short training video around 15 minutes in length.
• Workshops. Paul developed a set of questions for every module. He invites students to apply and discuss what they discovered.
• Expert interviews. Each module includes the opportunity to interview an influencer or expert to speak to the subject matter from their personal view.

Pro tip: explore how you can incorporate different kinds of educational content in your course to make it an engaging learning experience. A mix of videos, writing materials, worksheet exercises and interactive dialogue are good elements to start with.

  Using A Cohort Model  

Alongside diversifying the lessons, Paul built a community component into his class. Students worked through the course along with a teacher to help put the material into practice.

If you're considering using a cohort model in your own class, here are a few tips on how to make your group work and boost the chances of them completing your class.

  Make sure the size is manageable  

Paul agreed to allow up to 50 persons who were part of a group at any given moment. As you begin it is important to strike an equilibrium between having sufficient members in your group to create a sense of community, but not too many that causes people to disengage from the group and become disengaged.

  Use a questionnaire  

Paul distributed a survey in the course onboarding to get to know participants asking what they wanted to achieve from the program? What are their biggest challenges? What job did they have? And he also inquired if they wanted to be partnered with someone for accountability through the entire duration of the course.

  Set up responsible for partners  

Paul was able to go through every submission from the questionnaire and paired every student with a pair. The students would work on daily workbook together, and rely on one another to help them work through the content.

  Select a platform that will connect the cohort  

This could look like the beginning of conversations in a Facebook group or the section for discussion within the online course. Paul used both platforms as well as an annual conference call to check in with groups that were subdivided into.

Think about hosting a live webcast or video chat for yourself check-ins when you're looking to have more interaction with your pupils.

"Years later, people who were paired as partners during the class still hang out in person and have become lifelong friendships. This wouldn't happen with just the book, or having coached them one-on-one. The cohort model has been transformative for my students and also has better completion rates than students who are taking the course on their own."

Paul Angone Paul Angone

     For more information about the process Paul launched his course successfully take a look at the video!    

The benefits of having online courses

When he launched his online class, Paul went on to create related books on the subject. In fact, he used his online class Signature Sauce to research the basis for his next book, 101 Questions to Ask In Your 20's.

"The discussions that I was having during the online class turned into research for my next book. The feedback of students has helped me improve the concept to help make my next book even more effective."

-- Paul Angone

In addition, launching his online course brought a variety of unanticipated benefits, from growing the reach of his website, opening speaking opportunities and the opportunity to have a more efficient feedback loop when his book's launches.

  Community  

With the highly engaged group of students Paul fostered, many students of his voluntarily joined part of the team that launched of his forthcoming book. The students of his were the first to promote Paul's new book and praise his benefits working with him. "My students have now become my most loyal supporters," he shared.

  Speaking  

Paul is also able reuse the information in his courses into keynote talks for various speaking appearances. "Building a course forces you to flesh out the contents to a level of depth that you might not get to even while writing your novel. A course helped me develop some of my most memorable presentation content to date ."

  Feedback loop  

Authors as an author, the feedback loop that exists between writing your book and receiving feedback from your audience can be long. Even if your book has a great sales rate, it can be hard to know if your book will be a success. Courses allow you to see your impact live and create deeper, richer and more insightful conversations as well as provide immediate evaluation of your work.

"I am awestruck by how my online classes have enabled me with the ability to connect with my audience that I otherwise wouldn't have. A really amazing part of running a course is making a deep connection with your target audience and watching changes happen instantly."

- Paul Angone

Join Paul at Allgroanup.com or on Twitter @PaulAngone

  If you're only getting started on your course journey, download this helpful guide for creating and selling on the internet!