How To Create An Online Course

If you’re here, I bet you’ve got some ideas for teaching and eventually helping people online. And you might be struggling to create e-courses or want to know how to create an online course. Well, I got your back! I’m going to talk specifically about that today, and by the end of this article, you’re going to know how to create an online course—excited to learn? Let’s go!

The online education industry is going very high due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the study, it will grow from $107 billion to $370 billion in 2026. So, it is apparent that this industry has a good opportunity to make some profit.

First thing first. You don’t have to have a chunk of money to create an online course. But yes, indeed, I must say that money can speed up it to reach many folk hands. Still, it’s not a crucial point to get success in online course creation. All you need to know is how to make an effective online course, which will attract people.

Challenges That Course Creators Face Often 

When you’re breaking out of your shell and going to start something else, it’s apparent that you’re going to face some hindrances along the way. Sometimes those hindrances even make some people stop chasing their dream. I don’t want that to happen to you. As a new online course creator, you need to overcome some of those obstacles such as mindset block, no knowledge of course launch, or lack of tech knowledge. Let’s see what each of those is:

  • The most common one is emotional obstacles. When you’re going to start something new, your mind will be concerned with so many things. Even those negative thoughts can stop you from stepping forward. You’ll see it in almost all the newbie businesses if you ask around. So, remember you’re not alone. And, all the successful people started from the point you’re on right now.
  • Another obstacle that course creators face while launching the online course. Due to the lack of knowledge around course building, you might end up making some grave mistakes, which will eventually lead you to burnout. Even you may grow stance to go away from your dream. I’m going to come back to this point a little bit later; for now, let’s see a little overview of the tech struggle.
  • Tech skills are the most important in the case of online course creation. Tech struggle is the ultimate hindrance that can break or make your dream to become a successful online course creator. If you don’t know your way around tech or know which way to organize your ideas, you may end up without launching your course. It’s okay if you don’t know. Take out help from others, even hire an independent contractor who knows her way around tech. I help course creators with their launches all the time, and I’m a tech expert, so you can even reach out to me.

Set your mind that you will overcome any obstacles and will become a successful online course creator.

What Are The Steps To Create An Online Course?

Now, it’s time to know the tips and strategies to create a successful online course. I’m listing out 10 viable steps which will help every new online course creator for creating an online course.

1. Choose The Perfect Course Topic

Choosing a perfect course topic is the most important thing to building out the outline. To get started, you should keep some points in your mind about online courses. Think about what industries you’re familiar with, build out your learner avatar, and think about the pain points that motivated you to bring in the course online.

After then, if you think that you are an expert on your topic and can give deep knowledge about that topic, then you are on the right track. Moreover, you can research your chosen topic and how much it has demand online. You can check the search volume and how many people search for it. It is an excellent way to figure out, whether your chosen online course topic is a perfect decision or not.

Now, that you have figured out your course topic, let’s move on to the next step.

2. Research Your Topic Extensively 

You know that you are an expert on your topic. But when it is about teaching someone, you need to be more prepared. Research your course topic extensively to make it easy from the learner’s perspective. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think about what they need for what. You don’t have to cover the basics only; instead, you have to find a different angle to make the topic more attractive, beneficial, and easy to digest for the learner.

Next, we will research target audiences and know how important they’re in the online course platform. 

3. Identify The Target Audience 

The audience is the building block for whatever you do. When you launch something online, you need to identify the target audience because everyone won’t be interested in what you are selling. Target specifically a group of people based on their demographic, age, gender, behavior, etc., who needs your knowledge the most. Social media or forum is the best platform to understand your customer avatar. Hang out there, ask questions, and take their opinions. This process will help you know how they think about the topic and how your online course is going to help them. 

4. Create An Online Course Outline

After you’re done with audience research, now you need to figure out your online course outline. Find out what your target audience needs at which step of their life. Structure your content so that your students can understand it part by part. Create a roadmap for the online course, take a notepad and plan out what you’re going to teach. 

When you prepare, keep in mind that you need to break down your content into modules & lessons so that too much information doesn’t get placed in one place. Think about what you want to cover around the topic that you chose.

While creating an outline, you have to identify a primary learning outcome first. List all those skills that are necessary to understand the primary learning outcomes. Afterward, you can create an online course module by using the outcome checklist. Or simply you can go for an online course outline template.

5. Gather Your Course Content

Whether you create your outline first or the content first, that’s totally up to you! After completing the outline, it becomes so easy to gather the course content. During this stage, most of the course creators get stuck. It’s normal to happen when your head is going all around with lots of ideas & information.

It will be way better to sort all of your course content and throw out the ones that aren’t directly related to the course learning. You need to make sure that the online course has content aligned with your audience’s needs.

6. Choose Your Online Course Hosting Platform

After you finish all of the above, now it’s time to launch the course on your website or any course platform. Probably you’re struggling to figure out which one to go with. To be honest, it depends on your preference which way you chose.

If you think about any existing course marketplaces to launch your course, you will get some restrictions. But you won’t have to worry much about the tech build. You need to pay a certain monthly fee and will have some conditions right there. But if you’re planning to bring content to your own website which will reflect your brand, you won’t have many of those restrictions. The authority will be in your hand and you can customize it as you want. It requires a lot of tech understanding; you might need a Tech Virtual Assistant who has enough knowledge to manage it all.

But remember, nothing is free out there. You need to spend a couple of bucks on some add-on software and the website. So, make a wise decision in choosing your desired platform. 

7. Make The Content Engaging

You have to make the online course engaging for the students who are going to enroll. To do so, you should focus on essential topics. Focus on one takeaway per lesson to make it easy for them to understand which action to take now.

You can even bring in some course curriculum activities such as assessments, quizzes, or fun exercises so that your audience keeps engaging with your content. Also, you can set their learning goals in the course modules for better learning experiences.

To make your students excited about your online course, you have to give their investment back earlier. I mean, they should get the results faster. When the learner thinks he has learned something from the initial modules of the online course, he will stick with it to learn more.

8. Market Your Content

To become successful in an e-learning platform, you need to promote your content. In this digital era, everything is now on the internet. Having so many things existing all over the internet, you can market your product/service in many ways. So, you must promote your online course so that people get to know about it because no one is interested in spending money on a product/service that they don’t know, even you.

You can take advantage of Social Media, Email Marketing, Paid Ads, Blog Posts, free coaching calls, and many more things to grab your audience’s attention and market the course.

9. Gather Learner’s Feedback

Feedback is very crucial to understand how your online course is. When you know what the learners experience before and after the course, what results in they are getting, and how they perceive the online course, you can improve your course.

Eventually, when your students see they’re being heard, they can become advocates/raving fans of your brand. And the new updates on the online course will definitely help you get more students. 

10. Create A Learners Community 

Humans are social beings. And in this digital period, social platforms make them more connected, which is a good thing for every online course creator. Make a community on social media groups, discord channels, or any other platforms. You can even go for Mighty Networks. 

The communities will make it easy for the learners to discuss what they have learned so far. And if anyone has some issues about the topic, they can solve it together without you being the bottleneck. Group study is really effective, when they exchange their idea, they will become more engaged with the course. Moreover, they can hold each other accountable and they can collaborate on activities to achieve learning goals. It’s in your hand whether you want to bring it in or not.

Now Get Started To Create Online Course

Alright, we are at the end of this article. If you follow all the steps stated above, you have the foundation to create a profitable online course and launch it eventually which will be a great opportunity to build a learning community and even make some profit. Do you have any points to add to it? Feel free to comment below. I’m listening…

 

 

Nusrat Jahan