According to online course market data, online courses are a $130 billion/year industry and online learning has increased by 74% in the last five years.
Consequently, online courses have become more popular than ever as they continue to disrupt education’s traditional classroom model and improve accessibility for students around the world.
If you’ve been considering creating an online course but still aren’t sure how to start or what platform to choose, hoping someone would just do all the hard work for you, we’re here to help!
In this post, we’ll discuss how online courses operate, what you should consider when creating them, and the 5 major steps to establishing an effective online course.
1. How online courses work
Online course creation is gaining in popularity, thanks to its convenience for students all around the world. The pandemic heightened the awareness for online self-study and the lucrative income potential of online courses. The pandemic caused the largest “online movement” in the history of education (World Economic Forum, 2021).
One of my clients hit $35,000 in one month during the pandemic as she shifted her focus to create online fitness programs for her clients that they could do at home.
2. What online course creators should consider
Once you’ve decided to start creating online courses, the first thing to know is that online courses come in all shapes and sizes. There are more options than just the traditional online degree program – online courses can be taken as standalone classes or part of an online degree, they can be delivered using videos or articles, via discussion boards or email exchanges, etc.
Therefore, there’s no one right way to design online courses; it’ll depend on the organization’s goals and what type of learner they aim for. Some students prefer passive learning while others enjoy active participation so it’s important not to assume people learn best by only receiving information (as with videos) or solely doing things themselves (as with independent study). The online course platform should be designed in a way that caters to different types of students.
Additionally, online courses can be more dynamic and interactive than the traditional classroom learning experience. For example, online discussions can encourage critical thinking and problem solving while also developing relationships with your students in your community.
3. The 5 key steps to launching an online course
Now that you know what goes into creating online courses, we’re going to walk you through the 5 key steps to launching a successful online course:
1) Define your goals and target audience
Before you can begin creating online courses, you need to first determine what your goals are for the project. What do you want the online courses to achieve – increased revenue, more customers, employee training, etc.?
Once you’ve figured out your goals, it’s important to then determine your target audience. This will help shape the type of online courses you create as well as how you market them.
2) Research your topic and develop a curriculum
As we mentioned before, online courses come in all shapes and sizes and there’s no one right way to design them. So before you begin creating online courses, do some research about the online course format and online learning practices to make sure they’re a good fit for your audience.
3) Choose the right online course platform and tools
There are plenty of online course platforms available on the market today so it’s important to choose one that’s right for you. Do some online research or ask other people in similar roles about their experiences using different online course platforms. You’ll want to check out features such as user interface, ease of use, completion rates, mobile compatibility, customer support/help resources, etc.
In addition to choosing an online course platform, you should also consider which online tools would be best suited for the project – these could be video editing software, online surveys, discussion forum tools, course hosting software, and more.
4) Create an engaging and interactive learning experience
As mentioned before, online courses can be more dynamic and interactive than the traditional classroom learning experience. For example, online discussions can encourage critical thinking and problem solving while also developing relationships within your community of students.
5) Market your online course
Once your online courses are created, it’s important to market them in order to increase enrollment. This could involve creating a website specifically for the online courses, writing articles or blog posts about the courses, reaching out to potential customers on media platforms, etc. The possibilities are endless!