The emergence of a global pandemic has forced us to accept many things that were not part of our normal lives before the pandemic hit. Some of these changes were not beneficial to our lives and will be removed from our daily routines once things get back to how they used to be. However, other changes helped us more than we could have thought. Not only did this drastic life-changing event bring about new ways to live, but it also changed how we thought about activities that existed but were not considered as a good option by us. One of these is taking online courses. Many of us preferred attending face-to-face classes, but once we were forced to get all the education we needed online, we could see how this saved us time and effort and gave us more time to study and do other activities. If you are passionate about a certain topic or if you already work in the teaching field, we are here to give you ways of building your online course and reaping the benefits.
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Picking A Topic
Picking a topic for your online course should be the first step. The topic you will end up choosing must be a result of passion. The greatest teachers are the ones who teach things they love and believe that everyone else should know about these topics too. Do not focus on making it sound and look like an academic course, many people resort to online courses because they want to learn skills or something fun.
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Make Sure The Topic Is Needed
Loving the topic is essential but not enough on its own, you have to check if this topic is in high demand. Selling an online course is the same as selling any service or product, there is no use in putting effort and time into something that will not sell or benefit others.
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Find A Platform
After settling on the right topic, you have to pick the right platform or site that will host your course. Although this step might sound hard and overwhelming it actually is not, this review at edwize.org/thinkific-review shows that a course builder is a perfect choice for something like that. It will help you professionally set up your course without much fuss. Course builders are also customizable, so you can add a personal touch to how your course will look to learners instead of just choosing between ready-made templates.
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Be Clear About Outcomes
No one signs up for a course unless they know what they will end up learning after taking and finishing the course. Make sure you write the learning outcomes in a clear manner. You can try and ask a friend or a relative to read them and tell you if they are clear enough. The outcomes will help learners decide if this is really what they are looking for and are ready to pay for as well.
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Collecting Material and Session Planning
Then comes the time for collecting the material you will use in your course. Searching for the right material will probably take some time, many books and articles have attractive titles, but when you read them you might find that this is not what you are looking for. Having specified, and detailed learning outcomes will help you decide upon the right material and exclude the ones that do not align with your goals. Make sure you have a teaching plan for each video, one of the worst enemies to any instructor is to look unprepared while teaching.
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Start Filming and Editing
Choose an appropriate background and get to filming as soon as you have everything else figured out. Be prepared for the fact that you will change how you teach and what you say when you see your recording for the first time, this is normal. Research the different teaching styles and pick the one you feel most comfortable with. You can use your laptop camera or your mobile phone if you are not financially ready to buy a camera specifically for this purpose.
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Pricing And Marketing
If this is your first course, then you might consider offering it for free to attract people. This does not mean that you should never consider taking money in return if this is your first course, but not all people will consider paying for a course while they are not familiar with the instructor. If you decide to add a price tag to your work, then consider similar courses and study their pricing matrix. After that, you can decide which marketing strategy you will use and what will be your marketing channels. Teaching is an enjoyable thing to do, it is a way of giving back and helping people learn new ideas and skills. Making your own online course is time-consuming, but worth it once you receive positive feedback. All you have to do is ask yourself at every step, “what would I want if I were the one signing up for the course?”. It is very helpful to think of your customers and ask the same questions they will end up asking, that way you will not fall into the trap of doing something that won’t sell or benefit anyone.
