Are you considering turning your content into an online course?

Here’s a few things you need to consider

As we were forced to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19, educators from across the world had to quickly adjust to the world of online learning. And we’re not just referring to those in schools but also to coaches and consultants who would run in-person workshops. 

We’ve all had to change the way we live, and many businesses (and schools), for the first time, had to navigate the ever-changing online environment. 

And these rapid changes can be very daunting for many people, especially if working online is a new concept for you. Educators have mainly always been face to face in classrooms. Most coaching and consulting services are performed face to face. It’s the nature of what you do. 

But in all honesty, it’s an excellent time for all educators to pivot into the online world. 

Online courses are a valuable addition to your business

If you’re an educator, coach or consultant, there’s no doubt you’ve already got a tonne of content, or maybe even existing training lessons, that you can offer your students. It becomes a matter of converting them into an online setting. 

Setting them up now will become a valuable addition to the future of your business. Your online courses will become a part of your staple offerings and once created, can be a nice little passive money earner for you. 

And with their popularity right now and a projected industry income to top $275billion by 2022, you’re in the best position you can be in to create an online course.

But online learning is a bit different to face to face learning. 

Here are the top 5 things to keep in mind with online courses and learning

1. Focus on outcomes

Always have your student in mind. What is it that you want them to learn, and how will you help them achieve this? You want to be very clear with each course, module and lesson what it is your student needs and keep this in mind when creating the content. 

Hints:

• Keep lessons short and succinct
• People prefer short bursts of information so they can retain the information
• If you can’t explain the topic in under 10 minutes, your point may become invalid

2. Learning styles

Think back to school, or look at your kids, and you’ll realise that everyone has different ways they like to learn. Some can listen and absorb all the info from a teacher; others need to write and practice to retain the information. 

Hints:

• Cater to multiple learning styles with video, audio, pdf downloads, text lessons, interactive quizzes and so on
• Adding subtitles to videos is a great way to include the hearing impaired, people who speak other languages or for people that prefer to read alongside as they learn 

3. Blended learning

Again, in keeping with the different learning styles people have, it’s a great idea to offer a range of different mediums so your students can learn how they want to. Interactions and group sessions are a great addition to this.

Hints:

• Holding live virtual classes is a great idea for blended learning
• Students can interact with each other and get feedback as they need
• You can record these sessions and upload them to your course platform for any student who may not have been able to attend

4. Create a community

One thing people don’t always like about online courses is the lack of interaction with other people. If they’ve been used to learning in group settings (i.e. corporate workshops etc.) some people prefer to have others to bounce ideas of. So, creating an online community for your students works.

Hints:

• Thinkific can offer communities inside the learning portal, so your students don’t need to go elsewhere
• Often when students can interact, share questions, answers and discuss topics, it helps those quieter students who may feel shy to speaking up in person have a voice and interact with their peers and alleviates the need for them to contact you for answers

5. Feedback

Another vital thing for online courses is letting the students know you value their learning journey and input. A great way to do this is to offer feedback on set assignments or to offer coaching calls where they can chat to you about their issues, excitement, future plans etc. 

Hints:

• Offer various methods of feedback – submitting assignments and grading them, offering coaching call etc.
• Having online quizzes throughout the course helps to cement your content into their heads and can be a good progress checker to assess if there are any gaps that might need reviewing
• Live calls and Q&A sessions with your community also work a treat 

The tech side of online courses

If you’ve been looking at creating an online course, you’ve probably seen there are a few platforms out there to choose from. 

At CloudXS Digital, we’re Thinkific experts and stand by the online course program 100%. You can check out our reasons here if you like.

Are you ready to pivot to the online world of courses?

Once you’ve seen how Thinkific works, I know you’re going to want to get your online course up and running asap, so check out how it all works today! 

If you have any questions or want to have a chat to us about how we can help you pivot your course to the online marketplace, please visit our website, or email us at hello@cloudxs.com.au.

You can see some of our Client Course Designs in our Portfolio page

Disclosure: Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I only promote services that I personally use and love. I will be paid a small commission if you use this link to make a purchase.

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