6 Tips on How to structure an online course |
If you're creating your first or your 10th course, these 5 strategies will assist your viewers to benefit the most from the course.
There's a lot of courses available online. We'll repeat it... A LOT.
Certain are great. Certain are good. Some are terrible.
The online course boom means that lots of students are trying to earn money with their own online courses and that's great! But too many online teachers have created courses with poor quality that do not serve their students.
There's an art to building the perfect online course. Even with all many competitors an organized, well-thought out program that provides their desired transformation can still do really well.
In this piece in this article, we'll be talking about the best way to organize an online course to make sure your students get the most from it. The following tips will allow you to have clarity on the changes your students are going through and learn how to achieve it. If you adhere to these tips instructions, you'll soon be in the process of creating a successful course, and testimonials from students who love the course.
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In this piece...
3. Test for knowledge retention
Start with the at the
Can we explain the problems with too many online courses?
The majority of course creators begin by describing what they are familiar with and would like to impart. Things they enjoy to talk about. They begin to plan the plan.
Here's the reason this is an error.
The best courses aren't created by simply dumping your brain with every thing you've ever learned. The key to a successful course is to make sure you are crystal clear about the message you wish the audience to gain from the course. What will they do when they finish it?
Begin with the goal in mind. For people building online communities, we describe this end as a Big Purpose statement.
The Big Purpose declaration is similar to this.
The main Purpose of a course doesn't sound the same. It's about bringing together a number of individuals who wish to attain a particular outcome. This is what the course you're taking for.
It's not:
- Sharing everything you know
- You can impress them by demonstrating your expertise
- The goal is to make them expert in their field (unless it's a masterclass)
The single goal for your training is to lead your members to a transformation that is of a certain kind. They could undergo massive dramatic, life-altering changes. It could also be simple, personal and enjoyable.
Here are some examples of the transformations:
- Learn to go from having no knowledge of guitar and playing around the campfire
- Go from being a couch potato to a slower AF running
- Go from designing floral designs to running an enviable floral business
- From knowing absolutely the basics of marketing to mastering YouTube advertisements
The most sought-after transformations are those that people desire. Therefore, you must define what transformation that you would like your students to accomplish. Then, you can reverse the process and incorporate into your course EXACTLY what your ideal student NEEDS to achieve that transformation: no more, no less.
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Pay attention to the steps
Once you have a clearly established goal for the course, you can start making a plan of the course you want to contain. It could take some time to research If you're teaching something you've already master or mastered, it could be as simple as sitting down and thinking through the lessons you've gained knowledge.
Find a blank piece of either paper or paper. Write down the end. Ask yourself "What is the actual need to complete this transformation? ?"
One of the risks here is known as the "curse of understanding." It can be difficult to determine how best to instruct a novice particularly if you've already mastered certain things but it's been while since you were at the beginning. Remember glazing over in trigonometry when your teacher was talking about hypotenuse, but without providing a definition of what it is?
This is probably the curse of knowing at work. This happens when you think that someone knows something you take for granted.
The answer is, focus on the process. Consider "what steps will it require for me to understand this?" Also, include all the information you can think of, whether that they are aware of it or not.
Let's say, for instance suppose you're taking the beginner guitar program. You've chosen a cool name, and you're going to refer to it as: "Campfire Guitar Mastery: Go from 0 to Leading Singalong ."
What does someone who's not played guitar in their life have to know in order to move from playing 0 to a campfire?
Here are a few steps that could be logical:
- What is the best way to select an instrument if you don't already
- The guitar's parts
- How do I find and understand chord charts
- Strumming patterns
- The first song
- What can you do to use it efficiently
- Where to find song chords
- Sing as playing
- How to find the confidence needed to play in the public
When you've identified what your objective is, you've got an idea of the best way to design an online course that will help your students meet the goal. This could be your classes or modules.
Don't give them anything more than they need!
We discussed a little bit of this earlier. One of the biggest mistakes teachers make is to cram the course with everything they know. It's tempting to do this due to various reasons typically, however, we feel that our students will value this course more, if it has EVERYTHING in it.
Refrain from the urge. Give them what they NEED instead. Student satisfaction doesn't come from an extended course. It's a direct result of an efficient course.
So, for our guitar campfire course, you'll notice that it does not have:
- A detailed history of the guitar
- Lessons on guitar music around the world
- A guide to reading music
- In-depth explanations of the reasons you need to learn how to play (from the description of the course they know exactly why)
- How to construct an campfire
Make sure you focus on the steps that they'll need to take. Also, you can pitch all the other things.
Pro Tip: Once you've got your course laid out, look at every step to see how you can take any off. If you can get rid of a module, but be confident that your students will get the results they want take it!
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Test for knowledge retention
If you're having exams or assessments associated with your class, make sure the tests are also based on what students will have to keep in mind going forward. Too many courses approach exams as a chance to see if students were attentive, but then ask dumb questions like "In module 2 who was the queen of England that we discussed? ?"
If you're going to take a test, ensure that it's reviewing and strengthening the information they have to carry forward, rather than assessing whether they remembered useless details from the course.
Here are some examples of both good and bad queries:
Facebook advertisements course:
- What is the color of the color of Facebook logo? (bad)
- What does "audience" mean for your advertising? (good)
Business course
- What color pants did Jake wear during the second lesson? (bad)
- How can I increase membership retention? (good)
Make sure all the questions tie into the knowledge and abilities they'll be required to complete the tasks of the program.
Create projects
A different method to structure online course material is to have students create projects. This can be done instead of doing tests and exams.
If your students make it to the finish line of your lesson and have some tangible results this is a fantastic thing! Also, they'll be able to have higher retention rates if they actually do the work anyway.
If you're teaching a class that has the goal of creating something practical or artistic, walking students through building an assignment or portfolio may be the method to take.
Here are some examples of the kinds of projects you could get out of an online training course:
The course focuses on Web Design designed for Beginners
Project: A site
The course: Ruby on Rails
Project: Your first app
Course: Learn Watercolor Painting
Project: Your first painting
Course: Intro to Lettering
Project: Portfolio of lettering work
Course: Magazine Pitching
Project: A completed pitch sent out
There are a lot of courses that TELL students how to do stuff and leave them to apply the knowledge by themselves. If you show them how to do it and guide them through the procedure and then provide them with something they can take home, they'll have gained the most value from your class.
Mix mediums
The last thing that will really aid in online course structure is mixing different delivery methods. People learn differently. So adding a mixture of courses helps to serve people with different learning styles, PLUS makes the learning easier to access.
For instance, you could build an online course using pre-recorded online videos. This gives the students the option to view or listen, plus the ability to pause and start whenever they want. It is possible to add an outline of text or a transcript of the film for those who either prefer to read or have disabilities that make audio or video inaccessible. There is the possibility of adding live chats where course members come together to chat about the course content or ask you questions and do some exercises in a group.
This type of mixed delivery gives many benefits to students and allows them to be taught in the manner that they best learn.
Select the appropriate platform
Not least the most important thing is to pick the best course platform. There are many choices available, however the majority of them won't allow you to do the things we talked about in the previous paragraphs: mixing synchronous and asynchronous teaching as well as leading live discussion as well as Q&A sessions, conducting assessments as well as allowing students to share the work of their classes.
So, choosing the appropriate platform is a crucial step. So if you're looking for the right platform to develop your course an online course, try it ! It has an easy-to-use and elegant engine for courses that lets you deliver content in just about any way imaginable PLUS provides all the necessary tools to promote your course. Each course is accompanied by its own community, is customizable as well as mix live and pre-recorded content.
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Conclusion
At the end of the day, how to structure an online course boils down to the transformation students need and how to get them there. If you are able to accomplish this, you'll stand ahead of many of the courses out there.
So if you:
- Define the transform you'd like to offer these,
- Figure out how they can reach their destination,
- Take them through it,
- Check to be certain that it worked...
The course you teach will be one which students cherish and love telling their classmates about, as well as an audience of enthusiastic fans waiting for your next course!
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