Best 5 Tips for Online Course Creation

If you are looking to create an online course then you will need these best 5 tips for online course creation in order to make your course one that students truly want to enroll in.

Where it used to be that students needed to attend courses in person in order to broaden their skills and knowledge, all that is needed now is a computer and an internet connection. Given the nature of many online learning platforms, you can even get an online degree.

Platforms such as Coursera and OpenLearning give people the opportunity to enroll in all kinds of courses, regardless of where they live.

That said, online courses require a very specialized approach to learning, given that students are not seen in person.

If you’re ready to start writing your own course you want to be sure it will be of high quality, here are the 5 best tips for online course creation.

Make Sure You Know and are Passionate About What You are Teaching

The first tip is really the simplest one. Writing what you know about and what you feel passionate about will go a long way to ensure that the course is put together in an engaging way and includes all the important content. Remember too that less is sometimes more and sharing your knowledge in metaphors and images, will help improve student recall.

If you imagine you are teaching in person, your courses are delivered in the first person even when in writing. This makes the course much more engaging and each student feels as if they are speaking them directly.

Your Course Needs to Be Unique

Now the next step is to take a look at the other courses that are teaching similar content/material. You want to be sure that yours feels unique and you distinguish it from other options. Given students all the benefits of taking your course – not just the features or curriculum of the course.

Remember, students want to know what it is it for them – and care less about who you are or how many pages may be in the assigned reading portion.

Some tips for making your course unique include using wording that is active and engaging, tying current events into your topic, covering current trends, and appealing to the interest of students.

Is There a Need for the Course?

A big question to also ask yourself is whether or not there is a need for the course. You can feel passionate about it, have plenty of knowledge, and then write it in an engaging way, but if it’s not a topic that people care about then it’s not going to be successful.

In order to discover what courses are popular and trending, LinkedIn has articles on the most popular online courses. You may even be surprised to see what makes the cut.

Typically, it’s not just academic-based courses; instead, it’s peppered with self-help courses, tips on how to be more successful, etc. These are the type of courses that basically act as supplemental content to the traditional academic course.

Don’t Just Edit Once

When it comes to the editing process, it’s important that you don’t just go through it once. Remember, you’re editing for a few different things. Sure, you’re editing for spelling and grammar, but you also need to edit in terms of flow and readability.

Can students follow a logical path through the course and come out feeling as though they have a good grasp on the material? Is it easy enough to follow that you don’t need a teacher there in person going through each step and point?

Sometimes it can be hard to look at things with a subjective eye when you were the one who wrote it. In that case, you may want to consider having a professional editor read over the course to provide you with feedback and suggestions.

Mix Various Learning Modalities and Learning Styles in the Course

The final tip of the best 5 tips for online course creation will help to keep your course in alignment with online learning principles and brain based learning.

Rather than just presenting students with a giant wall of text to get through, or telling them the material, be sure to use things like graphs, photos, case studies, worksheets, study notes, quizzes, Q&As after each chapter, links to websites, video links, and more.

In addition, ask students to engage more by letting them understand their various learning styles and how they prefer to learn best. Students like to learn by listening, some by reading and some via hands on so take each of these modalities into consideration when creating your online course. Variety will help to keep the student engaged, which can help them to be more successful at the end of the day.

By following these best 5 tips for online course creation you’ll be able to create a course that is successful and engaging, drawing in students who share common interests.

Zoe Price is a writer focusing on ensuring that future generations gain an education so that they can learn to use various platforms to share their voices. She writes both about the student experience and advice for those teaching. Her overall aim is to provide all with a researched insight that will allow them to make positive informed decisions.She is a freelance writer working for several sites including Church Hill Classics diploma frames.