6 Tips on How to Design an Online Course |
If you're creating your first or your 10th class, these five suggestions will allow your students to make the most of the experience.
There's a lot of online classes available. It's true... A LOT.
A few are excellent. A few are decent. Some are terrible.
The online course boom means that lots of students try to make money through their own online course, which is great! However, too many online instructors are producing mediocre courses that do not serve their students.
There's an art to building a great online course. In spite of many competitors A well-constructed, well-thought-out course that offers their desired transformation will still be able to perform really well.
In this article we'll talk about how to structure an online course so that your students gain the maximum from it. These 6 tips will allow you to have clarity on the change your students will go through, and how you can help them get there. If you implement these steps guidelines, you'll be on your way to having an effective course and feedback from students who appreciate it.
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The piece...
3. Test for knowledge retention
Beginning at the ending
Can we identify the issue with too many online courses?
The majority of course creators begin by describing what they are familiar with they want to share with students. The things they like to discuss. And they start plotting out the plan.
This isn't a good idea.
Effective courses don't start with simply dumping your brain with every thing you've ever learned. The key to a successful course is to be clear on what you want your students to take away out of it. Where will they be when it's done?
Start with the end keeping the end goal in the mind of your. If you are building communities online, we describe this end as a Big Purpose assertion.
The Big Purpose declaration appears like this.
The Big Purpose for the course isn't much different. It's about bringing together a group of people who want to attain a particular outcome. That's what your course is to be used for.
It's not:
- Sharing everything you know
- Impressing them with your knowledge
- The goal is to make them deep experts on a topic (unless it's an introductory masterclass)
Your primary objective for the program is to bring participants to undergo a change that is of a certain kind. These could be big, life-changing transformations. Or they could be simple, personal and fun.
Here are some instances of transforms:
- Learn to go from having no knowledge of guitar to playing songs around a campfire
- You can go from being a couch potato to a slower AF runner
- You can go from designing floral designs into having an enviable floral business
- From knowing absolutely nothing about marketing to mastering YouTube advertisements
People want transformations. So, define the transformation you want your members to accomplish. You can then work backward from this to build the course around precisely what your ideal student NEEDS to achieve the transformation you want them to achieve: nothing more, no less.
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Focus on the steps
When you've got a clear established goal for the course You can begin drawing out an outline of what the class should contain. This might take some research OR, if you're teaching something you've already master or mastered, it could be as simple as contemplating how you have learned.
Get a blank piece of paper or blank document. Record the conclusion. Next, ask yourself "What do they ACTUALLY need to accomplish this transformation ?"
One of the biggest dangers in this area is known as the "curse of knowing." It can be difficult to determine how best to instruct a novice even if you've been able to master certain things but it's been long time since you've been an absolute beginner. Remember glazing over the trigonometry class when your teacher started talking about the hypotenuse-without explaining what it actually is?
This is probably the curse of being knowledgeable at work. It's when you assume that somebody knows something that you take for granted.
So, the answer is concentrate on the steps. Ask yourself "what steps will it require for me to understand this?" Include everything, regardless of whether you believe they might know it or not.
For instance we'll say that you've got an introductory guitar class. You've chosen a cool name which you'll name it: "Campfire Guitar Mastery: From 0 to Leading Singalong ."
What does someone who's not played guitar in their life have to know in order to move from zero to enjoying a campfire?
Here are some of the steps that could be logical:
- How to choose an instrument if you don't own one
- The guitar's parts
- How do I find and read chord charts
- Strumming patterns
- Your first track
- What is the best way to learn effectively
- Where to locate song chords
- How to sing while playing
- How to find the confidence needed to play in the public
When you've identified what your purpose is, you'll have a clear roadmap for the best way to design an online course to help your students achieve the objective. They could be lessons or modules.
DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING MORE THAN THEY NEED!
We have discussed this above. The biggest mistake teachers commit is to fill an entire course in the space of all they know. It's tempting to do this for a lot of reasons, however, most often it's because it gives us the impression that your students are going to appreciate the class more when it has EVERYTHING in it.
Resist the urge. Give them what they NEED instead. Students' satisfaction isn't a result of lengthy courses. It is a result of a well-designed training.
So, for our campfire guitar course above, you'll notice that it does not have:
- An extensive study of the development of guitar
- Lessons in guitar music around the world
- A step-by-step guide for understanding music
- In-depth explanations of the reasons you need to learn how to play (from the description of the course they know exactly why)
- instructions on how to construct a campfire
Concentrate on the steps they need. Then, pitch the rest.
Pro Tip: Once you've laid out your lesson plan out, go through every step to see how you can take any off. If you can get rid of some modules and be confident that your students will get the outcomes they desire, do it!
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Test of knowledge retention
If you're going to have exams or assessments attached to your course, make sure the tests also stick to what they'll have to keep in mind going forward. Too many courses approach exams as a chance to test whether students are attentive, but then ask dumb questions such as "In module 2 who was the queen of England that we discussed? ?"
If you're planning to check your test score, be sure that you're testing and reaffirming the knowledge students have to carry forward, and not checking that they remembered useless details from the course.
Here are some examples of both good and bad queries:
Facebook ads Course:
- What is the color of the Facebook logo? (bad)
- What exactly does "audience" refers to for your ad? (good)
Course in Business
- What color pants did Jake wear during the 2nd lesson? (bad)
- What are some strategies to boost retention in membership? (good)
Make sure all the questions are linked to the information and the skills that students will need to accomplish the goals of the course.
Build your projects
Another option for you structure your online course material is to have students create a project. You can even do this in lieu of tests or tests.
If your students make it to the end of your course with something tangible to prove it this is a fantastic thing! They'll also have better retention rates because they've actually done this in the first place.
If you're teaching a class that has a practical or creative output teaching students how to build an assignment or portfolio could be the most effective option.
Here are some instances of work that might be derived out of an online training course:
Course: Web Design for Beginners
Project: A site
The course: Ruby on Rails
The Project: Your very first app
Course: Learn Watercolor Painting
Project: Your first painting
Course: Intro to Lettering
Project: Portfolio of lettering work
Course: Pitching Magazines
Project: A completed pitch sent out
Many courses TELL students how to do things and then leave them to apply the knowledge by themselves. If you SHOW the students how, walk them through the steps and then provide them with something they can take away, they'll have gained the most value from your class.
Mix mediums
The last thing that will really aid in the structure of online courses is mixing delivery mediums. Different people learn in different ways. So adding a mixture of courses will help students learn with different learning styles and makes the course accessible.
So, for example you can create courses using recorded, online videos. Students have the opportunity to either watch or listen, plus stop and resume as required. You might add an outline of text or a transcript of the video to those who prefer reading or those with handicaps that render audio or video unaccessible. You could also add live conversations where the course members come together to chat about course material, ask you questions, and complete some tasks with each other.
This kind of mixed delivery offers a lot of value for your students, letting them discover how they are most comfortable learning.
Select the correct platform
Last, but not least, you need to choose the right course platform. There are many alternatives available, however, the majority of them won't permit you to perform all of those things mentioned in the previous paragraphs: mixing synchronous and asynchronous teaching in live chats as well as Q&A sessions, conducting assessments and having students present their projects in class.
This is why selecting the best platform is an important choice. If you're in search of an opportunity to create an online course, try it ! It's got a simple, elegant course engine which lets you present contents in any way imaginable PLUS it gives you the resources to market your course. Each course has an individual community that is customizable as well as mix recorded and live content.
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Conclusion
The final decision on the best way to design an online course boils down to the changes students require and the best way to help them get there. If you can do this, you'll get way ahead of the other courses out there.
So if you:
- The transformation that you'd like to offer to them.
- Find out how they can reach their destination,
- Walk them through it,
- and make sure that the operation was successful...
Your course will be one that students love and tell their classmates about, as well as the community of students waiting to take your next class!
and if you'd like to build your own online course with HTML0 , you can test it out absolutely no cost - and with without credit card needed.
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