How to Design a Digital Course in 2023 (9 steps) |
There's no question that the industry of digital courses is taking off. Digital courses aren't a new thing. Heck your grandma is probably using them.
The market for digital courses is expected to reach one hundred dollars Trillion in 2030. And with a ton of possibilities for learning through digital technology and an online library over with existing courses, you may be asking... are there room for me?
For those wanting to create an online course, the timing is right. It is. Sure there are a lot of people doing it. There are more than ever willing to take online courses.
If you're wondering what you can do to create a digital course in this post, we'll walk you through the process. This article will cover the things you should know, how to pick an appropriate topic, design, and then deliver a course that is beneficial to your students and brings you income!
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What exactly is a digital course?
How do you create digital courses
4. Choose a digital course platform
What is a digital course?
Digital courses are when you instruct the subject .... Um, Digitally? Yes, but seriously digitally refers to an organized learning experience offered on a digital platform. Usually, a digital course can guide students through the learning using either audio, video or a mix of these.
Digital courses can be synchronous, where everyone is studying together. They can also be asynchronous in which students are able to learn at their own speed. (We have a full guide on what the difference is here. )
How can you make digital courses
1. Find your Ideal Students
The first step of creating any digital course is to determine the intended audience. It's what we call an Ideal student. If you've got something to teach, you need an individual who would like to master the subject.
Select Your Perfect Student.
Your ideal student is an amalgamation of someone that wants to gain knowledge from what you're able to impart.
Let's be clear on the fact that courses designed for specific, targeted, Ideal students are much more effective. Every time.
So your primary goal before you begin to design an online course is to make sure you are clear on who it's for.
We would love to help you discover your Ideal student by speaking to certain people! Set up a meeting with 10 or fifteen people you believe would be interested in taking your class, and then ask you questions, such as
- What do you want to learn that you need assistance?
- Which are your big issues you face in learning?
- What do you most like to learn?
- What amount of money could you spend on a digital program to master that?
Don't forget to also clarify the things you can offer. Below are a few questions you might ask yourself while you look for the Ideal student.
- Are I the only person who is competent to assist? (Hint That it's often the person you once were. )
- What aspects of my life give me an advantage that I cannot match?
- What could I talk about for half an hour without notes? (Not that you need notepads, it's just a good idea to think about)
2. Choose your Big Purpose
When you've identified your Ideal Student is in place You can then create what we call a Large purpose .
The Big Purpose describes the transformative process that students are going to experience as they study your class. It is possible to create an Big Purpose such as:
3. Pick your delivery method
At some point, while planning how you can create a digital course it is important to think about how you want to teach the course.
There are a lot of possible ways to accomplish this. Because digital classes are in existence since at least 10 years, a lot of students imagine a prerecorded (asynchronous) course where students take a course each lesson while watching videos.
It could accomplish this if that's what you're into.
However, there are many possibilities! Our students are enjoying cohort classes currently, which are basically a live-streamed course with a live audience. The students love them too! This gives them the advantage of getting to know each other better and asking questions live in the moment.
When you're thinking about the way you'd like to deliver, think about your strengths and flaws as a speaker.
- Do you benefit from a live presentation that has some margin for errors?
- Are you likely to be a bundle of nerves? You could gain of a script, and the opportunity to "rerecord" if you mess up?
- Are you an effective presenter or a better writer?
- Are you a singer with an amazing voice but don't want your image to be captured on film?
The thing is, when designing a course for digital, you pretty much have the option of providing the material using a method that works most effectively for you. This is pretty awesome.
Also, think about what else you can do which can assist students in engaging and succeed. As an example, we have a passion for communities at Mighty, and a community combined with a class is an extremely powerful concept.
There are other options you can incorporate into your classes:
- Live events
- Virtual Events
- Community
- Live streams
- Chat for members
- Coaching for groups
- Coaching 1:1
Think creatively about how you structure your class. Utilize every tool you have available to provide the best possible experience to your students.
4. Choose a digital course platform
There will be an appropriate location for this to be hosted. And a lot of digital course instructors can get caught up in overthinking their learning platforms.
It's perfectly normal. There are SO MANY choices. And most people will swear by the one that they choose to use.
We won't get in the details of selecting the best for this platform, however we do the same in this blog post .
But based on what we discussed above, try to choose a course platform that gives the flexibility. You must be able to teach a live course in the event that you wish. You should be able integrate the live class into an LMS and sell the course. It should be possible to effortlessly add items like live events, community, or coaching if you want to.
This is why we integrated courses on our community platform at Mighty. Our flexible Spaces give you all the features you'll ever require or want to deliver a course that packs an impressive punch including live streaming, integrated live events, an LMS, member profiles, a discussion forum, all member chat and messaging and an array of content options.
5. Plan the material
At some point you'll begin plotting out the material for your course online.
If you have identified your primary goal in the above paragraph, it's a great idea to link it directly into the learning goals that you wish your students to have.
When you are planning the content to be taught in your online course Try to think backwards. What do you want your students to accomplish? If so, how do you need to teach students to accomplish that goal?
Avoid the temptation of plugging into everything that you've learned about the subject. Make sure you focus on the information that's will lead your ideal student to the change they're looking for and need.
Create an outline for what the material will be. If you wish, utilize an LMS to plan out the content of each lesson of. If you do end up teaching a live course This is a useful activity. You can then draw out the purpose of every lesson as well as the content.
6. Presell
It's not necessary to go through this. But if you're going about creating digital courses, pre-selling can be a pretty fantastic thing. This basically means making sure that people pay prior to when you begin teaching the course.
Preselling can be extremely beneficial in cohort courses as you instruct the class when students are willing to be present. There are other ways to presell asynchronous courses too.
There are plenty of benefits that come with this.
- Make sure you have your income in the beginning in order to be profitably before even starting. (You can also reinvest some of the money back into your program if you feel it is appropriate. ).
- You have a clear sense of whether people want the course or not.
- If you aren't able to sell it, then don't build it! Instead of wasting your time building something and hoping people will buy it in the end, you'll be able to tell right away if it's working. It is possible to make a few tweaks in order to make it profitable.
7. Record and go live
Next you are going to create the lesson. If you're pre-recording, it will involve setting up your gear as well as getting ready for the presentation.
If you're running an online course, it's much more intensive in the beginning. You'll need to communicate all the details of your class, prepare for live broadcasting, and make sure that your recording is in place, and all that jazz.
8. Market it
If you've not sold your digital course yet this is the moment that you must market the course.
There are a lot of different ways to market an online course, and we've got an entire guide you will find in this blog post .
But in the meantime, here's a short checklist for some of the ways you can market your course online:
- Email your list
- Social media posts
- Invite people directly (especially those who are Ideal Students you have interviewed)
- Webinars can be hosted.
- Create a landing page and then send visitors there (eg. through paid ads)
- Include the course on your site and to funnel engines traffic
- Invite the existing members of your neighborhood! (One of the many reasons building a community is that it pays dividends.)
- Create promotional events in conjunction with other creators in your space
- Be a guest on podcasts or write guest blogs
- Pitch major publications
9. Adapt and grow
The process of becoming a successful digital course author typically takes some time. It's not a one-and-done thing.
Also to the plethora of sites that offer "endless earnings" simply by taking a class online and not thinking about it It's likely to not be as easy.
Keep it up. Since as you determine the best way to grow your followers, and continue to tweak the course you'll have a greater likelihood of finding the perfect course format that is designed to benefit you and your audience.
Are you ready to begin?
If you're eager to start creating your own digital course then why not consider giving Mighty the chance? We've built a highly effective course platform that seamlessly blends the world of community, content and commerce. Teach a course live or pre-recorded, your choice. And as we talked about in the previous paragraph, you can also add in things like forums, community, live streaming, live occasions, and much more.
All of this is done in a gorgeous platform that works for your business. Every Mighty Network comes with an app for every device. You can also sell your products across 135 currencies, or even use token-gating