Building an online course is straight forward today. With so many high-quality course authoring software solutions, even an 11-year old can create and publish a course. The catch lies in monetization.
One of the main problems related to this is the fact that the market is flooded with similar solutions because the online learning industry is a very lucrative one. Having said that, a harsh competition and a saturated online course market are not obstacles impossible to overcome.
If you plan on launching a course and making money from it, you’ve come to the right place. Here are several tips to help you create course content that people will buy.
Idea Before Content Creation
You can’t just choose a topic and start creating your course. As a matter of fact, this should be the last step in the entire process. So where should you start?
Brainstorming. You will have to come up with as many ideas as possible. We are not talking about giving it a couple of hours. Give yourself at least a week to come up with all the ideas regarding your course. Write down each one of your ideas and elaborate on why you think it is a good one. This will help you create a strong foundation for your future efforts – online research.
Online Research
Once you have your ideas written down on a piece of paper, the time has come to dive into the online world.
Before we start, you should know that if your course idea appears to be so original that there is no course similar to it online, it is a bad sign. Why? The courses created on that idea are not on the market because there are no customers willing to pay for it.
Online research will help you validate your ideas, and identify the online learning market niches with low and high competition.
Another viable way to do research is to hit Google Trends and browse through all the queries related to “courses”. This will give you an insight into which course topics are trending at the moment.
Identify the Problem
If you are certain that your idea is so good that you are also willing to pay for your own course, it might be a bad sign.
You see, the main thing to achieve here is to create a course for others, not yourself. If you deliver course content, even of the highest quality in terms of structure and engagement, but you choose the wrong topic, you will have problems attracting enough people to buy it.
You will have to identify the real problem people are dealing with. You can start by visiting Quora and browsing through some of the most popular questions and answers. Your odds of succeeding will drastically go up if you manage to identify the real pain and solve it with your content.
Choosing the Right Course Authoring Software
At this point, you have cross-referenced your ideas with the developments in the real market, did your research, and identified the problem. But, before you create the content, you will have to choose the right course authoring software. This tool will help you streamline content creation and make it easier for you to deliver content to learners.
Now you are probably wondering – What to look for when choosing course authoring software? To successfully build online training courses, you should consider going with a cloud-based and mobile-ready solution that supports integration. Additional perks such as reporting, analytics, course customization, gamification, certification features, and multi-language support are other things to look for in such a tool.
Choose the Content Type
The content types you can choose are text, audio, and video. According to recent researches, the most popular content type is video. It is superior in terms of engagement and, on top of that, videos are very convenient for modern enrollees.
Don’t forget the fact that a majority of people have constant access to the internet and have smartphone devices in their pockets.
When it comes to video content, you have two options and you should use them accordingly. Let’s say that you want to help students learn some practical lessons. In this case, you want to record a video of your screen.
Direct-to-camera videos can also be engaging, especially if you use a whiteboard when you want to elaborate on complex concepts.
When it comes to the video production quality vs value, always go with the value. The production quality is not what sells the courses, practical and easy-to-follow instructions do.
Structure your Content
If you are excited about creating your new course content, that’s great. But don’t let the excitement guide you through it. Use it as an energy spark to give your content structure and consistency. Being all over the place will lead to bad reviews, and bad reviews will lead to… you can guess for yourself. This is why you should start with the most basic concepts. Start small and help your students build a healthy knowledge foundation.
Creating an introduction lesson where you will cover what the course is about, who is the target audience, and what benefits it offers is also a smart move.
Wrap Up
If you want to build online training courses, you can use these tips as an action plan. If you want people to buy them, you will have to go with a good course authoring software to deliver structured, valuable, and engaging content, and issue certificates to learners that they can use when applying for jobs.
Author Bio: Robin is a Technical Support Executive. He is an expert in various Learning Management System (LMS) and Employee Training Software. Currently, he is a resident learning management expert at ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys cycling and sky diving.
LinkedIn:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-singh-383278128/
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