DIY Sell Online Courses

As the number of online courses and degree programs in higher education continues to increase, more faculty are being asked to design and develop online courses . Sometimes this course design and development process is done somewhat reflexively, in a short time period, and with limited planning and preparation. This is not ideal as it can lead to a more stressful course development process for instructors and negatively impact the quality of online offerings. This article will explore seven things that instructors should consider prior to developing an online course. Establish a reasonable timeline for designing and developing an online course.  Most institutions have a routine process that is used to schedule what courses are to be offered during any given term, quarter, or semester. However, scheduling challenges can occur when instructors get sick, retire, or resign on short notice. While there is no standardized benchmark for how long it takes to develop an online cours...

If I asked you what makes an online course effective , how would you answer? Would you say instructional design? I’m sure you would—that’s what everyone says! But, think for a minute about all of the other components that go into creating an  online  course . It’s not just instructional design—it’s graphic design, user interface design, and visual communications! Once you recognize that instructional design is just one piece of a larger medium for communicating learning content, you’ll learn that instructional design alone can’t make an  online  course effective. It’s the combination of graphic design, user interface design, and visual communications that work together to help elevate the effectiveness of your instructional design. Here are three tips that will help you design better Online Courses   . Design Better Online Course  by Creating Beautiful Slides Here’s some truth for you: humans are visual creatures! We “eat” with our eyes firs...

Prove the value of your course to learners by including video content. If you want to sell an online course for a good price, the first thing you have to do is convince learners that it’s worth spending money on. Demonstrating the value of your course happens in two ways. First, you can make overt arguments about its worth by pointing to your expertise, the course content, and ways the course will help learners achieve their goals. Second, you can signal the value of the course indirectly through the time and care you take in creating it. Video content is one such indicator of a high-quality online course . But it’s just one of several key reasons behind  why  you should use video in your e-learning course . Let’s take a closer look. 1. Video raises the production value of your course. Yes, creating video takes more time than simply writing out a script. But it probably takes less time than you—or your learners—might think. And by creating video content, you signal...

Everything you need to know to build a business and generate revenue by creating and selling online courses Why Create Online Courses   At the height of the 2008 recession, Lewis Howes found himself broke and living on his sister’s couch. His fledgling football career had come to an end because of a fracture the year before. It was not a great time for him to be jobless and without any professional job skills. But Lewis was driven. He wanted to become successful so he spent all day on LinkedIn, connecting with other people and diligently growing his network. In time he got so good at networking using LinkedIn that people were asking him to teach them how they could use LinkedIn for their business. At first, he hosted in-person workshops but then he realized he needed to create an online course to scale it up. Before creating his online course, Lewis asked his students to pay in advance for it to see if there was interest. The next day he woke up to $6,300 in hi...