How To Make An Online Course: Step-by-Step Guide

This blog will help you to gather all the information about how to make an online course. From selecting a correct topic to developing a website for your course and earning money from selling online courses from your website.

It takes time and effort, but not typically money, to create the best online teaching content. Identifying your potential audience and creating a quality course is the most vital aspect of e-learning success.

After the pandemic, the education system has seen a new vision. Where school used to be the only medium for students to learn, now online education has become a new form of learning. People can pursue any form of course globally by sitting at their place.

Every internet business now requires some form of online learning and training.

By educating through your course content, you demonstrate to your target audience that you are a high-quality authority in your field.

Related: Best online course platform

Table of Contents

How To Make An Online Course

Select the appropriate course topic

Choosing a topic is completely on you, but it should be something that drives you the most. If you aren’t passionate about the topic and still you go ahead and teach then it will be nothing less than like a cardboard sandwich.

The topic should be only picked based on two criteria:

Topic what you like to teach: The subject of your virtual course should either be something you’re already familiar with or something you’re willing to devote time and effort to learning deeply. In either case, you must be enthusiastic about the subject.

Topic what others want to learn: Before you start writing, figure out who your audience is and how much interest there is in the topic. You can run research among your friends and current audience. Gather their opinions and work accordingly.

From your audience, you can share polls or run online questionnaires. You can also start with your sample tutorial and can track its performance in order to make an online course.

Make sure that your course concept is in high demand

Think for a moment that you are creating a course that nobody wants. Do you think your course will be able to establish successfully in the market? If so, then what’s the point of knowing how to make an online course?

So by now, you must have realized the importance of market demand.

Once you have identified the topic, your immediate action should be to do market research. You will get to know whether your content is in demand or not. Various online course creators make a mistake by considering that courses which involve a lot of competition, won’t be sustainable. But, it reflects that the content has high market demand and is worth investigating further.

So, you have to ask yourself a few questions, which are:

Are people searching for your type of course and seeking answers?
Is there a gap between what you and the competitions have to offer?
Is your course solving the problem and is it worth paying?

If the answer to the above questions is yes and the idea is the same but stands out from what already exists in the market then my friend you have chosen the right sellable topic to make an online course.

Investigate the subject thoroughly

So once you get an idea that your content is sustainable in the market, the next thing would be to research the subject.

You have to deep dive into the topic and know everything about it to make an online course. Don’t try to solve problems which the learners can find the solution easily on search results. You have to make yourself unique and hold the knowledge that is not easily available in the search result.

Conduct keyword research to check what people are searching for about your topic. You will fairly get an idea about what people are looking for on the internet. Accordingly, you can take an online course.

In the case of a Facebook group, a blog, or a youtube channel, you may already have material and an audience. In that case, create an intuitive learning path by bundling your most popular content.

Set out your lesson and course content

This is the step where you look over all of your course content and begin combining in module:

Comparable themes
Suggestions
Concepts.

Next, organize the classes within those modules in a logical, progressive manner to create a flow of learning.

Following are a few steps to get started:

Create an instructional design storyboard for your course

In the design process, an e-learning storyboard can save a lot of time. It keeps your training relevant and focused. It also ensures you cover all the critical elements in the learning process.

Storyboards are more than just a way to layout your videos. When you make an online course, they can assist you in mapping out higher-level learning concepts.

Decide how you’ll organize your online content and overall curriculum

Most online course creators focus on creating more than one online course. You should focus on first making a course followed by a chapter. You can add video lessons as well.

Establish a course outline

A course outline serves as a guide for getting your students from one point to another. It will assist you in teaching your students in a systematic and orderly manner. Layer your course in such a way that after completion they feel like an expert.

Plan each lesson one by one

You have to plan lessons by keeping in mind students’ mentality. Think about what your students already know about the content. What are the lacking areas they need to cover? How will you do your best to make them up-to-date about the lesson?

Make the course material

Once you get to know about the course content, it’s time for you to put it into action. It’s like you have to decide how you want to make the course material:

You will have a video content
Audio content
Reading or PowerPoint content
Fun & engaging content

Before a material, you have to decide for how long your online course will be. Video content is bite-sized content or not.

Most online course creators use video content and let’s discuss it.

Filming a video: Quality does matter but what matters the most is the level of education you provide. You can film content even if you are at home. You can speak in front of the camera, record your screen, or do both.

Editing: After filming it is important to edit your video. Make a dynamic clip with a shorter series.

Class assignments: Assignments can be in the form of PDFs, which students can download and work offline. Other options like Live quizzes, live tests, and many more can be made using Graphy.

Publish your course online

Once you have created your course it’s time for you to go online. In case you have your website you can publish it. In case you don’t then you have to create a website.

If you are thinking about how to make a website then you need to check out Graphy which is an all-in-one platform. You can build your website or mobile app. You can create or upload your lesson. You can even have your asset library and many more secured features.

Be sure that you have to showcase your capabilities. You have to engage your audience and make money out of it.

Sell online courses from your website

So now the main thing you need to do is sell your course. For selling your course you need to see whether you want to go off a subscription model or the paid plans, or you want to charge for the one-on-one lessons.

Along with the paid lessons, make sure to offer your learners a sample/preview course free of cost. Once they see the sample lesson they will generate the curiosity to sign up for paid lessons.

Pricing your online courses is another important thing. You have to be very careful about your pricing scheme. You can’t demand more than the market price or vice versa. Before setting a price keep in mind about:

Your competitor’s pricing
Your creation time
Generic market price
Course value

Promote your course

You need to let people know about your online course. Without proper marketing, it is impossible to let people know about your course.

To promote your online content you can use both paid and free types of marketing. You should create your logo also to make it look professional.

Following are some ways through which you can market your course:

Email marketing
Social media marketing
Paid ads
Integrate blogs
Referral program
Youtube & promo videos
Influencer marketing
Affiliate program
Podcast & webinar
Collaborate with other instructors
Display ads.

On a platform like Graphy, you get an opportunity to promote your online material with advanced marketing tools and techniques. The platform is designed in a user-friendly manner. Even if you don’t have an idea about the technology, you will be guided in each and every step.

Seek feedback

Seeking feedback online is not a challenge anymore. It has become a lot easier in recent days. Once it refers to your online courses, you should make the most of digital tools. Feedback helps to enhance your content by soliciting feedback both during and after classes.

The more crisp and improved your course is more likely your students will have a good experience. If they are happy they are going to recommend your further. They can even enroll in further workshops or courses you provide ahead.

You can roll out the survey and gather information about the student’s experience, their suggestion, and enhancement area.

Established a learning community

Online learning is primarily a solo endeavor. As a result, cultivating a learner’s community will enhance their learning experience. It will also contribute to the course’s overall success.

The followings are some ideas for building an engaged learning community:

Online forum
Social media groups
Online communication platform
Putting out a members area for your website

Related: How to make money as a creator

Final Words

By now, you must have got a decent indication of what to expect from the process of developing and marketing an online course.

Establish how to set up your content on an online course platform like Graphy. Build your branded website and mobile apps. Link different payment channels, set up advanced marketing tools, and have a secured content delivery.