How to Create Online Courses

online course Mar 22, 2022

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What is an online course?

An online course is a collection of videos and handouts that teach on a certain topic. An online course can teach about anything! Check out 50 profitable online course ideas here.

How do you create an online course?

Step 1: Find your course topic

Choosing a topic for your online course can seem challenging, but it doesn't have to be! Your course topic should be a cross between something that you like and something you're good at.

For a quick 7-step exercise that will help you choose your course topic, check out this blog post.

Step 2: Find an online course platform to host your course

Next, you need a place to host your online course. This platform is where your customers will login to watch your course.

Our favorite is Kajabi [grab a 30-day free trial here], but there are other options as well. Check out our favorite online course platforms here.

Step 3: Plan out the modules

Your course will consist of multiple modules. These modules will be the big-picture topics that you will go over in your course.

As part of choosing your course topic, you will do market research to see what problems people are facing related to your topic.

What do you notice are the overarching issues people have? Find commonalities and use these to structure the modules in your online course.

Those problems or pain points will be your modules. They are the stepping stones for getting your customers to a transformation.

Here are some examples:

Niche: Herb Gardening

Potential Modules:

Step 1. Readying your space

Step 2. Equipment to use

Step 3. What plants to buy and where to buy them

Step 4. How to plant them

Step 5. How to help them grow

Niche: Preschool Activities

Potential Modules:

Module 1: Preschool Basics

Module 2: Outdoor Activities

Module 3: Indoor Activities

Module 4: 4+ year old Activities

Step 4: Plan the lessons

Within every module, you will have multiple lessons. These lessons will break down the big-picture topics into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Think about how you can break up your modules into smaller pieces. You don't want to overwhelm your customers with too much information in each lesson!

As often as you can, give your customer action steps or a chance to practice what they've learned at the end of the lesson.

Deciding what your customer's action steps will be could be a good way to determine the topic for each lesson.

Some examples from above might include:

- Testing your soil

- Best equipment on Amazon

- Water activities

- Small space activities

Step 5: Record the lessons

Next, you'll record your lessons. Check out the equipment I personally use to record in my Amazon store here.

For recording myself and the slides, I like Loom, QuickTime (free for Mac), and Canva (free).

You'll edit the videos (I use iMovie), and upload them to your course platform.

Step 6: Add any extras

Next, you'll create any printables, handouts, notes, templates, calendars, etc. that correspond with your course videos.

Your course members will appreciate anything extra you can give them to help them complete the course.

Step 7: Launch your course

Once you have finished creating all of the content for your course, it is time to launch it into the world! Cue the confetti--this is the part where you get to celebrate all of your hard work!

I love using a free challenge to launch my course, but you could also use a webinar, video series, or mini-course.

I hope this helped! Come say hey on Instagram @meet.the.bowdens!