How to Design an Digital Course in 2023 (9 Steps) |
There's no question that the market for digital courses has taken hold. Digital courses are no longer a new thing. Heck your grandma is probably taking the courses.
The market for digital courses is expected to reach $1 Trillion by 2030. And with a ton of digital learning opportunities available-and a web full of existing courses-you might be asking... is there room for me?
If you're looking to develop a digital course, the timing is now. It is. There are plenty of people doing it. However, there are more students than ever who are willing to learn online courses.
If you're thinking of how you can create a virtual course This article will guide you through it. We'll cover the bases of the things you should know and how you can pick the right topic, create a plan and create a great course that is beneficial to your students and generates money!
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How can you make digital course materials
4. Choose a digital course platform
5. Make a plan for the materials
What is a digital course?
A digital course is when you instruct something .... Um, Digitally? Okay, seriously though, a digital course is the most structured form of learning that is offered on a digital platform. The majority of digital courses guides students through this learning through audio, video, or a combination of these.
Digital courses may be synchronous, meaning that all of the learners are learning live together. Also, they could be non-synchronous, where learners are able to learn at their own speed. (We have a full guide on what the difference is. )
How do you create digital courses
1. Find your Ideal Students
The first step of making a digital course is figuring out who it's for. This is what we refer to as an Ideal student. If you have something to teach, you need someone who is eager to learn about that subject.
Enter: Your Ideal Student.
Your ideal student is an amalgamation of someone who wants to gain knowledge from what you're able to instruct.
It's important to be clear about the fact that courses designed for specific, targeted, Ideal students are much more effective. Each time.
The goal, before you even start to create a digital course, is to make sure you are clear about who the course is designed for.
We are always happy to recommend that you find the Ideal Student by talking to some persons! Sit down with 10 or 15 individuals you believe are interested in the course. Ask you questions, such as
- What are you trying to learn that you need assistance?
- What's the major problems you are experiencing in your education?
- How do you best wish to learn?
- How much money can you put aside for a course to learn that thing?
Don't forget to also clarify what you are able to provide. Here are some questions you might ask yourself while you look for your Ideal student.
- Are I the only person who is qualified to help? (Hint that it's typically that person who you used to be. )
- What elements of my story give me something unique to share?
- What could I talk about for a quarter of an hour with no notes? (Not the requirement notepads but it's a nice thought experiment)
2. Choose your Big Purpose
Once your Ideal student is in place, you can create what we call the Big Purpose .
A Big Purpose is a transformation that students will go through because they take your course. Create the Big Purpose statement like this:
3. Pick your delivery method
At some point, while planning how to create a course that is digital it is important to think about the way you'd like to present it.
There are lots of different ways to go about this. Because digital classes exist since at least 10 years many students imagine a prerecorded (asynchronous) course in which students take a course by lesson and watch videos.
It can use this if that's what you're into.
There are a lot of possibilities! We are loving cohort courses at the moment, which is essentially live-streamed courses for an audience that is live. Students love them too! It gives the benefit of getting to know each other better and asking questions live in the moment.
When you're thinking about what you'd like your presentation to deliver, think about your strengths and flaws as a speaker.
- Do you benefit from a live presentation that has a bit of margin for errors?
- Are you likely to become a swarm of nerves who could benefit of a script, and the chance to "rerecord" in the event that you screw up?
- Are you an effective speaker or better at writing?
- Have you got an amazing voice, but you don't want to show your image to be captured on film?
It's true that when making a digital course it is pretty much your possibility of offering the course using a method that works best for you. And that's pretty cool.
Also, think about what else you can do which can assist students in engaging and succeed. We happen to love communities on the site at Mighty, and a community coupled with a course can be an extremely powerful concept.
There are other options you can incorporate into your lessons:
- Live events
- Virtual Events
- Community
- Live streams
- Chat for members
- Coaching for groups
- 1:1 Coaching
Make it your own when thinking about how you structure your class. Use every tool you have to make the very best experience for your students you can.
4. Choose a digital course platform
It will require an area for this to be hosted. Many digital instructors are caught up in overthinking their course platforms.
This is understandable. There are so many choices. Most people be awed by the choice they choose to use.
We won't get in the details of picking the appropriate platform here- we do it in this article .
Based on the information we have discussed previously make sure you choose a course platform that gives an abundance of options. It should allow you to teach a live course if you want. You should be able integrate the live class to an LMS and then resell the course. It should be possible to easily add things like community, live events, or coaching when you'd like to.
That's why we built courses within our community platform on Mighty. Spaces that are flexible give you everything you could ever need or desire to create a course that packs punches with live streaming, live events as well as an LMS, members' profiles, a discussion forum with all members chat, messaging, and a ton of other content choices.
5. Design the materials
In the future you'll begin planning the materials for your digital course.
If you have identified the Big Goal as mentioned above, it's an excellent idea to connect it directly to the educational goals you want your students to have.
When you are planning the content for your digital course, try to work backward. What do you want your students to achieve? In the event that they do, what will you have to teach students to accomplish that goal?
Resist the temptation to plug into everything that you've learned about the subject. Make sure you focus on the information that's going to get your ideal student to the changes they're seeking and require.
You can create your own outline of the content to be covered. If you wish, utilize an LMS to plan out what each lesson will consist of. Even if you are teaching a live course it is an excellent exercise. Then, you'll be able to sketch out the objectives of each lesson and the contents.
6. Presell
There's no need to take this step. If you're planning on creating digital courses, pre-selling could be an awesome thing. This basically means making sure that people pay prior to when the class is taught.
Preselling works REALLY WELL in cohort courses as it is taught once the students have opted to attend. There are other ways to set up asynchronous classes too.
There are lots of benefits that come with this.
- Make sure you have your income in the beginning so you are successful before you begin. (You can also reinvest some part of it into the program if you feel it is appropriate. ).
- It is clear to have a feeling of whether or not people would like the course or not.
- If you aren't able to sell it, don't create it! Instead of wasting all your time building something and hope that people will purchase it, you will know immediately if the idea is going to work. There are a variety of tweaks you can do in order to make it effective.
7. Record and go live
After that, you'll create the lesson. If you're pre-recording, this will mean setting up your gear and getting ready to present.
If you're doing a live course, it's slightly more challenging in the beginning. you'll have to explain all the details of your course, get ready to broadcast, ensure sure the recordings are up and running, and all that jazz.
8. Market it
If you haven't made a sale on your online course as of yet Now comes the time that you must market the course.
There's an abundance of ways to promote an online course. we have a full guide that is available in this blog post .
However, in the interim, here's a brief checklist for some of the methods you can promote your online course
- Email your list
- Social media posts
- Invite people directly (especially the ideal Students you have interviewed)
- Create a webinar
- Design a landing site and send traffic there (eg. with paid ads)
- Add the course to your website and funnel search engine traffic
- Invite your existing members of your group! (One of the many advantages of having a community that will pay off)
- Organise events for promotion alongside other creators in your area
- Participate as a guest in podcasts or guest blogs
- Pitch of major publication
9. Adapt and grow
The process of becoming a successful digital course author generally takes the time. There isn't a lot of one-and-done.
In the case of sites that offer "endless earnings" through putting a course online, then not thinking about it, it probably won't be as easy.
Keep it up. Because as you figure out what works, grow your audience, and even keep iterating on the course There's a higher chance that you'll find an effective course design that works for you and your students.
Ready to start?
If you're eager to start creating your own digital course, why not give Mighty the chance? We built a powerful course platform that easily mixes in community, content, and commerce. You can teach a class live or pre-recorded, your choice. As we mentioned in the previous paragraph, you can also add in things like forums, community and live streaming events, and more.
All of this is done with a stunning platform that works for your company's image. Each Mighty Network comes with an application for each device. And you can sell in 135 different currencies or even use token-gating