Turning your ideas into a tangible and sellable product can be a profitable decision provided that you have the right skills and tools. You must keep in mind that the e-learning industry is quite competitive right now and those courses that are frequented the most have the best chances of letting their creators earn a lot of money.
With that in mind, you would be wondering as to what would make a course stand out from others in the market? What should it possess to be considered as one of the best available right now? After all, you are aiming for your course to be taken noticed by students and help you earn money. There are many qualities that a course should have to be good but, for the sake of simplicity, let’s look at 5 major ones.
A Detailed Syllabus
Students are always on the lookout for a quick-fire solution to whatever problems they should have. As such, the first thing that they will look at when picking curses online is the syllabus itself. This will tell them of what solution you provide for their problems and the steps that they will take in order to address it.
As such, your syllabus should be as detailed as possible to give your students an idea of what process they will go through when in your course. More often than not, a quick glance at the syllabus will pre-empt a lot of problems students might encounter in the future as they can prepare for it.
Logical and Coherent
Your course, when broken down to its basic components, is a step by step process that allows a person to find a solution for a very specific set of problems. As such, would it not make sense that your course follows a logical sequence of events as well?
For instance, if you are offering an online course in computer repairs, it would make sense if the first modules cover the basics of computer parts, programs, and other major systems in a desktop or laptop computer. Once the basics are covered, you will then move on to the computer repair proper module and then proceed to advanced skills once that part of the course is over. This way, your students can ease themselves in to your program and quickly adapt to whatever pace you have set for the class.
Mechanically Functional
Basically, your course should not be a hassle to access let alone go through. When creating your course, you must make sure that all links in it are functional while the documents and media contained have been edited and optimized for students. Of course, this means that you should be meticulous enough in spotting problems in your documents and links before you have the entire course published to minimize problems later on.
Also, your course must not remain stagnant. When new updates are introduced to the format, they should adapt to it as well with your help. This way, the knowledge and skills you offer remain relevant.
Challenging but Rewarding
Let’s get this out of the way: If the problem that your students have are easy to address, they wouldn’t even bother with enrolling in your course in the first place. Your course should have enough activities to continuously keep your students engaged and on their toes. Of course, this does not mean that you start your course with a difficult module and then crank up on the difficulty scale as you progress. Instead, you start with the basics and the gradually increase the challenge as students learn more.
On the flip side, you should design your course in such a way that it empowers your students. Basically, every module they complete should be like a mini-victory of sorts as they learn something new or develop a new skill. Basically, your course should allow your students to feel like they are better in every step of the way.
Fun
Now this is where a lot of course creators can get stumped on. After all, not all topics out there are inherently dynamic or even that interesting to begin with. However, a good course creator knows how to present information in a light that makes them interesting and even attractive.
Try to keep your course as diverse as possible. Avoid making it too monotonous with 90% of each module dedicated to lectures. Use the active learning method where you spend more discussing and interacting with the students as opposed to them listening to you. It also helps if you can put some activities in every quarter of the module’s period to help students apply their learnings in an instant. The constant cycle of absorption, application, and reflection should help students in putting their new knowledge from the short-term memory department of their brains to the long-term memory section.