Make a Difference with an Online Course

2 April 2020

Before you start planning your online course, it is important to ask yourself:

Why would someone want to take my course?

People take courses to either gain knowledge or to learn a new skill or hobby, they want to learn something new. It is important to make sure that your course teaches its students something. On completion of your course, the students need to have gained knowledge or a new skill.

We are an inquisitive population and live in an era where we turn to online learning to learn things that we don’t know, whether for cooking, work skills or DIY. We are knowledge thirsty, which has resulted in a booming online learning industry.

When starting to design your online course, it is important to note that a course does not need to be long. Students actually learn best in shorter courses that focus on the knowledge or skill transfer. Shorter courses generally have higher completion rates as they maintain students’ interest throughout the course, particularly when there are so many time distractions for students.

In your course development, spend time on making the course interesting and exciting. Your course is competing for the students time and focus against many other distractions. However, try to strike a balance in not spending too much time on your course’s design, you can spend years on getting a design perfect and never actually publish your course. 

When designing your course, keep in mind that the number one goal is that students learn something.

If you want to maximise your course completion rate, you must keep your students engaged and motivated throughout the course. A boring and long-winded course will result in students losing interest and not finishing the course. How do you do this? Keep an eye out for our next set of online course tips.