With the growth and development in science and technology, online teaching platforms are growing rapidly. The better flexibility, convenience, comfort, and cost-effectiveness offered here are grabbing the attention of educators and learners worldwide. To develop an e-learning course, the online course builder needs to think and plan many elements. Let us discuss a set of important steps to plan for developing an online course. Proper planning will help in effective preparation, action, and sales.
Important steps to plan for developing online courses
1. The right course topic
Selecting the right topic is the most important step in developing an online course. You need to invest a good amount of time and research in planning the right course topic. This will help you to work in the right direction and grow in your profession. The key points to remember while choosing a course topic are
- The topic should interest the educators.
- The course creator or educator should have a proper command or expertise of the subject.
- It should be in demand so that profits and sales can be generated.
- It should meet the needs and expectations of the audience.
2. The academic subjects
After selecting the course topic, you have to figure out what all subjects need to be covered under it. For example, in a personality development course, IT, job training, and communication are some subjects. Similarly, for every course, the academic subjects, curriculum, and structure need to be planned. Research well regarding this so that you can form an ideal study material too.
3. Study material
The next step is to plan the study material. In online courses the face-to-face interactions with the instructors are limited. Therefore to meet the learning requirements of students, online study material holds great significance. Effective the study material, the better the learning outcomes, sales, and course subjects. Plan for how to make ebooks on academic subjects. Make a plan of action to record the videos, audios, and podcasts, and make PPTs and demonstrations for students too.
4. Assessment process
For completing an online course successfully, assessments are important. This provides students a sense of satisfaction that they have gained effective knowledge and hold the course degree or certificate. Also for teaching improvement, and professional success, assessment helps teachers. For online courses, the pen and paper mode of examination will not work. So you have to plan in what ways you will assess your course learners. Think of both formative and summative assessment methods. Some of the methods that can be considered are
- Online quizzes
- Online discussions
- Open book test
- Forums
- Online polls
- Oral tests
5. The price and payment process
Pricing is the most important step in developing an online course. An ideal price is something that gives profits to the seller and simultaneously gives financial convenience to the buyer. Selling an online course at cheaper rates can devalue it. It will also lead to losses. Also in this competitive sector, setting a very high price can affect sales.
So make sure to plan the right price for your online course. The price you are setting should align with the services you are providing. While planning the course price, give value to your time, experience, efforts, and investment made. Later you need to decide the modes of payment too. Today, digital transfers are highly preferred. On your course selling website, include payment options like a credit card, debit card, UPI, net banking, etc.
6. Promotion and marketing
Last but not least, comes promotion and marketing. With the tough competition going on in the e-learning field, there are a variety of options available to learners to choose from. To stand out from the crowd, and make your course the first preference of all, quality promotion is very important. You need to think about how you will promote your course.
You need to see which promotional strategy will fit your budget. Make sure to invest rightly so that there is a scope for generating profits later. You should see which social media platform will be a perfect fit to reach out to the target audience. Plan well with which influencer you need to collaborate with. In the case of promotion via youtube, you need to buy electronic gadgets, like cameras, recorders, etc accordingly.
Conclusion
Online courses are increasing at a much faster rate. To make an effective online course, proper planning is very important. By reading the above-mentioned information we can make out the main steps to be planned for developing an online course. This will ensure the success of both teachers and online learners.
