How to Create an Online Course And Where To Share It

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, people were gradually shifting to online courses and mobile apps to learn new skills. With fewer classes and classrooms available in the post-pandemic era, teaching and learning online has gone mainstream, making it the ideal time for you to find out how to create an online course.

We’re going to look at a basic overview of creating your own classes, including putting together an online syllabus, structuring them effectively, and the software you can use to do so. We’ll also consider which education and online portals you can share your class with so that more people to find it and learn directly from you.

How to create an online course using XSplit Presenter

If you’ve sat in an online class before, what people often do is share their screen while dictating over it. While this approach is simple and easy to achieve, it can often be dull. Especially if there are long moments of inaction. In order to prevent your students from disconnecting from the lesson, you can make it more interactive! You can add yourself as an on-screen presenter using XSplit Presenter.

The software features a virtual green screen, allowing you to appear in front of whatever media you are using during your lesson. Whether it is videos, images, slides, or documents. This means that you can record your lessons in real-time, with full control over all of your sources, instead of having to record yourself speaking and then edit your footage with the lesson materials. What if you have more than one teacher? XSplit Presenter has the ability to add more presenters through video call services such as Skype, Webex, or Zoom.

Another great tool that XSplit Presenter has is a virtual pointer. Just as a teacher in a classroom may have a laser pointer, this allows you to draw attention to specific items. For example, you could pause a video and draw a circle around a point of interest, or underline a section of text you want your students to focus on. When it comes to creating an online course, XSplit Presenter is the complete package!

How to structure an online course

You have the camera and software to record your online class, but how should it be structured? Shaping an online course is very similar to any other form of learning design. While there will be differences depending on the subject and teaching style, you can apply a general structure and then tweak it to fit the content.

People who take your online course will be doing so for a reason, which is to learn a specific new skill. By the end of your course, they will have gone through some form of transformation. Ideally, each section within the course will be an identifiable step towards that transformation. These modules may need to be in a specific order depending on what you are teaching. This should see your course plan naturally begin to take shape.

Within these modules, there may be smaller, bite-size lessons. An online course is not the same as a university degree. People are taking an online course in order to learn something quickly and most likely in their spare time. So, break the lessons up into small components that they can tackle easily. If you have a long video, can you break this up into five-minute sections, with each section covering a core idea. For each aspect, consider it from a student’s point of view. They want to know what they are going to learn, how it fits the overall aim, and why they need to learn it.

How to organize and sell your classes

Once you’ve planned your content into a loose structure, you can then tighten that up and move lessons around. One way to do that is to see if you have any similar lessons that could be grouped into a teaching module. One thing to keep in mind is that modules do not need to be the same length. This will depend on the step you are teaching. One module may only have one or two core concepts that are required, while another may have five or six. Allow the subject to breathe and guide you as to how many lessons each module has.

When you feel your online course structure is ready, you can formalize your plan to make sure that it meets your original aims and takes the student on a transformative journey. This will make it easier to film and also spot any potential duplication that has happened while you’ve been writing and organizing.

Also, consider what your modules and lessons are called. You may have been referring to them simply as the skill or sub-skill that is being taught, but this might not sell it to a potential student browsing your lesson plan. Instead, come up with creative and enticing lesson titles that will make students want to take your course. Think of it less as a descriptive title and more like a marketing one.

Where can you share your online course?

With the boom in online courses being produced, there are now several platforms where you can sell or share your courses for free including:

• Udemy
• Skillshare
• Thinkific

Udemy was one of the earliest platforms and it’s certainly the biggest. With over 155,000 online video courses, many focusing on programming skills and software. Offering thousands of courses suitable for both individuals and businesses, Udemy uses real-life instructors. They will share their knowledge and skills with more than 40 million students around the world!

Skillshare is similar to Udemy, but the lessons here lean more towards creative skills. The site is very user-friendly, and also features the Skillshare Help Center which guides you through how to make a Skillshare course.

If you struggled with building your online course, then Thinkific may be the platform for you. It has a series of easy-to-use templates that you can use to make a simple lesson plan.

Now that you know how to create an online course, you can take those skills and apply them to other areas. Check out how better online presentations can help you stand out to see how you can utilize other tools within XSplit Presenter to make your online presentations engaging.