Last updated on October 5th, 2023.
Even just a few years ago, if a friend told you they were going to take a graphic design class, you’d automatically assume they would be driving to a school building, meeting in a classroom and studying the art of graphic design surrounded by classmates, and listening to a lecture from a teacher. Well, now, if a friend told you that they were going to take a class in graphic design, the first thing you’d ask them was whether the class was on Coursera.com, Lynda.com or edX.
It’s no surprise that eLearning is a fast-growing industry. The eLearning market reached 46.67 billion dollars in 2016 and is projected to reach over 243 billion dollars by 2022!
And, eLearning is not just about single class you can take through your library or work. University (and some high school students) are earning four-year degrees entirely in the comfort of their home, by logging onto an online course site and taking classes virtually. The upside of this? Adults who work full-time and still want a university education are able to more easily coordinate their work and class schedules, allowing them to achieve their education goals while still earning a living.
Before we get too far into the article on how to create an online course, let’s set some expectations on the major sections we’re going to cover.
1. How to create an online course. (Overview of main topic)
2. The Best Online Course Builders or Platforms. We will go in depth on the platforms:
- Kajabi
- Thinkific
- Teachable
- LearnDash
- Podia
3. Some of the current best sites to take online courses. Here we’ll introduce you to:
- Code Academy
- CreativeBug
- EdX
- Khan Academy
4. How long does it takes to create an online course.
5. How to make the course profitable.
6. And finally, we’ll talk about pricing and the value overall.
Right now, about 33% of college students currently take at least one course online. And many students surveyed believe the online method of learning has helped them improve their grades and have made them better students overall.
Plus, if you’re like me, you work for an employer that offers a wide variety of online courses for you to learn new things or brush up on a subject. My employer is offering a free and easy way for their employees to advance their careers and make themselves more valuable to the job and the industry. These courses allow me to take charge of my career in a way employees of the past couldn’t. The courses my employer offers include coding, writing, and even strategies to get ahead, run meetings and succeed in interpersonal relationships.
But, if your employer doesn’t offer online courses, you’ve still probably explored courses that you’ve accessed via your local public library, YouTube or even through a paid subscription to an eLearning website. We’ll go more in-depth below about online learning sites.
How to create an online course and actually make it profitable?
Here are a few questions to help you decide if you’d like to be an online course builder and sell your own online courses for a profit: Are you the type of person who loves imparting your knowledge to others? Maybe you’re the gal everyone comes to for help with their cars. You may have a knack for showing your friends how to replace a headlight bulb or even change their own tire.
Or, are you the guy that your coworkers come to for impromptu lessons on how to streamline an Excel spreadsheet or how to create a PowerPoint slide show? You’ve got the knowledge about the subject matter, the ability to help with a solution and the drive to expand your teaching to others, near and far.
Or are you the crafter who all the moms come to for kiddie Halloween costumes tips and tricks? Perhaps you have a shop on Etsy that’s getting some buzz.
So, let’s say you indeed have the knowledge that other people need to know, the info they’re always asking you to explain, and the know-how that you want to share. And you’ve given a serious look at the eLearning sites that we discussed above. Well, perhaps you would like to have a go at being an online course builder and teaching a course yourself.
But, although you may be tempted to jump right into the teaching part of eLearning, there are a few steps you have to take first. In a nutshell, this article will teach you how to develop an online course with the end goal of attaining and maintaining profitability.
You’ll need to compare the various hosting platforms out there. These are the entities that will not only host your classes but will offer you a suite of tools and marketing strategies to help get your business up and running quickly and easily.
You’ll need to learn how to successfully develop an online course that will attract students.
And lastly, you’ll need to learn how to make a profit in the online course industry. This article will address those needs and more.
Plus we’ll give you the links you’ll need to search for more information in your goal of offering an online course.
But, first of all, let’s discuss the different online learning sites out there. Read on for an overview of what options are out there for eLearning students.
The Best Online Course Builders To Create and Sell Online Courses
Most likely, you are not going to host your class on your own platform but instead build upon someone else’s platform. You probably just won’t have the online resources to create your own platform or the know-how to handle such a venture, at least at the beginning of developing online training courses.
It’s better to start off easy, anyway.
As the number of online courses has increased, so too has the number of online course platforms. These platforms do the hard work for you. You’ll be able to easily build your course site on an online course platform because the popular hosting platforms like the ones we’ll discuss in this article offer plenty of automation. Some will offer more automation than others, so it will be up to you to determine if you have the knowledge and the time to be uber-involved in designing your course website, or if you lack the know-how or time and would rather use an online course platform with more of a plug and play system. One that may not have as many public facing features but that will allow you to get started quickly and easily, even if you aren’t that technically savvy.
The advantages of using an already established course platform are that you’ll have at your fingertips a seamless suite of tools to create your course website. You’ll have the ability to personalize your site so it will meet your needs and goals. And not only will you have web hosting; you’ll also have video hosting, which will make your course that much more valuable. And, you’ll have access to survey and quiz tools, as well as payment tools. As social media is such an important side of business now, an online course platform will allow you to integrate your email, social channels and your website to drive users to your site.
In order to make the necessary adjustments, large or small, to your business, you’ll have access to analytics utilities. This will allow you to see your site’s performance statistics 24/7. And, as I come from an advertising background, one of the most useful advantages to using an online course hosting platform is that you will have access to the host’s email list. This is their list of potential customers, which will become your list of potential customers. Having access to an email list will save you time and money. You’ll have future students right at your fingertips. It will be your job to convert those email contacts into paying users, but that’s where your brain and strategy come in to play.
There are many online course platforms out there. And we’ve looked at the market leaders, comparing their features and ratings. We’ve done the research, so you don’t have to. So, we’ve curated the following list of the five best online course platforms for your fledgling online course. And we’ve also listed the features of their most popular pricing packages.
Go ahead and read through the list. Click the links and check out the host sites. You can even sign up for free trials to get a feel for each site. Don’t hurry; take your time and find the host that meets your needs. Then, you can start designing your course website.
These are the 5 best online course platforms:
Every eLearning site is different. You may envision a site that serves thousands of students or just a handful. You may want to teach all of your classes through videos or via online documents. And you may be a beginner who wants or needs more automation, or you may be an experienced techie who would rather have numerous options to choose from to get things just the way you want them. Well, there’s the perfect online course platform just for you. You’ll have to do your homework and get comfortable with these platforms in order to find the right one. Read on below for our picks for the best online course platforms when you want to develop online training courses.
Nine-year-old business platform Kajabi gives you a host of useful features that could lead you and your online course to profit. Take a look at Kajabi’s features and see for yourself what it can do for you:
Website
Kajabi’s interactive functions allow you to create your website in minutes. You can manage and customize your website’s theme, build individual pages and then easily create navigation between pages, and design and manage a blog. You’ll also have access to your website’s analytics, so you’ll be fully in charge of your success!
Products
You can use Kajabi’s product’s tab for your online course, community space or live event. You’ll be able to seamlessly design and manage your product as well as customize your product’s posts. You will also be able to manage your pricing, customer payments and analytics.
Marketing
Kajabi’s marketing tab is very straightforward. You’ll use it to create your email campaigns and events and will be able to streamline your marketing workflow.
People
Again, another easy-to-use tab, Kajabi’s people tab lets you manage contacts and affiliates, run bulk actions, and more.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure if Kajabi is right for you. The platform offers a 14-day trial so you can familiarize yourself with its offerings and decide if you want to take the plunge to use it to host your course.
Kajabi Plan Features
Check out Kajabi’s features for online course hosting:
- Kajabi University
- 0% Transaction Fee
- Webinars & Events
- Ready to Use Templates
- Assessments (Quizzes & Surveys)
- 24/7 Chat Support
- Advanced Automations
- Ability to Remove Kajabi Branding
- Affiliate Program
Thinkific wants to “revolutionize the way people learn and earn online.” Its easy-to-use platform allows customers to create, market, sell and deliver online courses to students quickly and easily.
Thankfully, you don’t need to be a programmer to use Thinkific due to their robust automated features. They make it quick and easy for you to create your site and start offering courses. Plus, they strive to give their customers all the tools they need to succeed.
And, to make your business even stronger, Thinkific has a dedicated page where it can recruit agencies, app developers and marketing partners. And those agencies, developers and partners are working to make Thinkific even stronger and more robust, allowing you, the course creator, to reap the benefits from their collaborations.
Read on as we go through the steps you’ll take to develop your business.
Build Your Courses
Thinkific makes it simple for you to create and personalize your course website, taking the hard work out of the equation.
Design Your Site
Easily build, design and customize your website through a host of options.
Market & Sell
Thinkific gives you a robust suite of tools to grow your business. You’ll be able to offer coupons and promotions for your courses, plus you’ll be able to set your site up to offer subscriptions.
Support Your Students
Thinkific says that it designed its platform to allow your students to achieve success. You’ll be able to track your students’ progress, set goals and customize learning environments.
Security
Thinkific builds security into its platform and continuously monitors for any issues or problems. The company also offers automatic updates and secure cloud hosting.
Thinkific’s Most Popular Plan
Thinkific.com’s Pro Plan, its most popular, includes:
- Unlimited courses & students
- 2 Site admin accounts
- 5 Course admins/authors
- Private & hidden courses
- Advanced course pricing options
- Memberships and bundles
- Certificates
- Advanced Customization
- Priority Support
- Assignments
- Communities
- Coupons
- Email students
- Drip (scheduled) content
- Affiliate reporting
- Custom domain
- Email integrations
- Zapier triggers
- Manual student enrollment & exports
Over 18 million students worldwide take classes on eLearning sites hosted by Teachable. In fact, it currently hosts more than 186,000 courses.
Teachable offers four quick steps to begin your online course venture:
Create Your School
All it takes is a valid email address. Go to Teachable.com to sign up for a myTeachable.com account. And then you just follow the simple directions to name your school, answer a few questions and set up your school and classes.
Select a Plan for Your School
You can choose between four plans: Free, Basic, Professional or Business. And, most importantly, you’re not locked into one plan, withTeachable allowing you to downgrade or upgrade to another plan at any time.
Configure Your Schools Domain
With the Basic and above plans, you’ll get a customizable domain. You’ll still get a domain with the Free plan, but it will have the standard Teachable.com subdomain.
Set up Payment Gateways
Pick a payment gateway so you can begin accepting student payments and earn payouts from selling courses.
Teachable’s Most Popular Plan
Teachable’s most popular plan, the $79 per month Professional Plan, includes:
- Unlimited students
- No transaction fees
- Instant payouts
- 5 admin-level users
- Priority product support
- Graded quizzes
- Advanced theme customization
- Advanced reports
- Unbranded website
- Course completion certificates
- Course compliance
- Product support
- Course creator training
- Custom domain support
- Coupon codes
- Drip course content
- Integrated affiliate marketing
- Integrated email marketing
- Third-party integrations
LearnDash, a learning management system plug-in for WordPress, is used by many prominent learning establishments, including the University of Michigan, University of Florida and ProBlogger. If you want to learn how to create an online course with WordPress, then LearnDash will be a powerful asset.
Almost immediately, you can use LearnDash to:
Control Your Environment
LearnDash allows a course owner to control enrollment by setting the course’s price and making the course members only or private.
First things first. When you embark on your LearnDash adventure, you’ll first want to configure the app’s settings. I’ve listed a few of the most important settings; that’s one thing about LearnDash – its dashboard has quite a few options.
General
You can easily design and content settings.
Custom Labels
You’ll be able to change defaults. For instance, you could change LearnDash’s default “Quizzes” to “Tests.”
PayPal Settings
If you’d prefer to take payments via PayPal, LearnDash has you covered. You can also change to another payment option, if needed.
Details About Learndash’s Plus Package Plan
Learndash’s $189 per year Plus Package features:
- Up to 10 Site Licenses
- Includes ProPanel
- Unlimited Courses
- Unlimited Users
- Course Content Protection
- Drip-Feed Lessons
- Advanced Quizzing
- Certificates & Badges
- Course Forums
- Email Notifications
- Free Integrations
- 1-Year Support & Updates
- BONUS: Demo Site Template
With Podia, you can easily offer online courses, have different membership tiers, and expand your email marketing.
When you log onto Podia, here are their main dashboard offerings:
Editor
Customize your website quickly and simply.
Products
Sell your course or digital product
Memberships
Create your course’s membership plans.
Emails
Create advertising campaigns and newsletters to market your courses
Customers
Keep track of your customer list.
Sales
Set up payment options and see payments and invoices.
Settings
Choose your currency, fill out tax information, choose your language and more.
Podia’s Popular Shaker Plan
Podia’s Shaker Option (its starter option is called “Mover”) includes:
- Your own storefront
- Online courses
- Digital downloads
- Email marketing
- Messaging
- Zero transaction fees
- Unlimited everything
- 7-days-a-week support
- Hassle-free migrations
- Memberships
- Blog
- Embedded checkout
- Affiliate marketing
- Third-party code
But which online course platform is best?
We looked at ratings and reviews to help you decide which online course platform is right for you. Here’s what we found:
Best for beginners: Teachable.
Review: Teachable offers great design options, and you don’t even need to be a pro in web design thanks to its drag and drop capability. It’s affordable and easy to use. It even has a free monthly plan where users only pay transaction fees. However, users commented that to get all the uplevel features they needed for their business, their monthly payments went up considerably. Plus, the site-building capability seems limited.
Best for professionals: Kajabi
Review: Kajabi is the best online course platform for professional, experienced online course owners, hands down. It features everything you need, all in one place. Your business’s website, marketing, courses, online community space, payment processing and more are right at your fingertips. And, you can even run Kajabi from its iOS/Android mobile app. However, users did think that design options were limited, and support could be more robust and accessible. Further, set-up may be daunting to first-time users.
Best reasonably priced: Thinkific
Thinkific offers many of the same features as Teachable, but also offers advanced quiz options and support for community forums. However, its marketing side is less than robust. If you were planning to sell to students in Europe, beware, because Thinkific cannot handle EU VAT. Plus, its checkout process is said to inadequate.
Easiest to use: Podia
If you’re a complete newbie to the online course world and you are dreaming about getting a course off the ground, nothing could be easier than Podia. Its design is minimalist and uncluttered. You’ll easily be able to offer courses to students across the ocean as it can process EU VAT. And, users gave rave reviews to Podia’s customer service. Cons included lack of a mobile app, course certificates, ability to offer graded quizzes and overall flexibility.
Best WordPress plug-in
I know, I know, LearnDash is the only WordPress plug-in that we’ve discussed in this article. But, overall, users rate it one of the best WordPress plug-ins for eLearning institutions such as universities and training entities. So, if you want to learn how to create an online course with WordPress, we suggest using LearnDash. It offers a full host of course features to allow for more engagement with students, including spaces for online forums as well as the ability to give certificates and awards to students. There are some downsides to LearnDash, however. As LMSes go, LearnDash’s set-up is not very straightforward. Plus, the learning curve to use LearnDash is quite steep. And, premium add-ons must be bought separately.
These are some of the current best sites to take online courses (for examples).
Besides taking eLearning classes through my job, my local public library offers a gateway to Lynda.com, a popular business eLearning site. I never have to leave the comfort of my home to increase my knowledge and help advance my career. The classes I’ve taken, inDesign, business writing and public speaking, have only helped me in my career. And, bosses notice when you strive to advance your learning!
My library not only offers eLearning via Lynda.com, it also offers learning solutions for a wide variety of subjects, whether you want to learn arts and crafts, computer coding or music. These classes can open up a whole new world to library patrons. You can learn everything from knitting to literature and everything in between. And, although most of the classes you access from your public library are free, there are classes that allow you at the end to purchase a certificate to show that you passed. The certificate could look great on a resume if it’s in the field in which you are pursuing a career.
Here are a few of the courses offered by my local library. I’m sure either they or something similar can be found at your local library as well. These courses can even give you great ideas on how to develop online training courses yourself. You’ll pick up strategies on how to develop an online course as well as learn what topics are engaging to a student. Talk to your friendly neighborhood librarian for more information on online courses.
1. Code Academy
Code Academy will teach you how to code and give you the know-how you require to advance yourself in the tech industry. Code Academy helps millions of learners around the world get the skills they need to succeed in today’s digital world — all in a way that’s fun, free, and accessible anywhere.
2. Creativebug
Creativebug’s video classes will teach you to knit, paint, crochet and much more. Perhaps you have always wanted to sell crafts online. Well, you could hone your skills with Creativebug and learn to produce the crafts that people want! I’d love to start selling crafts online so I’m planning to check out some courses.
3. EdX
Some of the world’s top universities offer classes on EdX in everything from medicine, music, and chemistry. And those classes are free and interactive. I’ve got my eye on some of their Mandarin language courses. I’m just trying to figure out which one will be right for me.
4. Khan Academy
Non-profit Khan Academy offers a free education for anyone in every part of the world. I took a Khan Academy SQL class to help me with a change in jobs. And it really paid off in the long run.
How long does it take to create an online course?
Critics, users and platform hosts wildly vary in their estimates of how long it takes to create your online course. A safe estimate is that it will take 15 hours of work to create one hour of an online course. But a short course may take much less time and a long, involved course may take much more time.
So, you need to be aware that if you plan to develop an intensive course that would span over a few months, it could take you weeks to fully realize your goal. But, if your idea is to create a mini five-video course, well, you may be finished in a weekend!
But, when you’re planning your course, you’ll need to look at other issues besides how much of a time commitment the business will be for you. Obviously, time is important, because, as the old saying goes: “Time is money.” However, you’ll also need to look at teaching and learning methods. What is the best way to teach your students, and, equally as important, what is the best way for students your information? If you’re not successful in passing on the information that your students have entrusted you to teach them, your business may not get off the ground.
Do you have the technical abilities to teach a course? For instance, how are your video editing skills? Can you write and edit grammatically correct course materials? And, editing audio and video could take a long time. So could creating course documents or PowerPoint presentations.
Do you have the time to pursue the venture of creating, selling and teaching an online course? Do you work full-time or more? You’ll have to carve adequate time on your busy schedule to not only develop your course but to manage the course, from marketing to teaching. Don’t forget about the time you’ll need to engage with students and answer questions.
The best method of learning.
At the inception of your course, you’ll want to look at the different types of learning methods that will be best for your students. And, the most successful learning method by far is experiential learning. One 2015 study showed that students learn best through experiential learning, where they are afforded the ability to practice what they’ve been taught. A full 75% of students polled retained knowledge from a course when it was taught employing experiential learning. This is a far cry from the only 5% of students who retained knowledge from a course when it was taught using lectures only! The statistics don’t lie.
So, how can you incorporate experiential learning in your courses? Well, as it’s the digital age, you could offer simulations to your students. Be sure to have a chatroom for students to discuss their learnings. And encourage students to use the skills they’ve just learned ASAP in the real word, in their jobs or their lives.
I have real-world knowledge of experiential learning from my online graphic design classes. As part of the homework, we were tasked with creating ads for a business. We had to go through the ad creation process from start to finish, from reading off of a brief that directed what the ad should sell. We made mock-ups, had them approved by the teacher (all online) and then proceeded to execute our ads. And these ads have to have all the same specifications of any ads that you see in newspapers and magazines. Why was it so important to mirror what is done at a real graphic design firm? Because if we succeeded at the class using real-world know-how, we’d be one step closer to working in graphic design for real.
Strategic planning and execution.
So, now you know that it takes more than the drive to impart your knowledge on others. My advice is to get all your ducks in a row before signing up on an online course platform. Perhaps even take a course yourself. See, there are courses out there for those who want to teach courses. Let someone who is uber-experienced in the eLearning business impart their years of knowledge onto you. Then, you’ll be certain that you’ll start selling and teaching online courses with both eyes open.
And, of course, take advantage of free trials and helpdesk support. I’m the type that likes to be over-prepared for any project, especially ones that are crucial for my career. And I like to study whatever subject I’m focusing on as much as possible. Ask for help and network online and in person to talk to others who are running online courses. And read reviews.
Also, makes sure you know the latest on the subject you are planning to teach. If you are going to teach a coding class, when is the last time you studied coding yourself? Or, if you are planning a six-week course on business writing, do you have six weeks’ worth of information to impart to your students? Educate yourself before you start educating others!
How do you make an online course profitable?
You may be asking how much can you make selling online courses? Well, the answer varies. Some successful online course owners make millions of dollars per year. But we can help you make your online course profitable by using these important strategies.
- First of all, you must discover what you are good at. What do you know that other people need to know? Perhaps you know a popular language or a software program that everyone is using.
- Find a host platform that allows you to keep the maximum amount of revenue as possible and gives you access to the host’s customer email database.
- Market, market, market. You don’t have the time or resources to wait for potential students to stumble upon your classes. You’ll need to find partners and gain access to large email lists. But that’s not enough. You’ll need to write engaging advertising. Something that will draw people in. You may need to pay a marketer, or you might be able to barter services, which is quite common in the gig economy.
- Offer coupon codes, special early-bird pricing, one-on-one tutoring and other deals to drive business to your site.
- Be prepared when you teach. Don’t leave anything until the last moment. Make sure any videos you tape are well-produced. Check and double-check your online lessons, handouts, menus, etc., are all grammatically correct, including spellchecked. At the end of the class, students will have the opportunity to submit reviews. You’ll want to make sure those reviews garner 5 stars so that they will attract new students.
- Make your classes interesting. I have taken online video seminars where the teacher droned on and on in front of a whiteboard. These seminars covered vital information that I needed to know. Information that was important for my career. But, my gosh were they boring. I must confess that I never finished the courses, to my own detriment. So, make your lessons engaging, your videos interesting and your quizzes fun. Take if from me, you’ll attract more students!
- Choose the best online course platform. Because the online course platforms with the best features will increase your user engagement, allowing you to grow your business.
- In terms of payment strategies, you could offer the course for free, but charge for a certification, offer a subscription or even funnel the course into a product. If you are charging a sum for the course, making sure you get payment upfront!
Read on for a deeper dive of payment strategies.
How do you price an online course?
There are many things you’ll need to factor in when pricing your course.
- First of all, you must price your course high enough that you can afford to pay for marketing.
- Don’t underestimate how much money your knowledge is worth. Customers will pay a fair sum for important information that they need to know.
- Price your course too low and potential customers will believe that the course is bargain basement and not worth their time.
- Don’t focus too much on your competition’s sale pricing. There will always be an online course that is less expensive than yours. It will drive you crazy and will cause you to price your courses too low.
- Do keep an eye on your competition’s normal pricing, however. What prices will the market allow?
- If you price too low, affiliate partners, with their important email lists, won’t take you seriously.
- You can price your class higher than average if you’re planning to teach a very specific topic.
- Payment plans are another good way to price your course higher. If they’re paying in installments, students won’t feel that much of a financial burden.
- Decide how much you want to earn. And then run some numbers to see how much you’d have to charge to take in that amount.
Is it cheaper to take online classes?
In the past, it was difficult to do an entire degree online as some classes were only offered in a brick and mortar environment. But, more and more, you can take an entire degree program online. And, by studying online, it will also be easier for you to work thanks to a flexible learning schedule.
And, happily, it can sometimes be cheaper for the student to take courses online. When you go to a traditional brick and mortar university or even just take a class in person, you’re not only paying for the information you’ll be learning. You’re paying for the grounds upkeep, the electricity to keep the lights on, the gasoline you need to put in your car to drive to the class’s building, and so on.
But, when you take a course online, you’ll be saving on gasoline expenses. And, if the university is completely online, your tuition won’t be going to pay for all the upkeep of a brick and mortar university.
You may even find that your study materials are included in the price of the course and made available to you online.
It’s not just about cost-savings.
I’ve taken many online courses. And the ability to watch a lecture more than once is a saving grace for me. Just think about it…you’re in a brick and mortar classroom and you miss something your teacher said. Well, you’re out of luck. But not with an online course. If your course offers video, you can replay as many times as you want. And, if there is no video, no worry, the course material is up on the online course site. You can refer back to a difficult theory as many times as you want. No longer will learning be one size fits all. If the lesson hasn’t quite gelled in your head during a first pass, you can watch or refer back to the course material until it makes sense.
And, don’t think online students will miss the ability to collaborate with their classmates or meet with their teachers. It’s the 21st century after all. Online course programs generally feature chatrooms where classmates will be able to communicate with each other, sometimes in real-time. It’s equally becoming common for students to be able to “meet” with their teachers “one-on-one” in private chatrooms to discuss course issues and ask questions.
And, anecdotal evidence has shown that online courses are good for introverted people. And I agree. As a very introverted individual, sometimes it is hard for me to participate in person in a brick and mortar learning setting. But, in an online class’s virtual chatroom, I am able to get the courage to fully participate. I think this type of learning has helped me gain the strength I need to interact with people out in the real world. It’s allowed me to grow.
Downsides to Studying Online.
However, there are cons to online courses, at least in the university setting. Universities really pack the students into a course, with online classes having up to 50% more students than an in-person class. Also, online university classes are generally taught by adjunct teachers, not tenured professors. Adjuncts are less costly but also less experienced.
And, if you are going to commit the time and money to taking courses online, either through a university or through a business, you must be motivated. You won’t have a professor standing up in front of a classroom giving you a due date for your homework or telling you what you need to know on your next test. Yes, the online teacher may be telling you these same things virtually, but as soon as you turn off your computer, you may forget about working on your studies, unless you buckle down and stick with it.
There are a few other reasons that eLearning may not be a good fit for everyone. For one, there will be a lack of networking. Perhaps you want to brush up on your programming skills by taking a programming course. In a brick and mortar setting, you would be able to talk face to face with your fellow students and perhaps pass your business card around in hopes of garnering some job leads. In an online setting, you may not have the same opportunity to network. To meet your fellow students. To discuss the course work. Or to get business or career leads.
Traditional universities generally have libraries. By choosing to get your education online, you may not have the same opportunities for research. In the age of Wikipedia, university libraries still offer a wealth of knowledge, and you may be able to trust that knowledge more than information from some online webpages.
For those taking their degree online, you may not have the same college experience that one would have in person. You may feel like you’re missing out on a right of passage if you’re not spending your college years on a campus with students your own age to hang out with.
You’ll have to weigh all the pros and cons of studying online, be it for a university degree or for a course to brush up on a subject or to learning a new subject. Yes, money is a consideration, but it’s not the only consideration.
What’s the Verdict?
Industries are moving more and more online. Look at online shopping. When’s the last time you were in a mall?
Same with online learning. It’s so convenient for a student to learn on their own schedule. And that’s where you come in. By developing a great idea for a course, a subject that people want to, no, need to know, you’ll be well on your way to success.
So, if you’re serious about selling online courses, start Googling to compare online course platforms. Find out what kind of features will be automated. Ask if the hosting site will give you access to mailing lists so you can market to potential students as part of your subscription. Take into account your overhead and how much you want to earn and decide what’s the best price for you.
And look at the online course platforms we discussed. Know your abilities. Do you think you can handle designing your own website or would you like a super easy platform that does all of the hard stuff behind the scenes? Would you like to be able to make changes to your courses 24/7, even when you are not in front of your computer and all you have is your mobile phone? Choosing the right online course platform is one of the most important steps you’ll take when planning an online course.
It will take plenty of time and hard work, but your goal is in sight. Any of the platforms we’ve talked about in this article will help you launch and maintain a successful online course. As we said, it varies wildly how much can you make selling online courses, but we’ve given you the strategies you need to start making a profit.
And don’t forget about all of the tips and tricks and strategies we’ve offered to help you price your course, determine how long with will take to develop a course and even grow your teaching abilities.
All you need to do now is take the plunge. Brainstorm, design, market and teach. We know you can do it!
