A few years ago, there was a prediction that customer experience would soon overtake both price and product as the key differentiator between brands.
That prediction has come true.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of online courses and membership sites due to the advantages of e-learning. When e-learning was less popular, the only real touch points you had with a client was in the “in-between” moments of pre-sale, thank you’s, and when they emailed you with an issue.
Designing an online course website multiplies your customer touch points, which will greatly influence the number of interactions. This means the quality of your customer experience depends on the entire course, from start to finish.
Online learning opens up a world of opportunity for your online business, but will it be effective enough to make you stand out from the competition?
It depends a lot on whether or not you know how to design an online course website that will produce a positive student experience.
The good news is that you don’t have to be an academic or instructor to design online training courses that students will love.
Establish Your Course Goals
Answer this question:
Be honest.
There will always be some grey area and blurred lines; you do have a business and you are in it to make money.
But if 90% of the reason why you’re creating courses is because of the money potential, stop reading now.
Nothing else in this article will make sense. There are other great guides for designing courses for people who want to make an impact, and this is one too.
It sounds counterintuitive, but:
The main result or benefit that you choose to focus on will serve as your guide through the rest of the process.
Take a moment, and write down your goals for this online course. Make a list of one main benefit that you want your course students to experience when they take the course.
Example: After taking this copywriting course, I want my students to be able to write a landing page that converts well for their business.
Identify Potential Roadblocks
There’s a high level of success that you want your students to achieve. You’ll do anything to get them there.
Take time to identify some of the roadblocks that might keep them from experiencing this success after enrolling in the online course.
You’ll likely find that the potential roadblocks fall into one of two main categories:
Category 1: Roadblocks Related to Course Curriculum and Format
- Confusing content: Lack of clear, succinct information in course content.
- Confusing structure: Students are uncertain about how to put together each piece of information given.
- Poor teaching methods: The course material is incomplete and lacks important pieces needed for the student to understand the concepts.
All the roadblocks in this category are 100% under your control as the course creator. The more potential issues you can identify in the planning stages, the better you will be able to implement solutions later on.
Category 2: Roadblocks That are Personal to the Student
- Short attention span: The student is unable to focus on a full lesson.
- Time constraints: The student does not have enough time to consume all materials at a time.
- Busy schedule: The student wants to focus on the course, but has other responsibilities.
- Difficulty organizing notes: The student takes copious amounts of notes, but has difficulty reviewing them.
- Difficulty staying motivated: The student loses enthusiasm and motivation mid-way through the training course.
As a course creator, you have no control over the schedule, motivation, commitment, or personal lives of your online students. However, you can consider what they’re likely to have going on in life, and utilize tools like gamification to help them overcome personal obstacles.
After identifying roadblocks, it’s time to move on to creating the content itself.
Plan Effective Course Lessons
The “Lesson Plan” is likely the part of course creation you thought of first: how many lessons, what to include in each lesson, etc.
Let’s just assume that you already know what you want to teach, and how you’re going to teach it (i.e. the intermediary steps of information required before your students can grasp the final concept).
This information needs to be further broken down into an effective course lesson format.
1. Create a Proper Length and Depth for Each Lesson
One of the biggest trends bursting into the e-learning scene this year is the concept of microlearning versus lengthier lessons.
Microlearning breaks lesson material down into bite-sized pieces that are easily consumed by your students. It gives their attention span a break and makes it more convenient to participate in your online course by reducing the time commitment required.
LENGTH VS DEPTH
Keep in mind that both lesson length (video length, content amount, etc.) and lesson depth (the complexity and number of concepts taught) should be taken into account as you break down your material into individual lessons.
A quick, 5-minute video that packs a ton of complex information might be as exhausting for your students to consume as a boring, 50-minute video that’s filled with super basic info.
2. Create Lessons That Build on Each Other
After you decide on the amount (and depth) of material that you want to include in each lesson, you can create a mockup for each lesson of your course.
Set up your lessons so that they build on each other with each lesson increasing in difficulty and challenge, almost like a staircase.
This format is especially important for skills-based courses, like learning a musical instrument or language, where the material starts extremely basic and grows exponentially in complexity as the study goes on.
3. Make the First Module Awesome
Your first module or lesson can make or break the success of your entire course.
According to Make Learning Whole by David Perkins, giving students a big picture overview of the whole concept you’ll be teaching (instead of breaking things down into parts and teaching each part separately), you provide the best chance for success.
That might even mean that for some students, the first module is all they’ll ever need…and they’ll dive deeper into the next sessions as it makes sense for them to learn more specifics.
Uplevel Your Course From Good to Great
At this point, you should have a solid foundation, prepped and ready to implement. The next few steps are all about improving key areas that will make your course curriculum truly effective in the online sphere.
The effectiveness of your online courses is greatly affected by pairing rock-solid content with psychological motivation.
Improve Memory Retention
Many students (myself, included) struggle to maintain an accurate memory of course material. A lesson learned one day might be totally forgotten–or remembered imperfectly–the next day.
Two ways to help your students combat this struggle are:
RETRIEVAL PRACTICE
Add low-stakes quizzing to your online course material. This can help kickstart the retrieval of material from memory.
DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE
You might want to drip-release content or otherwise space course material over time. This method also helps students to absorb and retain knowledge.
Motivate With “Wins”
Give students an easy win early on, to motivate them to keep going. Whether that’s a simple quiz or a quickstart video, motivate students early and often.
Known as the endowed progress effect, it’s a tactic that makes people feel they have made some progress towards a goal which will result in students becoming even more committed towards its achievement.
Variate Your Method of Delivery
Though neuroscience has long since proven that “learning styles” are a myth, there is some merit to variating the method of content delivery in your online course.
For example, even if you choose video as your primary delivery method, you include written materials (PDFs and other downloads), interactive quizzes, etc.
Though it might not directly help your students learn better, it may give them the variation they need to stay motivated to complete the next lesson or module.
Eliminate Confusion With a Good Course Layout
The more materials you include in your online courses, the more you risk confusing your students. Spend some time planning out your course layout and pages to reduce confusion and the chance of overwhelming students.
Have a Plan for Your Student Data
More and more course creators are realizing how important data is for creating and improving online courses.
To increase the effectiveness of your online course, you’ll want to be paying attention to various trends with your students, so you can identify problem areas quickly.
An Effective Course Starts Strong and Continues to Grow
With this information, you can create a powerful, effective online course for your students.
But remember:
If you’re paying attention as your students grow and evolve over time, you’ll find that there are always new opportunities popping up for you to increase the amount of value your online courses deliver.
The future is wide open. Build and design your online course to see how far you can help your students reach.
