Jayaker
Listen to this articleYou are an expert teacher and have invested time in developing a specialized curriculum to cater to your students. Your chosen field could be anything – yoga, music, life coach, spirituality, cookery, self-help, language, art, leadership or executive training. Now you are exploring other avenues to reach more students, especially in the online space. What are the things to consider as you plan to launch your online course? Read on.
Table of Contents:
1. Course Outline - Preparing Content
3. Preparing for Content Delivery
4. Getting ready with the Platform for content delivery
5. Choosing the right price model
Course Outline - Preparing Content
It is a tough task to create a multi-week long course with top-notch content. Structure is an important aspect when you are setting up an online course. Consider the outcome you would like for your prospective students. How you have broken down the course in to smaller modules and milestones. Think about how to engage with the students and make that connection. (Read more about creating an engaging online class.)
Once you have finished the outline, prepare content for the various modules along with additional course work in the form of downloadable presentations and reading material.
Testing the waters
Before you get to the deep-end, it would be prudent to check audience response for your chosen subject. Create a free module or a mini-course, probably delivered through email. At the least, you will get to validate your course material using student feedback. You could also end up with your first set of subscribers for your course.
Using the list of people who have opted for your course, you could also pre-sell your course to see their response. You could create a standalone page with ‘coming soon’ message and track how many users click on the ‘Pre-order or Get updates’ button.
Preparing for Content delivery
After your course material is set and you are happy with the overall structure, prepare instructional videos for the initial 20% of your content. Facing the camera and speaking directly to the viewer (student) is a great way to deliver your sessions.
You may ask why only 20%? By waiting for audience feedback on the first 20% of the content, you could adjust the rest 80% of the content. This gives you room for correcting any technical difficulties that the students may have faced, creating more of the modules they liked, or elaborate on a confusing topic.
Obviously, this is not a hard and fast rule. If your course doesn’t warrant a change based on feedback, you can complete the whole curriculum in one go and make it available for students.
Getting ready with the Platform for content delivery
Once you have a clear idea of where you stand and have tested the waters, it is about time you took the plunge. Building a platform ground-up is an complicated task, better left to the experts.
With SaaS providers like Ventuno, you can deploy your course content in a matter of days and make it available for consumption. Not only can you create a website, but you can also even create apps for mobile phones and tablets, both Android and iOS, giving students easy access to the course material. Ventuno's platform also allows you to perform live streaming sessions, which is a great way to increase student engagement.
By creating your own course website (and mobile apps), you have complete control over your course deployment – price, design, students, and importantly revenue.
Choosing the right price model
What is the right price tag when you are looking for subscriptions for your online course? It often comes down to two questions:
- What does your course solve -A small problem, a medium-sized or a big serious problem?
- What does your course do - Tells people what to do or shows people what to do and provides support?
You can charge your subscribers a one-time fee (TVOD) or a recurring fee (SVOD) based on the course material and mode of delivery.
The launch
Plan your marketing strategy across platforms - email, social media and paid ads. You already have a list of test subjects and interested individuals. You also require a prospective email list to market your course.
Create a buzz - Send drip teaser emails every two days, about a week prior to the launch. Ensure you educate and provide value to your subscribers.
Use the target sales window - Utilize the 8 day period to strategically communicate course details, course open dates, FAQs, reminders and close the deal.
To start an online course, technological know-how needn’t be an Achilles heel anymore. You can take Ventuno’s help to deploy your first online course. Before long, there’s another course idea in your head waiting to be digitized.
Add your comments below or contact us at info@ventunotech.com. if you would like to use Ventuno to create your online course.
Looking to launch your own streaming service?
Viveka S
