Educators should design online classes to make teaching easy for them and help the students. In your online course, you need to show your audience that you know what you are talking about. Here are the things you need to consider and what you need to do to create a successful online course.
1. Outline the objectives of the course
Every project has an objective, including courses. What do you intend to achieve with the course? Having a clear view of your goals will give you the roadmap to design a successful course. What you want the learner to achieve with the course would be the primary objective. You should also have a way you can tell whether they have been able to achieve.
Online learning is self-directed, and learners need the objectives and goals for your course to inform their learning strategies.
2. Identify the right learning materials to deliver the course
Your online course will be effective if you can identify the right media to use for it. You can use videos, text, infographics, audio, eBooks, and podcasts, to mention a few. If it is an English course, for instance, videos would be ideal. It will allow learners to understand how certain words are pronounced and the context of specific figures of speech.
On the other hand, specific courses will require a combination of the media to make them interactive. Ensure that your approach will help you reach the set course objectives. This will save a lot of time and make learning easy for the students.
3. Identify the best activities to include in the online course
An excellent online course should give the students a real experience of the classroom. Make your online course interactive by doing more than just providing the learners’ information. Assign students with creative assignments, and this way, they can interact with essay writers and learn something from them.
Incorporate activities that will help the students explore more learning opportunities through collaboration. Interaction with peers, professors, and experts will expand their knowledge. Insert quizzes at the end of topics, assign group work, encourage discussions and even debates to achieve this.
Include activities that will support learning, depending on the nature of the subject or course.
4. Organize your lessons
Having a lesson plan is critical for a practical online course. Gather your content and organize it according to themes and ideas to create a logical flow. The lessons should build into the main idea. This will prevent confusion in your course and allow the students to read ahead and self-direct their learning.
A course outline for your online course is recommended to make delivery easy for you and understanding easy for the learners.
5. Repurpose your content
Do not spend too much time creating content for your online course if you have something already. If you already have text for your onsite class, you can use it to create infographics. If you have videos or audios that you have used in your classes before, include them in the course.
Of importance is to remain relevant as you use existing material to create your online course.
6. Chunk your content
Chunking information makes learning easy. Designing a successful online course depends on how well you organize and deliver information. Presenting information in smaller pieces makes understanding faster and easier. For instance, instead of giving the learners a whole page to read, highlight the key points and give them.
Prioritize the main points and even include learning materials to emphasize that. Giving your students too much information all at once will give them a hard time understanding. A chunked online course will prevent information overload.
By chunking information, you will also get the opportunity to use a combination of media to present information. This enhances the understanding and recall of the learners.
7. Pick the right platform
Choosing the right platform to deliver your course is as essential as creating informative content. Choose a platform that will make the teaching job easy for you. The e-learning platform should also provide the students a great learning experience.
The platform should be mobile and desktop-friendly so that the learners can access it anytime and anywhere. The platform should also have a simple interface to give the learners a high-quality experience.
Take away
Online courses have been around for decades. However, the covid-19 pandemic brought more attention to them as learners were forced to study from home. This has set the pace for edtech in the education sector.
In the future, the classroom will be centered online. To create practical online courses, start by setting goals and objectives that are measurable. This will help you determine if you are making any progress with the online classes.
Choose the right materials and activities to deliver information. Chunk your content to enhance the understanding and recall of the students. Choose the right online learning platform and have a course outline, and you will deliver information successfully.