Designing an Online Course – How to design your first online course

Introduction

Designing an online course can be very confusing and challenging.

Have you been thinking along the below lines lately?

I have zero expertise on any subject.

There are lots of courses on what I want to teach. I don’t have anything to teach. 

However, did you know that there are many people who prefer a small 1hr course that can teach them something new every day?
These people want to learn from someone who is just a step ahead of them.

So, not being an expert can be your superpower here.

Creating a 20hrs course on a subject may take a few months. However, to get started you can create a 2 hr course.

By focusing on the important basics, you can create a 2hr course in just a few days or weeks and sell it at anywhere from INR 250 – INR 1000

In this blog post, you will learn how to create:

1. An online course that people want
2. Course curriculum
3. Course Content

So, let us get started

1. How to design an online course that people want

Talking to the right people about their real obstacles and the benefits they actually desire is how you can design an online course. 

Let us say that you want to create a course for novel writers. 

Find out, what their main struggles and obstacles are? 

Here is how you can do that: 

You can go to Facebook groups where writers interact. Join these groups. 

You can then post your questions or post a survey to get useful information from the writers themselves. 
Below are three questions you can ask in any group that you join. 

• What is the biggest problem you face while writing
• How do you want the solution to be
• Importance of solving this problem in real life

Sample survey form: shorturl.at/cxDJZ 

You can also check similar courses on Udemy and read the 3 and 4-star ratings to understand your audience’s problems

Check Udemy to find, how much a competitor has priced his course. Since you are just getting started, you can price your course anywhere from INR 250-600 at a minimum. 

Using FB groups and survey forms, you can build a list of your target audience. This will help you when you start to market your course. 

Below are 3 sample problems writers usually face. You can then write down corresponding benefits for these challenges.

You can now design an online course that people really want by combining these 3 benefits into one single result. Eg: 

Self Publish your first novel in Amazon: Discover how to write clearly & complete it in 90 days

2. How to create an amazing curriculum for your students

Now that you know the benefits you are offering, you turn them into your course sections or modules. Your sections will be: 

• Overcome Writers Block: Discover how to write clearly and with flow 
• Write your first novel in 90 days 
• Publish your novel in amazon easily 

By going through these 3 sections, your students can reach their desired result ie: Self publish a novel in 90 days. 

You can create your curriculum by taking each of these sections and breaking it down to 3-5 lessons. 

Eg: Overcome Writers Block: Discover how to write clearly and with flow 

• How to squash writer’s block
• Overcome your fears
• Create a middle ground to Succeed

Continue like this with the rest of your sections. This gives you the structure to quickly design your online course. 

3. What to Include in your course to really help your students?

Create 3-5 shorter video lessons for each of the steps you have identified.
If you make a video lesson for each step, keep them between 5-10minutes.

If you are making a single video, don’t make it longer than 45 min, as it is so hard to focus after that.

In the end, you want your students to be engaged and keep coming back with more questions. 

To keep them engaged, learning and taking action, add some sort of interactive element to your course, a workbook or homework, etc

Furthermore, you can also add an Introduction module, in the beginning, to welcome your students and explain what they can expect.

Make the benefits as clear as possible to engage your students! 

Lastly, you can add a Bonus -section with extra templates, an FAQ, a list with the tools you recommend and other helpful resources.

Finally, by following these 3 steps, you will be able to design an online course in a few days. After you have created your online course, you can sell it to your target audience. 

The best way to make most of out of your course sales is to start your own branded online academy.

If you have any doubt or question feel free to drop your comments below.

You can create your own online academy by signing up for a free 14 day trial by clicking the button below.

Lastly, if you have a course/mock test and want to get started online, you can try out what you have learned by signing up for a free 14 day trial at

Create your own academy names, upload, sell and get 100% course sales credited to your bank account during this 14 day trial period.