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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Design and build online courses that you will deploy with joy
Need to create a course for your learners and don't know where to begin? Creating eCourses For Dummies will guide you through the process of creating engaging content around objectives and a solid instructional plan. In this book, you’ll find a feasible plan for designing and creating a course in a short time period, while leveraging technology, community building (if desired), accessibility, and engagement. Creating eCourses For Dummies encourages you to follow along chapter by chapter, creating a course as you go.
- Make the transition to online teaching and create a course quickly, step by step
- Choose the technology platforms that work best for you, or make the most of the ones you’re required to use
- Leverage existing content and content from other resources to build your course
- Tailor your content to your audience and cater to different learning preferences and styles
This is an excellent Dummies guide for new and veteran teachers, corporate trainers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, those with side hustles, and anyone else who needs a crash course on developing eCourses. This book will support you from beginning to end.
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Seitenzahl: 427
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Creating eCourses For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Creating eCourses For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About this Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Getting Started with eCourses
Chapter 1: Examining the Concept of eCourses
What Is an Online Course?
Focusing on Creating a Great Product
Reality Check
Ready, Get Set, Go
Chapter 2: Identifying the Why for Your eCourse
Serving the Online World
Seeing How You Benefit
Part 2: Planning for the Best Outcomes
Chapter 3: Identifying Your User and Their Needs
Introducing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and User Experience (UX)
Using Universal Design for Learning to meet every user’s needs
Defining Your Target Audience
Knowing How Much Time You Have: Course Length
Chapter 4: Focusing on Accessibility
Why Accessibility Is Important
Assessing Platform Accessibility
Getting Accessibility Tips
Making Accommodations in Online Courses
Chapter 5: Choosing the Right Resources for Your eCourse
Locating the Resources You Need
Determining the Best Vehicle (Platform) for Delivery of Content
Chapter 6: Your Presence Is a Present
Time Is Ticking
Student Community and Course Atmosphere
Online Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely
Part 3: Putting All the Pieces Together
Chapter 7: Deciding What to Put in Your Course
What Should the Audience Know?
Determining the Development Time Span
Envisioning the User Experience
Time Management Schedule
Chapter 8: Designing an Interesting, Informative Course
Creating a Presence by Welcoming the User
Deciding Between Need-to-Know and Nice-to-Know
Design Thinking: Conception to Completion
Chapter 9: Factors Influencing Curriculum Analysis
What Is the Vision? Curriculum Analysis
The Impact of Curriculum on Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes
Chapter 10: Upping Engagement with a Rolodex of Material
Inventory: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Static Content Doesn’t Have to Be Passive
Active Content Creates Association
Part 4: Measuring Success
Chapter 11: Assessing Learner Outcomes
Diagnostic: Where Are the Users?
Summative Assessments (Low and High Stakes)
Chapter 12: Evaluating your eCourse
Formative Evaluations
Reflections Are Not Just a State of Mind
Thinking Ahead for Modality Shifts (Face-to-Face, Hybrid, Online, HyFlex)
Part 5: Sharing Your eCourse with the World
Chapter 13: Marketing your eCourse to the Masses
Displaying Your Authority in the Field
Providing Customer Service
Using Badging and Certifications
Being Multilingual and Catering to a Global Audience
Selling the Product
Chapter 14: Making Money from Your eCourse
Monetizing Your Work
Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Get Discovered
Online Advertising
From Pricing to Paying
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Freeware (or Low Cost) Tools to Spice Up the Course
Educational Support and Content Sources
Study Tools
Creation through Communication, Creativity, and Collaboration
Gaming
Chapter 16: Ten Checklists for a Great Start
Fans of a Plan
Moving and Grooving
Cultivating Resourcefulness
Providing Support
Welcoming the Learner
Starting in Style
Organization Is Key
Design to Delivery
Assessments in Action
Accessibility Is a Requirement
Index
About the Author
Advertisement Page
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Strategies to Help Address Knowledge Retention and Course/Institute Re...
Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 UDL Rubric
Chapter 9
TABLE 9-1 Actionable Words to Incorporate into the Curriculum to Address the Psy...
TABLE 9-2 Activities to Incorporate into the Curriculum to Address the Affective...
TABLE 9-3 Each Domain’s Hierarchical Categories
Chapter 10
TABLE 10-1 Ways to Encourage Students to Take Active Ownership of Their Studying...
TABLE 10-2 Brief Definition of Interactive Experiences
TABLE 10-3 Examples of Interactive Learning Experiences
Chapter 11
TABLE 11-1 Discipline-Aligned Alternative Assessments
Chapter 12
TABLE 12-1 Difference Between Formative and Summative Assessments
TABLE 12-2 Sage on the Stage versus Guide on the Side
TABLE 12-3 Activity Types and Asynchronous and Synchronous Advantages
Chapter 13
TABLE 13-1 Brief Comparison of Some Badging Companies
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Shadow boxes inserted into directions addressing a reading assignme...
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Visual messaging can be more effective than conveying the same poin...
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator (WAVE).
FIGURE 4-2: Accessibility Checker.
FIGURE 4-3: The WebAIM Contrast Checker shows maximum contrast (left) and parti...
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: The elements of creative common licenses.
FIGURE 5-2: Creative Commons Public Domain allows licensors to waive all rights...
FIGURE 5-3: Creative Commons BY license refers to attribution.
FIGURE 5-4: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.
FIGURE 5-5: Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives license.
FIGURE 5-6: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial license
FIGURE 5-7: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike license
FIGURE 5-8: Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives licenses.
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10-1: Example of a curriculum inventory.
Chapter 16
FIGURE 16-1: A landing page provides users a welcome message, important informa...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Author
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Creating eCourses For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Introduction
Welcome to Creating eCourses For Dummies! This book will become your personal guide and mentor for designing, developing, and delivering your own eCourse, also known as online course. How did I become the author? I am still in awe of the opportunity, but my experiences over 20 years have allowed me to learn the ins and outs of best practices for instructional design, educational technology, pedagogy and andragogy, digital accessibility, and curriculum creation. I somehow became the go-to person for helping others curate curriculum, design courses, use technology appropriately, and just overall give creative solutions to mundane problems, when working in any course modality, including online. I was being asked for help because I had a reputation of giving a resolution. I took pride in that unofficial role, online guru, with no idea that all those years of helping people and building a résumé of experiences, would lead me to an opportunity to write a book and share some of my insight.
About this Book
This book has something for everyone. People who are content or niche experts but have very little training in learning or teaching theory, individuals who are new in their career of teaching and rearing to make a name for themselves, facilitators who focus on professional development at corporations, and seasoned instructors who need some inspiration to rejuvenate their “why.” Do not let the title For Dummies dissuade you from trusting your abilities; view it as a more efficient approach to learning tips that help create a product you are excited to share with learners. This book trims the fat and focuses on the need-to-know, not the nice-to-know.
Don’t feel that reading the book in a systematic manner is necessary. Creating eCourses For Dummies can be approached in a variety of ways. The book is written to be a beginning to end journey on constructing a course from scratch. And while there is some overlap in the chapters, each chapter can stand alone. Each chapter focuses on an important concept to create a well-rounded online course. You may have great curriculum developed already but want to spice up your assessments. This book can help you. Maybe you’re familiar with course design but aren’t sure how to create a course matrix. This book can help you with that task too. It allows you to focus on your needs first and later revisit and refresh concepts that you may have skipped.
Throughout the book are worksheets, examples of tools, and websites to visit. If this information doesn’t resonate with you, skip it. Skim the table of contents and focus on what is important for your needs at the time you are reading it. I always say that people look for content when they need it. Knowing where to look saves time.
Foolish Assumptions
I believe any assumption is a foolish assumption. “Teaching is easy” is the most ridiculous assumption to make. Teaching is terrifying, difficult, and exhausting (mentally and physically), but it is also rewarding. I am assuming that those who read the book are doing so to help progress or improve their approach to online design, development, and delivery — newbies and experienced teachers alike. In that assumption, I do use terms that may be technical, but I explain them too. It is important to understand the jargon, or “educationese,” because critics, experts, and seasoned consumers look for characteristics that make them think the course they are taking is worthy.
Here are some other foolish assumptions that I or my teaching peers have made in the past:
Students know about and how to use technology.
While there is the thought of “digital natives,” many learners did not have the access or resources to use and practice technology. Many learners have not used technology for educational purposes — document headers/footers, slide presentation construction, formula creation, email attachments — and do not have the technology-native expectations we place on them. Our goal is to expose them to digital tools and improve their skill sets, but not at the expense of taking time away from content.
Accessibility is not the teacher’s responsibility.
The reality is that the instructor is responsible for creating accessible materials, but many institutions have support departments to help and guide one in the process or potentially complete the process. Having it as a shared responsibility is a luxury. Giving accommodations is reactive. Learners need support; they receive an action based on a request. Creating with accessibility in mind is proactive because as many barriers as possible are eliminated prior to the learner interacting with the content.
Online courses take less work for both instructors and students. Instructors may think that since there are usually no meeting times, they have more time to spend developing the curriculum (videos, notes, presentations, assessments, practice activities) to ensure the students have a well-rounded experience. Proper development also requires digital accommodations to be addressed (captions, transcripts, alt text, color contrast, heading structure, and so on).
For students, often the time invested is more because it is a heavy text-based environment, which requires committing more time to reading. The responsibility to learn, complete work, and interact with the materials is on the learner. While the online format allows more flexibility and freedom, students must be responsible and accountable for their own learning.
Icons Used in This Book
The tip icon emphasizes hints and tricks that are helpful in designing, developing, and delivering your online course. These bits of information can save you time, effort, and sanity.
The remember icon highlights important tidbits that I believe will give you “aha” moments throughout your online course design and delivery experience. You can’t remember everything, but these points give you a starting point.
The warning icon isn’t there to scare you, but rather to give you a heads-up to watch out for difficult situations and common mistakes. Most likely I have already made them, so you don’t have to.
This icon shows up when I want to emphasize important steps or reminders that require a bit more technical skill. Anything having to do with technology is technical, so this icon highlights topics such as digital accessibility and laws.
This icon indicates that I want you to try some hands-on work.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the content in this book, there are several downloadable documents you can use as templates to create material for your course. I encourage you to use them as you go, but they are just as useful after you have finished the book. To access these materials, go to www.dummies.com/go/creatingecoursesfd. Consider bookmarking this site so you can easily access it when working on your courses. You want to respect your time and work efficiently.
Like every For Dummies book, this book includes a digital cheat sheet that you can access online. Just to go www.dummies.com and type “Creating eCourses For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.
Where to Go from Here
This book is organized to serve your needs. If you want to learn about accessibility, visit Chapter 4. If you need formative assessment support, Chapter 12 is your starting point. If you want to determine what type of engaging activities you can incorporate, Chapter 10 will guide you. This journey is yours to personalize. The book gives you the opportunity to learn how to design, develop, and deliver a course. It guides you through choosing a topic, creating a schedule, designing the course blueprint, choosing the proper platform for delivery, and pricing to sell. I want you to create a course you are proud of and one that will bring you success with your learners and your bank account.
Part 1
Getting Started with eCourses
IN THIS PART …
Learn eCourse lingo.
Review the stages of creating an eCourse.
Recognize the impact online learning and teaching can have on consumers.
Define the “why” for your eCourse.
Chapter 1
Examining the Concept of eCourses
IN THIS CHAPTER
Looking at types of online courses and reasons to create one
Choosing a topic and nailing the necessities
Recognizing the reality of online course development
If you are reading this book, then your curiosity has been piqued regarding what an online course is and the effect it can have on your life. The market for online learning is projected to continue reaching hundreds of billions in revenue in future years.
Being a teacher for 22 years and teaching in the online realm for 18+ years, I can say I have seen many things — some good, some exceptional, some bad, and some horrific. I have evolved as a teacher, and when I look back at what I did in 2005 versus what I do now, it’s a different realm of reality.
For example, my first course online was just a shell with my notes and slides posted. I can almost guarantee the material was not accessible, as I did not know what that meant in 2005. There were no low-stake assessments, few if any practice materials, and all grades were based on high-stake exams. Immediately after my first semester, I started to make drastic changes to support student success. I knew I could never have learned in that environment, so I had to make an effort to change my outlook, my direction, my vision, my material, my presence, my support — essentially, my everything. Are my courses perfect 18+ years later? No. Are they good courses? Yes. I would state that they are great courses, but they constantly change, shift, evolve, and are under scrutiny by myself, and honestly, I’m sure, by my peers.
It's impossible to know everything, but over time and through certifications, professional development, researching, or continuing education, you can learn. As a student in different programs, I found out about, and now implement, differentiated learning, authentic assessments, learner’s choice, scaffolded learning, and more.
Through experience, I now create more compelling course experiences, which, though they may be considered rigorous and difficult, are not dull. Throughout this book you’ll find real examples, templates, and ideas to build a course from scratch or to modify and convert material you’ve already created.
What Is an Online Course?
An online course is taught over the internet, usually via a learning management system (LMS). The LMS is the storage unit for content, assessments, course documents, communication tools, and more.
The topic of online courses is a broad one, as a range of delivery methods and interaction types exist. Understanding your options can help you determine the direction you may want to explore and how to focus your vision.
Types of online courses
Online courses are typically structured as one of the following three types:
Synchronous courses:
Students have the flexibility to take these courses from anywhere, but live meetings are an integral part of the program. Students are required to attend these meetings via phone, web platforms, or in person. Often there are preset meeting times that students will be made aware of prior to enrolling. Some instructors will survey students for the best meeting times, and others will offer a few options for all students to choose from and attend as they can.
Asynchronous courses:
These courses don’t entail any planned live interaction with the instructor or peers. They are self-paced and provide material to review and assignments to complete for students to achieve their goals. The course may be chunked into learning units or modules with due dates throughout the length of the course, or there may be just one due date, at the end of the course. Some courses may have no due date at all but rather are purchased for lifetime access.
Hybrid courses:
These courses are a combination of synchronous and asynchronous work. The institution, company, or teacher determines how the course is delivered.
Any type of online course can end with a certificate being awarded by an accredited organization or a professional business.
Why should I consider creating an online course?
There are many reasons to create an online course, but you need to make sure your reasons and approach build on your expertise, trustworthiness and can support the process of designing, developing, and delivering an online course. All of these are addressed in detail throughout the book.
Diversify and increase income by monetizing your expertise.
This income is supplemental at first but can become a sustainable, profitable career path.
Establish yourself as an expert and build your brand to create your mark in the industry.
Focus on information that is most important and relevant to your audience. Avoid boring, unrelated information that may be considered nice to know, but not necessary. Focus on the interesting part, trim the fat, and capture the learner. This can be a branding opportunity (see
Chapters 13
and
14
for more on this).
Create a community of practice, a group of fellow teachers or individuals who share common interests.
An online class offers the opportunity to connect with similar scholars and potential collaborators (check out
Chapter 6
).
Share your knowledge with a global audience.
Even if it is not your career, if you are passionate and have the skill set, teach what you love. With the internet, access to people is at our fingertips. Because your aim is global, language and cultural differences need to be addressed too, but geographical barriers are removed.
Have a direct impact on making education accessible.
Accessible
means that the course is not only available to learners, but that the material also meets the digital requirements to be usable by individuals with disabilities. You can have an impact on learners’ lives and can be a part of their achievements (turn to
Chapter 4
for more on accessibility).
As a creator, you are responsible for digital accessibility to ensure that users with different abilities can enjoy and participate in the online experience.
ENVISION YOUR VISION
This activity helps you mold your vision for an online class.
Write a one- to two-sentence vision statement of what your ideal online class would look like.Write a few concerns you may have in developing your online class.Following are some tips for writing a vision statement:
Review other online teachers’ statements to determine how yours can stand out.Write down keywords that will be a theme throughout your development process.Determine what your biggest goal is and write down steps on how to achieve that goal.Have a short statement for branding and a longer one for investors or administrators.If you’re a visual learner, use a vision board to help inspire your actions.Language should be clear and concise. Use present tense. Make it inspiring.Here are some examples of company vision statements:
Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”TED: “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and, ultimately, the world.”Udemy: “Improve lives through learning and to be the go-to platform for anyone looking to learn anything.”Coursera: “We partner with the best institutions to bring the best learning to every corner of the world. So that anyone, anywhere has the power to transform their lives through learning.”A simple search on the internet will provide you with thousands of websites stating it is easy and lucrative to build an online course. I want to be transparent and state that “easy” is a relative term, and financial benefits depend on your dedication, niche, business prowess, and commitment to growth and success. If you are a veteran teacher, then creating content, aligning objectives, using a variety of technology, and understanding pedagogical processes will be simpler. “Easy” is not a term I use because creating a course is a lot of work. However, the work is doable for anyone willing to invest time in learning tools, theories, best practices, and needs of the community.
As a veteran online teacher, I constantly reflect, evolve, and tweak the content to meet the needs of the learner and to keep up with technological advancements.
Focusing on Creating a Great Product
Many online courses are available, so what will make yours different? First, you picked up this book, which means you are eager to discover tips and tools to successfully design, develop, and deliver an online course.
Information is everywhere, and there is so much of it that sifting through it all can be overwhelming. This is why an online course focusing on the necessities is appealing. So don’t focus on selling information; focus on selling the learner on the transformation that will occur from taking your course (see Chapter 9).
To begin the transformation, the learner must interact with the material in a sensible manner — think intuitive navigation, clear directions, and engaging activities. This requires you to organize the content in units with defined learning objectives (LOs), a variety of content, interactivity, and a clear starting and ending point per unit. (Chapter 3 helps define your target audience.) The organization is a representation of how you think, which influences the student experience. (See Chapters 5, 8, and 10, which focus on resources and design to increase engagement.)
I am personally a logical person. My design is usually linear, with step-by-step directions that lead to concrete outcomes.
Remember that you are unique. To quote Dr. Seuss, “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” No one has the exact same personal and professional experience as you, so you want to harness your uniqueness. Students are paying to be influenced, guided, and transformed by you.
In the content you are providing, offer supplemental material that brings your experience to light. Consider providing the learners with case studies, Ted Talks, interviews, blogs, and speaking engagements (live or recorded) that highlight your experience, and others’ experience (see Chapter 10 for more on resources).
Offer support materials that help your students achieve their goal. These may be e-books, worksheets, templates, and bonuses (Chapters 10, 11, and 12 focus on course content). Plus, coaching is a great value-add, especially when you sell your first course. In all design efforts, make sure the course is built on the foundation of equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility. The material provided should take an individual’s social, political, religious, and cultural background into consideration.
Provide trigger warnings to alert students when information may be considered difficult to encounter. Figure 1-1 provides examples from an accessibility course I teach. The idea and support to do this came from my colleagues at the university. No matter how long you teach, if you are open to learning, everyone can give you great ideas and feedback, and rejuvenate your passion to continue developing and teaching online.
FIGURE 1-1: Shadow boxes inserted into directions addressing a reading assignment in an Accessibility Studies course I teach.
A professional goal for you is to gather testimonials and reviews for your courses once they have been taught. Learners are more likely to purchase a course that has reviews because they can place stock in others’ experiences. Think about Amazon reviews and how you look at them to determine quality, durability, fit (if clothes), and so on. If the reviews are poor or there are no reviews, you’re more likely to purchase a similar item from a different company that has item reviews.
Picking a topic
Two crucial questions come into play when it comes to picking a topic for your prospective course. I need you to dig deep to answer these two questions:
Reflect on and be truthful with yourself when you ask, “What skills do I have?”
Do research and conduct internet searches to find out, “What do the consumers want?”
What skills do I have?
You may want to look at your resume, a promotion packet, your LinkedIn profile or just wing it, but write down everything you consider yourself to excel at, whether it’s career related or personal interests. These are the topics you may be able to design a course about. Hopefully, one of them is a passion item that can become a passion project. A passion project is something you are willing to put time and effort into.
What do the consumers want?
Finding out what learners want can come from many resources. Put on your sleuthing hat and test out your search engine skills. Basically, you are looking to find what topics are most frequently searched. To successfully do this, follow the tips in the sidebar “Tips for searching on the internet” to get what you need from the massive archives that reside there.
TIPS FOR SEARCHING ON THE INTERNET
Use multiple search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Google, Bing, and any others you enjoy.
Some search engines focus on specific subjects or niches. Those may be helpful depending on your field. Google Scholar and Wolfram Alpha are examples that focus on academic writings and data analytics, respectively.
Use your search words carefully and try to avoid prepositions and articles.
Use quotation marks around a word or phrase to help narrow down the search results.
Here are some basic operators you can utilize when searching:
The asterisk symbol (*) is used in wildcard searches. This provides you with a robust search for many categories related to a word or phrase. Example: Jennifer* actress will give you a list of all the famous actors with the name Jennifer.Combination searches use the term AND or OR and will return results with either term. This reduces the number of searches that need to be performed.Related website searches can be conducted by placing related: in front of a website. Websites that are similar to the original will be returned in the results.If you are already in the business world, you can meet with clients, peers, and companies to discuss their needs, pain points, and experiences to help guide your decision of topics.
Online course necessities
The goal of this book is to provide you with tools you can use to create usable materials that will help you design, develop, and deliver your course. Each chapter has activities, templates, ideas, tips, and suggestions to build your course. One of the most important aspects is accessibility, which is incorporated throughout the book to ensure the material you create is universally designed for all learners.
Be proactive in incorporating it from the start of design. This will decrease the stress, time, and costs inherent in addressing accessibility at the end. It is usually much more difficult to retroactively fix accessibility issues in documents than to create them from scratch.
Research whether there are any legal requirements for accessibility to be taken into consideration. Knowing whether there is an accessibility policy guiding your local, regional, national government is a great way to begin. If there are not clear, defined guideline or policies, use Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 to help guide your decision making. www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22. WCAG 2.2 provides a shared standard for Web Accessibility internationally.
Structuring your course
Chapters 7 and 8 provide the foundation of course design. These chapters focus on creating a course blueprint (template and structure) and a course matrix (detailed schedule).
The course blueprint is like an architect’s blueprint. It provides the design and guidance for the structure of the course. The blueprint is a big picture to ensure there is consistency in the design and delivery of the curriculum. Most blueprints have course information, LOs, curriculum content (static and dynamic; see Chapter 10), activities (no stakes and low stakes; Chapter 10), summative assessments (Chapter 11), and formative assessments (Chapter 12). Course artifacts such as vendor tools and publisher tools (covered in Chapter 5) are mentioned in the design at this phase.
In the course matrix, you focus on the LOs, assessments, and supporting content. The course matrix is usually designed to be in units or modules, but testing blocks, chapters, topics, and other approaches are acceptable. Once this design is determined, trimming the fat (focusing on just what is necessary to learn) and chunking of content (smaller, micro learning pieces) are designed to present to the learners.
Creating your course content
Chapters 5 and 10 focus on content for learning and address a variety of types to choose from. Paid and freeware are discussed in detail, but to give you an idea of types you can create, take a glance at the following abbreviated list. My favorite part of course design is the creative freedom you have in developing materials. Creativity increases engagement, helps retention, and supports your brand.
Notes (documents and slides), static and interactive
Videos
Interactive videos
Audio
Worksheets
Activities
Games
Assessments
Surveys
Interviews
Questionnaires
Publisher content
Vendor content
Choosing the right course platform
All of the hard work is done, right? Well sort of, because now your business savvy must emerge. Deciding the right platform to deliver your course and how much you want to sell the course for determine whether you will have long-term success.
Options include websites, standalone platforms, or course platforms. These are covered in depth in Chapters 5 and 13, but you have knowledge of different methods from experience as a teacher or a learner. All have pros and cons, so use what is most efficient and effective for you, as well as cost friendly.
Standalone platforms are a one-stop shop (think Walmart) and everything you need to be successful is packaged in the product. You need to create the course; you got it. You need to host the course; you got it. You need to sell the course; you got that too. Examples are Kajabi (https://kajabi.com/) and Teachable (www.teachable.com). Both have a tiered pricing structure.
A course marketplace is a repository for online courses from many creators. They offer benefits such as predesigned templates and not having to worry about hosting, but there are lost opportunities to refine your brand and gather specific data. Examples are Skillshare (skillshare.com), which is free but with strict guidelines, and Udemy (udemy.com), which has a tiered pricing structure.
Setting a course price
Not all courses are equal, so you need to research factors influencing course pricing. Chapter 14 discusses best practices in course pricing. A quick overview requires you to research the competition, make sure your topic is in demand and the quality of the content is superb and varied to support all learners, and have an exceptional website selling you as a brand (think vision statement).
Reality Check
Moving online is the trend, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, because it is being demanded by consumers. And while there is great research supporting the success of learners, there are many aspects you want to be aware of. Not all online teaching or learning is unicorns and rainbows. (By the way, I have a love for all things unicorn, glitter, and animals. It is a reminder to breathe and not get caught up in what you cannot control.)
Being the teacher, you will encounter many obstacles — technology not working, costs of software, learning curve to use the technology, the time commitment needed, and creating accessible documents, among other hiccups — but with patience, absolution, tenacity, and commitment, all the requirements can be met.
Students are not as computer and technologically savvy as we believe. Their experience with technology is social media and while it does translate, digital literacy skills such as attaching files, saving to specific folders, or using tools such as plagiarism checkers are not taught.
Students are not required to have a device or internet when they sign up for online courses. We assume and expect they will, but often they don't, or they don’t have the means to fix it if it breaks.
As you design the course, it is usually with the thought that the student will be accessing the work from a computer or similar device. In reality, 82 percent of students access work on their phone. You want to design to be device agnostic, but some content is just not a good fit for phones.
You are your number-one advocate. You can manage yourself better than anyone else. You know your brand and your perception of the brand. To do this successfully, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Build your brand around the strengths. Find a team or find mentors who can help improve areas of struggle. Use your voice to ask for answers, suggestions, and recommendations from peers, consultants, learners, and future consumers. If you don’t have a network, expand it by being present and involved in communities of practice, online forums, conferences, and other networks in your field. Last, never stop growing professionally and personally.
Ready, Get Set, Go
This book was created to help connect fundamental principles for designing, developing, and delivering content for individuals to learn. The book is for all levels of teachers, from beginners to professionals. The material will help navigate old and new tools, with an emphasis on learner-centered activities and multimedia. Throughout the book, important themes are accessibility, universal design for learning, and content alignment with LOs to increase performance, retention, and satisfaction.
Chapter 2
Identifying the Why for Your eCourse
IN THIS CHAPTER
Identifying the advantages of online teaching and learning
Reaping personal benefits
Why should you develop an online course? Why should you sell an online course? What is your why?
The why is your purpose that encompasses why you want to do your work. Some call it your conviction, your mission statement, or your motivation source, and it describes what makes you a productive citizen in the community. Many of us fall into teaching, or the job is circumstantial and out of necessity. So, the why is not the environment we are in; rather, it comes from within.
The why can be established over time, but it takes a practice of self-awareness (think journaling; see Chapter 12) and will be shaped by your values, your motivations, your passions, and your strengths. Being self-aware of your purpose naturally helps you engage in altruistic behavior. Teaching is altruistic, even if compensation is involved.
Finding the why is not always easy, but if you get excited about designing, creating, delivering, and teaching, and you can imagine this career in years to come, then your why is already there. If you are constantly thinking about ways to improve your curriculum, your students’ outcomes, your students’ experiences, and how to ensure you and the students are fulfilled, then you probably have your why.
Knowing your why provides clarity in your life, which translates into the material you create and deliver. Knowing your why harnesses your internal passion, and this helps you focus on your goals.
Your why can change because people change over time. Your why is not static; it is dynamic. Use the natural progression of your why to continue evolving your online courses.
Serving the Online World
The online world of teaching allows endless exploration of philosophies, and approaches while providing flexibility for all participants — teacher and student. In addition, other benefits are seen from the online environment such as an increase in digital literacy and citizenship through discovery, community building, and engagement.
Convenience
There's no doubt that online courses offer the benefit of convenience for both teachers and students.
Convenience from the teacher perspective
As an online teacher, you have control of your time and schedule. You say you want to teach on a beach? You got it. From Italy? No problem. From a train? Yep. You can even teach in your pajamas. You can teach from anywhere as long as there is internet. This can help you achieve the infamous “work-life balance” that’s as elusive as a unicorn.
Teaching online has the ability to provide a more flexible schedule than a face-to-face classroom. Depending on the institution employing you, you may have set synchronous hours, or you may be at liberty to create your own schedule, including meeting times. Because you can work from where you want, you are not restricted to a single domicile and can tend to personal and other professional matters. If you are a caregiver, have a family, or are active in philanthropy, online courses provide that litheness with your time.
Because you have more flexibility in how your time is spent, teaching online allows you to be involved with a variety of programs. You can teach K–12, tutor, be a college professor, or facilitate professional development in businesses. The goal of the classes you teach can be to provide tutoring support, enhance professional development, address a personal interest, or get certifications or degrees. The wonderful part is you can be involved in multiple opportunities at once as long as it is permitted by your main employer.
Convenience from the student perspective
You will notice a lot of overlap for the reasons teachers and students enjoy the online experience. For students, it may be more about convenience and flexibility because you can complete the work anytime, anywhere. The same goes for studying. In most cases, there are no physical classrooms, and if there are meeting times, they are virtual. If they are required, many programs offer alternative assignments in lieu of not making the online synchronous session. Online learning allows students to balance work, family, and personal obligations while still pursuing their goals. Since students often need to pay for their own education, online courses allow them to continue working. Many companies support continuing education, and online courses afford students opportunities to earn certifications, degrees, and skill sets while continuing to work their jobs. If they are not working, the courses they take can explain their hiatus in the timeline for work.
Online courses are often more affordable when reviewing all the costs associated with attending classes — commuting (time, gas, energy), potential childcare, and less time working, to name a few.
Educationally, asynchronous learning has benefits too. Students have the ability to reflect on the discussions and construct deeper responses that can further the dialogue among the learners. Formulating answers without the pressure of prompt responses can lead to developing better critical thinking skills. This, along with other soft skills, is important for most companies. Online learning can improve students’ time management skills. While online courses provide convenience for when they work, the students are responsible for completing assignments by deadlines. This requires them to manage their time so that they are able to successfully engage in the material and complete coursework.
Self-paced learning
Self-paced learning can be scary, but it also provides a world of control based on the learners’ needs. All material is available to the learner at once, but the learner sets their own schedule. There are deadlines, but there are no schedules with due dates until the course is closed. There is a window within which to complete the work (one month, three months, one year, and so forth) when it is convenient for them. This usually differs from an academic classroom that may have weekly due dates and set dates for high-stakes assignments, where the final grade is due to the institution.
Even the most experienced online learners can fall behind in self-paced courses. “Out of sight, out of mind” or “my job is so demanding that this course is not my top priority” are often reasons given for not completing a course. In all transparency, I did not complete my most recent self-paced class for a variety of reasons and was fortunate to be placed in another cohort. Remember, no one is perfect, and life happens to all of us.
Self-paced learning often leads to better retention of content because the learner wants to learn or has the time to do so. If you must complete training by 12 p.m. on the same day you have a deadline, your focus on the training won’t exist and you won’t retain much of what the training presented. But if you could participate in the training after the deadline, you’d more likely be engaged and pay attention. In general, self-paced learning can decrease anxiety and stress, and self-paced learners outperform learners who must sit through scheduled trainings.
Discovery
Think back to your educational journey. Were there classes you were not interested in that you had to take? Of course there were. Not all students want to take a class because not all material interests all people. Many classes are general education requirements, degree requirements, or job-related requirements. Often a student ends up in an online class they are not interested in because of their schedule. Convenience is a double-edged sword. As the instructor, it is your responsibility to help them discover why this material is interesting, important, or impactful to their life. Why care beyond a passing grade?
How do you capture the masses? Make the material relatable by investing in the proper resources (check out Chapter 5). Use examples that students can relate to that are current in society. If you are not active in current trends, have the students pose questions, topics, articles, videos, websites, and other artifacts that help them discover the content. Have them ask weekly questions that are on brand with the news. This puts the responsibility on the student, which helps them become more involved due to accountability.
When the students participate, be present (see Chapter 6). Feedback to the student shows you value their effort, recognize their time investment, and acknowledge their contribution.
When the course is fun for the student (discovery), students feel valued. When the teacher uses different strategies for discovery, retention increases.
Retention
Retention addresses learning and how long information can be recalled and implemented over time. Retention also addresses return rates of students. While these definitions are surface value, they give you an understanding of the term in different contexts without discussing nuances of how different variables and data can alter the whole story.
Institution retention
Retention is necessary for learners to be successful in a job and the world, and retention is required for institutions to be successful. An institution’s retention does not always paint the proper picture of student success, but it is a predictor of graduation rate. An increase in student retainment should lead to an increase in graduation rate. More graduates lead to more individuals prepared to enter the workforce. Institutions benefit from increased graduation rates and tuition earned; the economy benefits from the skilled workforce.
We know it is not this straightforward, but it makes sense when considering how online courses can help reach these goals.
Knowledge retention
If learners do not retain knowledge, then the effectiveness of your course or program is questionable, and it is at risk of failure.
Can you remember back to being a student and being lost or uninterested? Did you ever think the teacher just didn’t understand you, or they didn’t understand how to teach? I know I did, and whether my thoughts were warranted, they were still legitimate.
