Teach What You Know and Love
Hi. Welcome to Living Authentically After 55. I'm Karen Crowell, and I'm your host. In previous episodes, we've looked at setting goals, making plans, and using intention to bring the plan to fruition. We've also looked at mentoring and sharing your life experiences. I hope you've had fun dreaming big, setting great goals, and helping others, and I look forward to hearing about your progress in the Facebook group. If you're not a member of the group yet, just click on the link in the podcast description. https://www.facebook.com/groups/245015682512938/
One of the possible goals that I mentioned previously was turning your life experience and skills into an online class. For this week's motivation for momentum, we're going to look at the steps involved in making a course. But first, let's look at why online courses are so popular.
We're living in a time when people want quick access to learning all kinds of different skills, and online courses give students an environment to accomplish that goal. Here's a list of some of the reasons students like online classes. They are available 24/7. They are available all over the world wherever there is an Internet connection. They are inexpensive to take compared to a university course. Students get to choose courses they want as opposed to a university where they are required to take certain courses whether the student wants it or not. Students can go at their own pace. Once a course is up, it's basically up forever, so a student can review the course as often as they'd like for no additional charge, even years after they initially took the course. Students can take courses to prepare for a promotion, personal growth, or to learn a hobby, language, or computer skill.
The topics and opportunities are endless.
A quick disclosure, I am not promoting one company over another. I personally have my classes with Udemy, but I'll give you the names of other companies, and you can decide which one would best meet your needs. For the purpose of this podcast, much of the information is based on Udemy's policies and recommendations because that's what I am familiar with. Other companies may have their own way of doing things, so if you choose another company, you'll want to make sure to check out their requirements.
Because there's a lot of information concerning how to produce a course, in the next few episodes, I'll be including the transcript in the podcast description as well as a printable copy under the file tab of the Facebook group.
There are 4 stages to creating a course. The first stage is deciding what you want to teach and if you plan to charge for the course or offer it for free. The second stage is producing the course. The third stage is publishing the course on the site of your choosing. And the fourth stage is promoting your course. This week, we will be looking at the first stage. We'll look at the other stages in upcoming weeks.Let's break down the planning stage. This is the first and most important step to creating a course. Consider all your skills and experience and decide what you'd actually like to teach. You want to be specific about your topic and who your target audience will be. The more unique and different you can make your course from the rest of the courses that are offered in the marketplace, the better your course will do. Keep in mind that you don't need to have a degree in order to teach an online class with the companies that I am going to mention.The best way to pick your topic is to teach what you know and love. The topic can be anything. To narrow your topic, ask yourself:
What your ideal student will look like?
Who is your target audience?
What level course do you want to teach? In other words, beginning intermediate, or advanced.
What aspects of your topic would your target student be interested in?
Why would they be taking your course?
What would motivate your target student to not on