We spoke to one of the most prolific and successful course makers we know, Vanessa Van Edwards, about how we can all improve our online courses.
For any of you course makers out there these insights are going to help you make much more successful courses — both for you and your customers.
Online courses are being created like crazy these days because the market for e-learning has exploded in the past decade.
Now average people like you and I can use tools that come built-in to phones, tablets and laptops to create training that people are desperate for.
However, the massive popularity and ease of access to tools means there’s a ton of competition out there.
Today you can’t just make a course that sells, you have to make a course that students complete and rave about.
What we need to do is make every one of our students a walking testimonial for our course.
“Don’t just make a course that *sells*, make a course customers RAVE about”
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That’s what Vanessa knows all about. She has over 150,000 students on Udemy, and over 120,000 students on CreativeLive.
And we got a bunch of incredible insights from her 🙂
In the conversation below we get into three areas you can focus on to improve the “complete-ability” of your course.
- Course content: how can you know what works and what doesn’t before you press record?
- Lesson complete-ability: how can you measure course progress to see where you can improve your lessons for better completion?
- Exercise interest: how can you use your exercises and downloads to make your messages completely memorable?
Although this is a graduate level conversation for course-makers, Vanessa’s advice for completely new course creators is profound and clear.
If your online course is not “complete-able” you’re wasting your time and the time of your students.
Here’s some more of the goods you’ll find in this conversation:
- Expert advice on how to decide what to make your course about.
- What would a veteran course-maker do if she was creating a course from scratch today with no existing audience?
- When should you use a platform like Udemy or Skillshare? And when shouldn’t you!?
- There’s something important every one of your course lessons needs to revolve around. Do you know what it is?
- How to find out what parts of your course content work and what needs improvement before you press record.
- How you should think about what’s free vs. what’s only available to course purchasers.
- How can you get course-purchasers to actually implement your information?
- What are some effective ways to include exercises in your courses?
“How “complete-able” is your online course? here’s 3 things to improve ”
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Show Notes:
People School | Science of People
Nancy Duarte uncovers common structure of greatest communicators – YouTube
Start Feeling It Now – Chase Reeves at Craft + Commerce 2017 – YouTube
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil’ guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »