(Newswire.net — March 20, 2023) — Are you looking to expand your skill set and learn something new but don’t have the time or resources to attend traditional classrooms? If that’s the case, an online course may be just what you need. From online IT courses to social media marketing workshops, there are plenty of options available for curious minds.
Then again, with so many courses offered online, it can be daunting to decide which one is right for you. So, we compiled this list of five essential things that make a great online course. Keep reading to discover these key elements and how they can help you get the most out of your learning experience!
Challenging and Engaging
The first thing that makes for a great online course is one that is challenging and engaging for students. A problem that many course creators face is not knowing how challenging to make the content within the course. This is quite a particular challenge since if the course is too easy, the students will get bored.
However, if the course is too challenging, the students will give up since it will feel like they are not learning anything. According to experts at EdWize, finding a balance is imperative to make the course challenging and engaging. One thing you need to add to your course to make it engaging would be an assessment after each module.
Understands What Students Need
The next thing that makes a great online course is a course that has been structured from the understanding of what a student needs. One of the biggest mistakes that many course creators make is jumping into creating content for the course without considering what the students actually want to learn.
Remember that everyone has a different motivation to study; some people want to learn new skills, and some people want to apply these skills to make money. More importantly, everyone has a different skill level, so it’s crucial to understand your audience to create a course to benefit them.
Multimedia Content
Of all the things that make a great online course, one of the most important is that it contains multimedia content. One of the worst things for students is courses or lessons that are entirely text-based, since not only is this incredibly boring, it only caters to one specific learning style.
There are many different types of learning styles. For example, some people learn better when reading, and others learn better through visuals or when hearing the information. You need to add multimedia content to keep your students engaged and cater to the various learning styles.
Ease of Use
Another significant thing your online course needs to have to be great is the ease of use. The first question you will need to consider when creating your course is, “what do students need to complete the course?” and then follow that question up with, “what am I providing students with in order to achieve this?”.
For example, are you providing PDF documents with templates to complete certain activities? Do you require the students to do specific research, and are you pointing them in the correct direction? Moreover, is your course structured so that it is effortless to follow? Are you providing captions or subtitles? These are important questions to consider to make your course easier to complete.
Balance of Offline and Online Work
Finally, the last thing that makes a great online course is a balance of offline and online work. Even though it is not suggested to cram your lessons with information, if you have done so, it is not practical to ask the student to continue more offline work after the lesson ends.
More to the point, you will also need to consider the learning styles of your students. Not everyone does well when learning by doing things practically, but some people do. The assessments or tasks that you provide need to be balanced so that the offline work complements the work done online.