You’ve been wanting to make an online course for a long time, but haven’t quite gotten
around to it yet.
What if I told you there was a way for you to create and publish your online course in
just 90 minutes?
What if after watching this video you could make and launch your first course today?
We’re going to get you there in 4 steps.
Let’s get into it.
Hello creators, I’m Ben Toalson from Podia where we empower creators like you to make
a living doing what they love.
If you’ve been dragging your feet making your first course, that’s all going to change
today.
The following four steps are going to get you on the path to creating and publishing
your first course!
Step 1: Write an outline
The first step is to outline your course material.
This is a relatively quick, but very important step in the process because everything else
depends on it.
The most common mistake in this step is to brain-dump everything you know and try to
organize all of that information into a course, which can leave your students with information
overload.
The goal of your course is not to deliver as much information as possible, but to deliver
a result.
The question you want to answer before you write anything else is, what end result do
I want for my student?
To make sure we stay on track, we’re going to use a course outline template we’ve created.
If you’d like to get the outline and follow along, you can find the link below this video.
As an example, we’ll outline a course around the subject of hand-lettering.
Rather than writing down all the things we know about hand-lettering, we’re going to
focus on a goal.
What kind of result might a student want from hand-lettering?
Maybe they want to learn how to make hand lettering art that they can turn into physical
products and then sell and enjoy for themselves.
That sounds like a great result so we’re going to put that at the very top of the outline.
Now that we know what outcome we’re trying to produce, we can break that outcome down
into its component parts.
Think of the various steps involved in producing the final result:
- Your student will need to find or write a quote they can turn into a hand lettering
piece.
- They’ll want to make rough drafts to find out how best to organize the text to make
their message stand out.
- You’ll want to give them specific pointers on letter forms and styles.
- You’ll get into the tools and techniques for making a finished piece.
- You’ll want to teach them how to convert their hand-drawn design to a digital format
that can be printed.
- Finally, you’ll want to tell them where and how they can print and sell their finished
design.
Now that you have an overview of the various components, you can decide how to break these
up into individual modules.
We’ll use the outline template to break these steps down even further to provide more
specific instructions and a clear path to the result we’re trying to produce for our
student.
Normally we’d talk about writing down which content types to use for each of the steps,
but because we’re trying to get this done in 90 minutes, we’re going to stick with
something simple for now.
The great news is, now that you’ve got this outline, there’s no reason you couldn’t
go back in the future and remake this course using several different mediums.
Step 2: Create slides
For step two, we’re going to use our outline as a guide for creating slides for a visual
representation of the material.
Our slides are going to consist of 3 different components.
Text, pictures, and screen captures.
We are going to use Google’s free Slides tool to put our presentation together.
You can build your presentation from scratch, or you can use one of their pre-made templates.
You’ll want to create separate presentations for each of your modules, and put your course
title, along with the module and lesson title on the very first slide.
Before we get into creating the slides, let me share a few pointers on the 3 components,
text, pictures, and screen captures.
- Text - When you add text, you want to make sure the information is clear and easy to
read.
Organizing your information into bullet points, adding titles, and bolding key takeaways are
some of the ways you can design your text to be as clear and effective as possible.
- Pictures - If you are taking your own pictures, you’ll want to make sure that your subject
is well lit, properly aligned and centered in the frame, and that there aren’t other
objects cluttering the image and distracting from the main subject.
If you are using photos from the web, make sure you’re using royalty free images so
you don’t get hit with a copyright claim.
Take it from someone who had to pay shutterstock $275 for a placeholder image.
Some of my favorite places to find images are unsplash.com and pixabay.com
- Screen captures - If you’re using a PC there are several free screen capture tools
out there.
One of my favorites is Jing.
On a mac, you can open the built in screen capture options by using command+shift+5.
Be sure to avoid showing sensitive or personal information in your screen capture.
Once you’ve got all of your images and screen captures ready to go, create your slides as
you follow along your outline.
As you’re sharing info in your outline, remember that you don’t have to write everything
out.
In the next step, you’ll be going more in-depth on each section, so for now just focus on
the key points and take-aways.
Step 3: Screen record each lesson individually
For step 3 you will screen record your presentation while you deliver a voice over of each lesson.
A quick note before we get into this step… if you’re concerned you might have trouble
delivering your course material off-the-cuff from your outline, you may want to add a step
before this and actually script your course out.
It may take you an hour or two of focused writing time, but if you’re not confident
you can deliver your course without it, it may end up saving you some time in this third
step.
For screen recording you can download a free tool called “Free Online Screen Recorder”
by Apowersoft.
This app is available on Mac and PC and allows you to select which audio input you’d like
to use, and lets you select a specific portion of your screen to capture.
This will allow you to use a good quality microphone to deliver your course material
as you screen record your progression through the slides.
Be sure to set your destination folder and name your recording files so they will be
easy to find and upload once you’ve worked through your lessons.
Step 4: Upload your videos and write your course description
The simplest way to share your course is to upload it to a learning management platform.
A learning management platform is a website that allows you to upload and sell your courses.
They’ll often provides sales data and other services related to digital products.
For this example, I’ll show you how you can use Podia’s dashboard to upload and
sell your course.
[Instructions] From your dashboard, click on the “Products” tab and then click “New
Product.”
When the pop-up window appears, select the “Online Course” Option and then type the
title of your course into the “Product Name” field and then click “Create & Continue.”
Now it’s time to add your course content.
We’ll start by adding our first section by clicking the “Add section” button.
Following your outline, title your new section either based on the modules or component parts.
Repeat this step until you’ve added all of your course sections.
Next we’ll add your video files.
Click the “Add Content” dropdown in the section that corresponds with your video,
choose “add files,” then drag and drop your video file to upload.
Once you’ve uploaded your file you can click on the edit button next to your file and add
a title, description, and thumbnail.
Repeat this until you’ve uploaded all of your course videos.
When you’ve finished uploading your course, click on the Settings tab.
This is where you can edit your course title, url, and categories.
You can also set a specific start date if you want to start selling your course now
and launch in the future, or if you want your students to work through the course at the
same time.
In this section you can also add integrations for ConvertKit or Drip.
Near the top of the settings section, look for the following: “To set a product image,
write a Storefront description and change how your product appears on your Storefront,
visit the Editor.”
This is where you’ll want to add an image and description for your course.
Remember the result you’re creating for your student?
That will be the focus of your course description.
In a few sentences, describe the problem your student might be experiencing, then make it
clear what result your student can expect once they’ve finished your course.
Now we’ll click on the “Pricing” tab.
Enter your course price and if necessary, change your currency.
You can also add a payment plan and coupons in this section.
For our final step, we’ll click the “Draft” dropdown on the right of the page and select
“Published” And that’s it!
Congratulations, it’s a course!
If you haven’t made your first course yet, I want to encourage you to give this a shot.
The reality is every course is different.
You could get it done in 60 minutes, or it might take you a day.
The point of this exercise isn’t to make a course as quickly as possible, but to make
your course, period.
You can’t improve on what you haven’t created, so get started today.
I want to hear from you!
What kind of course are you going to work on and what result do you want to create for
your students?
Write your answers in the comments below.
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Thank you for watching and I’ll see you next time.