Creating an online course is a great way to share your organization’s expertise with a wider audience, but in order to effectively communicate those valuable insights, it is important to create and choose content that is relevant and engaging for your intended audience.
Whether you’re starting completely from scratch or are just ready to introduce new learning materials and experiences, your content can make or break your course. And getting it right can deliver great benefits for your audience and your organization.
Here are five steps toward great online course content.
1. Take a look at your audience
Perhaps the most obvious – yet most important – step toward creating an online course is to consider your intended audience. Who will take this course? What do they want to learn? Do a bit of research on your target audience and get to know their interests, their pain points, and what the competition is offering them.
As the classic expression warns, don’t put the cart before the horse. You can’t build effective and engaging content for your online course without first understanding the needs of the people that will be taking it. By first developing your familiarity with your audience, you will set yourself on the right path for creating course content that truly resonates.
2. Complete a content audit
Like most organizations, you’ve likely put hours of time and effort into creating content like blogs, webinars, and webpages. And before you start creating new content, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at all that you’ve already produced.
Your older content provides a window into what your audience does and does not want to see. From your most successful blog post to your least viewed webinar, your previously shared ideas can tell you what to make more of and what to steer away from as you build more content.
And beyond these insights, much of your older content can be given new life through the course building process. A thorough content audit can help your organization to identify what you have, what you’re missing, and what you can refresh and repurpose. This helps you to save time and money on building new content from scratch, all while ensuring you focus on relevant and engaging topics.
Get started by scheduling a free content audit for your organization.
3. Choose an effective delivery method
Your course content is only as effective as its delivery method. Regardless of how valuable the information you have to share, your audience has to want to engage with it in order to receive its benefits.
With this in mind, choosing the right delivery method is critical to the success of your content. Whether it’s an asynchronous video, a hands-on activity, or a live lesson, choosing what’s right for your audience and for the topics you’re teaching is the best way to ensure your content will be well-received and keep learners coming back for more.
4. Establish clear learning outcomes
To put it simply, the purpose of your course content is to pass on knowledge to learners. Identifying clear and measurable outcomes of completing your course is an important step in guiding the content creation process.
Once you have determined what it is that you want learners to take away from the course, you can then decide what content to include to help achieve that outcome. And by clearly defining what your learners should understand by completing your course, you set parameters that clearly guide its structure and content.
5. Tell a story
Great content will help your audience to understand what they should be learning, why it’s important, and how to apply it to their life or work. Without each of those messages, the significance of your material is ill-defined and unlikely to be understood.
Like any good story, your content should leave learners inspired and ready for more. Whether it’s through personal narratives, success stories, or other examples, communicating the importance of your message is critical to ensuring your learners are kept engaged and excited about your content.
Educating with Allarium
Great content delivers undeniable results for organizations. If you’re ready to build effective and engaging course content for your audience, Allarium can help. With demonstrated expertise in course creation, content development, and corporate education, Allarium has the tools to get your organization on the path to ongoing success.
Contact us today to learn more about the steps to build out your own custom eLearning experience.
