What are some of the most important elements of a successful course? Creating your own online course can be a great source of passive income. But how to make sure you actually create a course WORTH IT?!
Creating a successful online course has many important steps to it – from creating effective course curriculum to designing it in a way that is aligned and easy to learn from. However, along with that, also comes the user experience you need to consider as they will work through your offer.
Let’s review some of the most important elements of a successful online course – the little things that often are dismissed by course creators but will be appreciated by your course students.
The most important elements of a successful course
Successful online course ELEMENT no.1: Welcome your audience into the course and “show around”
Instead of hopping right to the content, make sure to do a Welcome section where you introduce your audience to all the most important questions and cover topics like:
- What can they expect in your course?
- How to work with it? (Should they follow the lesson sequence or can it be random? Is there Drip content coming up? etc)
- Share more about you and the background of the course, this can improve their learning experience as they relate to you and your background more
- Any important info they should know, tools to sign up for in advance, etc.
The Welcome section can be just one intro video or it can also be separated into several lessons within one Module. For example:
LESSON 1: Welcome lesson with a video from you
LESSON 2: Guides on how to use the course
LESSON 3: Overview of the experience and what they can expect
Providing this introduction will help your audience to get into the process more easily.
Make sure to also remind them about any action you want for them to take: to participate in your group, fill out the Worksheets, send in their questions or anything alike.
Successful online course ELEMENT no.2: Add interactive elements to keep your audience engaged
To keep your audience more engaged and entertained, think about several different interactive elements and various learning materials to add in the course.
Those can be Worksheets, to-do lists, roadmaps, all kinds of tasks and challenges for them. You can also give them “homework” if it’s a group setting and encourage them to share it with the group.
Many course platforms will also support adding quizzes and polls.
Choose the best fit for each lesson and improve your student learning experience by helping them to solidify the knowledge they receive.
Successful online course ELEMENT no.3: Create a support space
Even if your course is evergreen and doesn’t work in a group-setting, I’d suggest creating a community space for your audience.
Most course platforms support having a community space along with your course. These days, you can find this option on platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi.
However, if you’re using a course platform that doesn’t support a community space setting, you can consider adding the feature of Telegram group or having a Facebook group for all your students.
Having a support space won’t always mean that you have to actively participate in it – it can just give your audience the opportunity to connect with others on the same journey, share their progress and seek answers.
Successful online course ELEMENT no.4: Give your audience follow-up steps and guidance
What happens once your course is over? What can they do if they want to take the next step in this journey?
This is where you can offer 1:1 coaching, upsell another course or program. If you don’t have anything prepared just yet, make sure to think about this in the long run.
What would be their next step? And how can you be of help in this journey?
You can also give them additional discounts or special offers. But the goal is NOT to get them “hooked” on your assistance and won’t be able to thrive on their own. Instead, once again, we’re talking about giving them an opportunity to have this further support if they feel like that will be the right choice.
Successful online course ELEMENT no.5: Provide real-life samples for added inspiration
Adding samples or case studies as part of your course learning materials can motivate your course students to go through this experience even when it gets challenging.
Either those are samples from your client work or previous students, share the roadblocks they’ve overcome to inspire your current students to reach their goals.
Make sure to ask permission of your previous students/clients to use their samples or stories though!
What are some of the most important elements of a successful course that you could add to your digital products as well?!
Connect with me on Instagram @coursecreationlab
And for more insights, listen to the latest episodes of the Savvy Offer Hub podcast.
