Are you a representative of a company looking to move your organization’s in-person trainings to an online platform? Are you an educator looking to offer online courses in your area of study, potentially to deliver CE or CME credit to learners? Are you a subject expert who brings to the table a lifetime of expertise and is looking to share those niche skills with an interested audience?

If you fit any of these above cases, or not, chances are you came here to better understand how to get started with creating online courses. Have no fear! It may seem daunting now, but soon you will be an expert in creating an online course.

Before Creating an Online Course, Choose an LMS

LMS stands for learning management system. A learning management system (LMS) is an online learning platform in which you can create and deliver online courses to interested learners.  It is recommended that you first have one of the best LMS platforms for your online course needs before you decide to create your course. In considering an LMS, ensure the following:

• The LMS is easy to use with intuitive interfaces for both course creators and learners.
• The LMS supports multi-device compatibility so students can access courses on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices from anywhere.
• The LMS can support the types of files you want in your online course–be it videos, webinars, PowerPoint, or any other file types.
• The LMS subscription is within your budget and can properly support your volume of learners.

There are hundreds of LMS platforms, so do your due diligence before selecting one. One easy- to-use LMS is CertCentral. CertCentral’s subscriptions grow with you as your educational needs increase and integrates with Stripe (an online payment processor) to offer efficient eCommerce between course creators and learners. CertCentral, like many other LMS platforms, offers a free trial which can allow you to explore the platform without any commitment for a subscription.

After selecting your LMS, now you can begin on your journey to create your online course.

Step 1: Research Your Online Course Topic

To have a successful and profitable course, you have to ensure that the knowledge you share is relevant and unique. Engage learners in a way no one else has before by researching your topic and providing a unique spin on what is already out there–maybe even take a few online courses on a similar topic to yours to get an idea of what is engaging your target audience.

To create a strong online course, it also helps to understand the desires of your learners. What would motivate them to take your course as opposed to others? What specific knowledge do they desire, and what mode of delivery peaks their interest? Is it a webinar format, self-paced learning, or another means of social learning?

Once you have a firm understanding of your topic and your audience, now it is time for step 2.  

Step 2: Begin Outlining Your Course

Having an outline prior to creating an online course is imperative. Map out your course to have a better understanding of how you would like concepts to be introduced and built upon in order to yield the strongest learning outcomes.

As you create your outline include links to your digitized materials: be they readings, videos, charts, and other multimedia. Including these educational materials in your outline will help you understand which concepts lack examples and which do not.

Once you have your outline, begin importing your online materials.

Step 3: Start Building Your Online Course

Now that you know the order in which you would like your ideas to be presented, now you can begin building your course by incorporating those materials into a course on your LMS platform of choice.  First, name each module–or chapter of your course–and then begin building the content of each of those modules.

Save yourself enough time to incorporate these materials, especially if you have video lectures that are hours long. These bigger files take time to upload to ensure high video quality for learners.

Once all materials have been properly uploaded, automated scoring settings have been set, and any other settings have been put in place, you should move on to step 4.

Step 4: Pilot your Online Course and Revise

Try delivering your course to a small sample of students who fit the criteria of your target audience using your LMS platform. If you can, offer an incentive to appeal to a larger sample size.

Once students take your online course, send a brief survey where students have the opportunity to provide you with feedback on your online program and the online platform with which you delivered that online program.

Read that feedback thoroughly and revise your online course accordingly.

Step 5: Advertise Your Course and Sell It

Now that you have built your online program, now it is time to advertise your online course to larger audiences! Create advertisements on google, blog about your course, and successfully drive traffic to your website.

Then, interested learners can begin paying for your course and can start their learning journey!