The process of creating an online course can be overwhelming. There are many factors to consider and steps to take to ensure your course is well-designed, engaging, and effective.
To help you stay organized and on track during the creation process, we have put together a comprehensive online course creation checklist for 2024 🤓
Summary
- Benefits of an online course creation checklist
- Professional checklist for online course creation
- How Blue Carrot can help your business
Benefits of an online course creation checklist
Creating an online course involves many moving pieces. You have to think about the content of the course, the intended audience, how you’ll market it, your pricing strategy, and much more. It’s a bit overwhelming, to be sure.
An online course creation checklist keeps you organized and ensures you take all the important steps in the process. It can also serve as a guide to help you stay on track with your timeline and goals.
This checklist to create an online course works for all types of courses, including large, complicated ones, and smaller, simpler ones. It provides a structure for you to follow no matter what type of course you are creating.
Not sure how to get started with your online course? Read our in-depth guide on how to create an online course.
Professional checklist for online course creation
Use the following checklist for course creation to ensure your process goes smoothly and without any miscues.
1. Course planning and research
The starting point for creating an online course is planning and research. If you start creating your course materials without doing sufficient planning and research, your course won’t be nearly as effective.
📌 Define objectives
Start by defining your learning outcomes and objectives. What do you want your students to learn? What skills should they come away with? What will your students know after taking your course if everything goes as planned? Answering these questions can clarify what you are trying to achieve with your online course.
Learning objectives example:
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Understand the fundamental concepts of Quantum Computing, emphasizing how it differs from traditional computing methods.
- Recognize the potential impact of Quantum Computing on career opportunities and business models over the next 5 years.
- Identify current real-world applications of Quantum Computing.
📌 Identify target audience
You need to know who you’re trying to reach with your online course. Who is your target audience? What are their pain points and needs? Understanding your target audience will help shape the content and delivery of your course.
Your goal is to get as much clarity as possible regarding who your target audience is and what they want.
📌 Conduct market research
Spend some time researching other courses that are similar to the one you’re planning to create. Take note of what works well and what doesn’t work so well. This will help you understand the competitive landscape and give you ideas for differentiating your course.
📌 Outline course structure
Develop a clear course outline, breaking the content into modules and lessons within those modules. Consider what content should be covered in each module and how it should flow for the best learning experience. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure all necessary topics are covered.
Make sure individual lessons aren’t too long/large, as this might cause learners to tune out or drop off during the lesson. In our experience, lessons should be no longer than 10 – 15 minutes and only cover one topic.
2. Content development
Once you have thoroughly researched and planned your course, it’s time to start creating it.
📌 Create a detailed syllabus
A syllabus serves as a roadmap for your course. It outlines the topics you’ll cover, the learning objectives, and any assignments or assessments students can expect. A detailed syllabus helps students understand what to expect from the course and how they will be evaluated.
📌 Plan visual content
Your online course will likely contain at least some visual materials, like videos, infographics, etc. Your video content should clearly convey the topic at hand and be visually engaging. It should be high-quality and professional-looking.
Infographics and other visual aids can help break up text-heavy content and make it more engaging for your students.
📌 Write content
Be comprehensive when creating the content for your course. Giving your students too much content rather than too little is better. As long as the content is broken down appropriately, your students shouldn’t have trouble processing extra content.
The best courses contain a variety of content, including text, videos, worksheets, handouts, technical tasks, etc.
📌 Develop assessments
Assessments like quizzes and assignments serve several functions. They help your students better process and remember the information in your course. They also help your learners gauge their progress in the course. Additionally, they give you a sense of how much your students are learning from your course.
If you see numerous learners not doing well on quizzes and assignments, it might be a sign that your materials aren’t clear or thorough enough.
📌 Include practical applications
As much as possible, you want to make your course practical. You want your students to be able to connect what they learn in your course to the real problems in their lives.
Incorporate real-world examples throughout the lessons. Give your students case studies to review or assign them projects based on the contents of your online course. This will help them apply their knowledge and make the material more relatable.
📌 Plan interactive elements
Adding interactive elements to your course can make it significantly more engaging and help your students understand the materials they’re learning more thoroughly. Have discussions about the various subjects in the course or include polls at strategic learning points.
📌 Peer review
Don’t finish the content development process without getting a second set of eyes on it. Have a friend or colleague review your course for errors, accuracy, and value. Take to heart any constructive feedback they provide and try to implement it in your course.
3. Multimedia and visual design
Your multimedia content (images, videos, audio files) requires as much careful consideration as the written content in your online course.
📌 Produce content
The first step is to record and edit all the instructional videos used in the course. Generally speaking, you have three options when it comes to video production:
- Live recordings;
- Animated;
- Synthetic videos;
You undoubtedly know what live and animated videos are, but what are synthetic videos? Synthetic videos are produced by AI and can look just as real as live recordings.
For example, with Synthesia, you can create an AI presenter from nothing more than text. If you need to create a large number of videos or are uncomfortable in front of the camera, synthetic videos can be a great option.
📌 Ensure accessibility
When you create your online course, it is important to keep accessibility in mind. This means ensuring that the content can be accessed and understood by people with disabilities. For example:
- Closed captions to videos for those who are deaf or hard of hearing;
- Transcripts for audio files;
- Alt text for images so that screen readers can describe them for visually impaired students.
📌 Consistency in design
As much as possible, maintain a consistent design across all your course materials. This helps students feel comfortable navigating the course and makes it easy to find what they need.
- Use a consistent color scheme;
- Use standard formatting for text;
- Create templates for slideshows, handouts, assignments, etc.
Consistency also applies to multimedia elements, like images and videos. Ensure they’re all of similar quality and style so they don’t look out of place or confusing for students.
4. Platform and technology setup
Once you’ve created your content, you need to get the technology in place to deliver that content to students. Thankfully, there is no shortage of platforms available to help you when it’s time to make your course platform selection.
📌 Choose a Learning Management System (LMS)
Source: Your Guided Tour of the Absorb LMS Learner Experience | Absorb Software, 2024
An LMS will be the primary way you get your content to your students. A good LMS allows you to create modules, attach extras like worksheets, host discussions, and more. Ideally, your LMS should also allow you to take payments (assuming you’re charging for your course).
Some of the most popular LMS include:
- Teachable;
- Thinkific;
- Kajabi;
- WordPress with Thrive Theme.
📌 Upload content
This point of the online course creation checklist is self-explanatory. Once you’ve selected an LMS, upload all your content to it. This includes videos, audio, worksheets, assignments, etc. If you need to create content directly within the LMS, such as polls, do that now as well.
📌 Set up user navigation
Your course should be straightforward to navigate. If not, your students will get confused and make mistakes, such as doing the modules out of order. If they make mistakes, they’re more likely to get frustrated and drop out.
Ensure every item in your online course is easy to access, requiring no more than a few clicks to get to.
📌 Integrate tools
If you’re using additional tools or plugins other than your core LMS, now is the time to integrate them. Make sure all the tools work properly every time.
📌 Test functionality
Before launching your course, make sure to test its functionality. This includes watching videos, completing assignments, taking quizzes, and any other activities that students must do within the course. Test on multiple devices and browsers to ensure everything works as intended.
5. Review and quality assurance
Once your tech stack has been created and content uploaded, you need to do a final review for quality assurance. This is where you review your course with a fine tooth comb, looking for any mistakes.
📌 Check for consistency
Go through your course materials and take a close look at your terminology, style, and tone. Do you use them consistently throughout your course? Consistency is key in ensuring students understand your content and aren’t confused.
📌 Final proofreading
Check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors throughout the course. These mistakes can make your course look unprofessional and may confuse students. It’s important to take the time to proofread and correct any errors.
📌 User testing
Ideally, you should test your course with a small group of users before you launch online courses. These users can give you valuable feedback about the functionality and usability of your course. They can help you spot any errors and provide insight into any areas lacking clarity.
📌 Edit and revise
Your user testing will almost certainly reveal areas of your course that need to be revised. There may be modules that don’t flow well together. A user may discover a factual error. Some of the content may be unclear. Take the feedback from your test users and use it to revise and strengthen your online course.
6. Course launch preparation
There are just a few steps left before you launch your course. These final steps help ensure a smooth launch and set you up for post-launch success. Here are the next steps in the online course launch checklist
📌 Create a marketing plan
Before you launch, you need to consider how you will market your course. You need to consider what promotional channels you’ll use, what your messaging will be, and how you’ll target your audience.
Don’t underestimate the importance of marketing in selling your course. You can have the best course in the world, but if no one knows about it, you won’t see any students.
📌 Prepare support materials
Students and potential students will undoubtedly have questions as they explore your course. To support these individuals, develop FAQs, guides, a knowledge database, etc. Also, make sure to provide the contact information for support.
📌 Set up enrollment
Most Learning Management Systems have an enrollment process built into them, including accepting payments. If your particular platform does not, you’ll need to create a method for accepting payments and enrolling students.
📌 Schedule launch
Pick a firm launch date when you will debut your course. Then, create a timeline leading up to that launch date for activities that must be done prior to launching. This helps keep you on schedule and accountable to launch your course on time.
📌 Announce course
Once your course is live, it’s time to promote it like crazy. Announce it across every channel you have access to. To generate buzz, promote the benefits of the course and how it will help solve the most significant issues your students have. Also, consider sharing early positive reviews of your course to show potential students how valuable your course is.
7. Post-launch activities
You’re not done even after you launch your course. There is the post-launch evaluation. There are several activities you should engage in to make your course even better. Here is your post-launch checklist.
📌 Monitor engagement
Keep a close eye on how users engage with your course materials. Watch for any parts of your course where users drop out or stop engaging. This can indicate areas that may need improvement or additional support.
📌 Collect feedback
Continuously gather feedback from your students and use it to improve your course. Take the constructive criticism you receive and integrate it into your course. Doing this will ensure that your course is constantly getting better.
📌 Provide support
It’s essential you provide support to your students. Answer their questions in a timely fashion. Help them overcome any issues they encounter. The more support you provide, the fewer refund requests you’ll get and the more positive reviews you’ll receive.
📌 Update content
Over time, some of the information in your course will undoubtedly become outdated. This is why it’s so important to update the contents of your course regularly. By keeping all the contents up to date, you ensure your course stays relevant to both current and potential students.
📌 Localize to different languages
Depending on the scope of your course, you can localize it to appeal to students from different regions. This can help widen your audience and make your course accessible to non-English speakers.
For example, in this case study, we were able to localize a huge amount of learning materials, allowing students in multiple regions to learn in their native languages. We achieved this through a combination of AI and highly trained linguistic teams.
8. Continuous improvement
The next section of the online course development checklist focuses on continuous improvement. Your goal should be to keep improving your course so it never stops improving. This will ensure that it is always appealing to potential students.
📌 Analyze performance
It’s important to track and analyze the performance of your course against your learning objectives. Use metrics such as completion rates, engagement levels, and student feedback to assess how well your course meets its objectives.
📌 Iterate based on feedback
Feedback from students is invaluable. It can help you identify areas for improvement and make necessary changes to your course. Encourage students to provide feedback through surveys or discussion forums, and use this feedback to iterate and improve upon your course content.
📌 Engage with learners
Finally, remember to engage with your learners. This can be through Q&A sessions, live webinars, or even just responding to comments and questions in discussion forums. By engaging with your students, you show you care about their learning experience and are willing to help them succeed.
How Blue Carrot can help your business
Hopefully, this checklist to building an online course has demonstrated how valuable courses can be for your business. Creating an online course may seem daunting, so contact Blue Carrot. We specialize in creating engaging, personalized learning courses.
For example, we helped the United Nations Population Fund develop a robust course that covered a sensitive subject (domestic abuse).
We faced a number of challenges when undertaking the project. Discussing subjects like domestic abuse and establishing healthy relationships is highly sensitive and personal. Additionally, learners taking the training come from diverse situations with different relationship dynamics. Finally, participants aren’t required to take the course, so it was essential that we create highly engaging course content.
To conquer these challenges, we started with an introductory test in which learners take a short assessment to determine a custom learning path. From there, we structured the course around independent modules, which could be used separately to form individual learning paths based on the initial test. Finally, we used key graphic design elements and wording in the material to create a learning environment that reflected safety and trust.
As a result, we produced a high-quality course with a pleasant aesthetic tailored to the intended audience. The course contains three chapters with 12 learning paths and can be completed in about 4.5 hours. It includes 220 slides with 40 interactive elements and 86 animated assets. Additionally, the outcome test contains 30 adaptive assessment questions.
At Blue Carrot, we use our instructional design and e-learning media development expertise to help you create high-quality, interactive courses that will keep your learners engaged and motivated.
We provide custom online course creation services to elevate your learners’ educational experiences. From curriculum creation to course release, we’ve got every step covered 🥕