Online courses have become an incredible way for students and professionals to advance their education or professional development. However, for educators teaching an online course requires different methods. Moreover, it can be daunting when they need to prepare new online courses. Many instructors ready to get started may ask themselves how to design an online course. Well, there is no exact way on how to design an effective online course. But to make the course engaging, there are a few simple strategies to follow. Here in this article, we will walk you through five strategies to design a successful online course.
In this article
Part 1. 5 expert strategies to design an online course
- Identify learning objectives and topics.
- Make the structure of the course clear and consistent.
- Make use of advanced multimedia tools.
- Add interactive activities.
- Deliver personalized feedback.
1. Identify learning objectives and topics.
Designing an efficient and effective course takes time. You require a dedicated constructive and uninterrupted time to plan, design, and build. To ensure success with your online course, first, identify the learning objectives and topics. The learning objectives help you clearly express what learners will be able to accomplish with your course. When developing the course, you must display more targeted micro-goals for specific modules. It helps make the learning expectations clear and allows the educators to focus on lesson content.
Identifying a topic for an online course is essential. For this, you need to know your audience, what type of topic the audience likes, and add value to online learning. Once you have identified what your audience wants and settled for the topic, research it. Look at the similar existing course and content, think about what learners want to know about the chosen topic, and what gaps you can fill.
2. Make the structure of the course clear and consistent.
Often when creating an online course, you might have a lot of information to put in to create a great learning environment. However, to create an intentionally inviting online environment for the learners, the course must have a clear and consistent structure with intuitive navigation. The online courses have different modules, ensuring that each one has a similar form. The reading materials, assignments, collaborative opportunities, and tasks should always be in a similar location and format.
Additionally, each module should look similar, with updated content and learning outcomes. The course design plays a huge role in usability and learners' success. So, ensure to keep the structure of the course clear and consistent.
3. Make use of advanced multimedia tools.
Nowadays, we have various advanced multimedia tools at our disposal. These tools help create a virtual learning environment that allows us to connect and engage with each other. A recording app, video editor, image tool, and Wondershare UniConverter are few tools' educators can use to create online courses in minutes.
We recommend you use UniConverter as it has various features to make your online courses more interactive and better. You can show distance learning PowerPoint, record student presentations, and permit students to learn anytime and anywhere. Also, edit student videos for sharing and get online learning videos for free. It is your one-stop tool to make videos easy to use for your online courses.
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4. Add interactive activities.
Classroom-based training programs have their advantages. You can bring many students or employees together in a physical space and have them learn together. However, the experience might lack interactivity and quite frankly become a bit boring. When deciding how to design online training courses, you must be aware of the different principles of adult learning and preferences. Also, know how to deliver your training engagingly and interactively. Lucky, there is an entire toolbox of interactive tools like Piazza and VoiceThread at your disposal to add interactive activities to your training course.
You can play audio clips and videos to engage the learners. Another way to spice up the lesson and ensure students are engaged is to include live quizzes, invite learners to contribute, and encourage peer evaluation. Also, you can permit learners to select the topics and units. It allows them to pick out relevant content and become engaged in the program. You can then guide them along the learning path with recommendations if necessary.
5. Deliver personalized feedback.
When you deliver an online course, giving learners feedback is crucial for both education and motivation. Personalized feedback allows the learners to know why their answers were right or wrong. DropThought is a helpful platform for teachers to provides instant feedback to students.
Tapping learning objectives into a real-world scenario of the learner's actions deliver context and makes learning more meaningful. If your learners are professionals, make your point by showing them the consequences and allow them to find out what they did wrong. Give them another chance before you provide personalized feedback.
Part 2. How to record and edit your online course?
With Wondershare UniConverter, you can easily record and edit your online course. You can record student presentations & assessments, show distance learning PowerPoint clearly, edit study videos, and more.
Here is a step-by-step guide to record an online course and edit it using UniConverter.
Step 1 Launch UniConverter Screen Recorder.
Download and install the UniConverter tool on your PC. Navigate to the left pane and click the Screen Recorder. After that, tap the Screen Recorder icon.
Step 2 Start recording the online course.
Keep your script ready and launch the program. In the recording window, you will see various settings that you can configure as per your needs. The Screen button enables you to choose between recording the entire screen or a customized section.
UniConverter allows you to record Webcam and high-quality audio without any background noise. With the Audio section, you can capture the sound of the streaming video you want to record. If you want to add your own voice to the recording, set the Microphone option to Capture. The Camera tab allows you to record webcam footage.
When all the settings are as per the needs, click on the REC button to record your online course.
Step 3 Edit the course video further.
UniConverter also offers you various editing features. When the recording is complete, add the recorded video to the editing list to make the required changes. You can add annotations, auto reframe, change video background with AI, and smartly trim the video. Also, add subtitles to the recording, and add a watermark to personalize your recorded course.
Step 4 Save and export the video.
Once you have made the changes to your recording, save the changes, and share the video with your class.
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Part 3. Conclusion
Using the strategies mentioned in the article helps the instructors design great online courses. However, you must pay attention to the needs of your students and build a plan covering how to reach them most efficiently. Also, there are various tools to help you with designing, recording, and editing the online course. Wondershare UniConverter is the most effective and has many features to help you.
