How to create and conduct remote lessons | A comprehensive guide!

Online learning has recently become a fast-growing and very profitable industry. Thanks to the capabilities of modern technologies, such a business is easy to start with minimal investment. At the same time, the amount of income from it can reach six figures or even more.

According to experts, the online education market is expected to grow to $300 billion by 2025. This means now is the perfect time to join the e-learning industry. Your own course can bring fixed passive income or become a new source of permanent profit.

💡 How to Create an Online Course: Introduction

First off, you need to answer several vital questions to run a career in this profitable business. You have to:

• decide what you want to share with others and why doing it online is the best way to accomplish it;
• choose a course topic;
• analyze whether your course will be profitable;
• think of your sales strategy;
• figure out how to conduct classes remotely.

This article provides answers to the mentioned questions with detailed instructions.

📚 First Steps: Defining the Goals And Objectives of Distance Learning

Before creating online classes, you need to know the course's purpose and target audience. Make sure to evaluate your knowledge and experience because every person has unique skills that others can benefit from.

№1 Goals, Assignments, and Actions

Always remember that you teach people something useful. It is your business's responsibility. If you still don't know what you are good at, try to recall what people ask you about most frequently.

The purpose of training is the course's basis. It would be best if you defined this purpose at the planning stage. Usually, it is general information about concepts students will learn and skills they will obtain. The goal helps set the work's direction and allows the teacher to understand how to make online classes most effective. In turn, students learn what they will achieve upon completing the course.

You can try building an entire and logical sequence of the course's stages, assignments, and evaluation methods. The course's purpose should be more general and long-term. On the contrary, the assignments should be short-term and more specific.

№2 Criteria For the Effectiveness of Online Classes

A good course always meets the following criteria:

1. It solves problems;
2. It teaches something new;
3. It helps achieve goals.

It is necessary to convey the course's objectives to students to link them to their focal goal.

№3 The Most Common Forms of Conducting Online Classes

	Name	Definition	Application Field	Success Factors
1	Master Class	This is a short author's course conducted by an expert in a specific field to teach students certain skills.	Music, painting, cooking, writing, acting, sports, dance, fashion, etc.	The ability of the master to interact with the audience; the students’ ability to solve complex problems during the course; receiving instant feedback.
2	Coaching	A course for achieving personal or professional goals, where the teacher or mentor, i.e., the coach, supports the student by working with the latter one-to-one.	A course for achieving personal or professional goals, where the teacher or mentor, i.e., the coach, supports the student by working with the latter one-to-one.	Professional experience of the coach, communicative skills, such as purposeful repetition, active listening, explanation, and leading questions, help the student choose a strategy for achieving the goal.
3	Massive open online courses (MOOC)	An accessible and affordable online course aimed at training a large number of participants. In addition to educational materials, students receive professional support from competent people.	Formal Sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Programming), Humanities, Business, Technology.	An open online course can become an alternative to traditional education. It can also make higher education more accessible. Flexible schedule, constant development, online support. A comprehensive evaluation system.
4	Corporate training	It is usually held for training and retraining the company's employees. The goal is to find qualified specialists.	Services, Marketing and Sales, Healthcare, Administration, Management, Production, Personnel Management.	Continuous professional education of employees, advanced training, and retraining for the necessary fields. Issuing certificates confirming the knowledge.
5	Mini-Course	A short online course lasting from 30 minutes to 2 hours. It is usually used for advertising purposes, for market research. It does not require large investments.	Any field of professional knowledge.	It helps accurately identify and “nurture” an online audience. A great tool for beginners. It saves time and allows the owner to predict sales of other courses.
6	Software academies	A course from software developers or cloud services teaching how to use a particular product correctly.	Any software and services (SaaS).	Training people allows the owner to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It helps users solve problems and employ the product more effectively.

Once you decide on the purpose and form of training, you can proceed to the next stage.

👀 Choosing the Topic for Classes and Teaching Methods, Searching For a Speaker

The course structure is built after setting goals and objectives. When you decide on the main topic, many additional ideas might come to your mind. Make sure to write them down and divide them into smaller sub-topics. Then structure and group them by subject and content.

№4 Class Structure

For example, you can use the following template:

“The course's curriculum”

(Course subject)

- Main topic 1

–– Sub-topic 1

–– Sub-topic 2

–– Sub-topic 3

№5 Choosing Learning Methods

Before performing online classes, you need to enlist several steps that students must complete to acquire the skill. Every task of the course must comprise these steps. Some assignments may require completing more actions; others, in turn, fewer. However, there shouldn't be more than twelve of such steps. It is essential to include them in every task, as they are taken into account when constructing the curriculum.

Distance learning can have the following learning techniques:

1. Small victories: Simple tasks that give users confidence and steadily improve their skills.
2. Expanding expertise area:Moving from simple to complex, students enhance their knowledge of their already familiar topics.
3. Active learning:Those who take the courses should make an effort and complete different exercises to understand the tutorial video.

№6 A Specific Topic For a Speaker or Vice Versa?

In an online learning system, the importance of choosing a speaker and their qualities vary depending on the form of training. The speaker's expertise, experience, communication skills, and charisma play a pivotal role in conducting online classes or coaching. The topic also depends on the speaker's capabilities and knowledge.

It is crucial to be proficient in the subject and know the company's peculiarities for open and corporate classes. For a course on a particular product, only the necessary knowledge and the ability to convey it is important. That is why speakers are invited based on concrete requests.

💵 How to Conduct Remote Classes via the Internet With Maximum Profit

It is necessary to determine how interaction with students will be organized initially. Many ways should be considered. Among them are: Sending invitations;Receiving feedback; Accepting payments;Issuing graduation documents; Engaging in various interactive processes.

You should also think about monetizing classes. Basically, you have two options. You can create a free course to attract subscribers and increase the loyalty of the target audience.Or you can plan to design a program immediately for sale. Suppose you focus on making a commercialized course. In that case, you need to create a strategy so that the right people can find and purchase/subscribe for the course.

№7 Identifying the Target Audience (TA)

Potential consumers of the content presented in the classroom are people who have a specific set of qualities. They should be studied as thoroughly as possible: age and gender composition, marital status, geography, interests.

It will be useful to divide potential customers into groups based on these criteria: this process is called Market Segmentation. Doing that will help identify the most pertinent part of the target audience with the highest purchasing power.

№8 What Does a Potential Customer Look Like?

It is recommended to create a portrait of such a client and describe in as much detail as possible who they live with, what they dream about, where they work, how their day goes, and what problems they encounter. All this will help choose the most relevant topic and correctly present classes to the target audience in the future.

It will also be useful to know at what time and from what devices users access the Internet and which social networks they are more likely to visit. Knowing this information will help plan an advertising campaign.

№9 Social Media Selection and Ad Settings

Every social network requires planning and configuring a unique advertising campaign. Instagram, Facebook and Google AdWords are the most popular ones.

Contextual advertising is the most sought-after targeted advertising method. It is displayed by keywords in the user's search query. Native advertising embedded in the environment is also gaining popularity. For example, an ad can mention the proposed product in an informative, relevant article or blogger's post. A naturally embedded commercial in an article about how you can conduct classes online will also do well.

You can perform market analysis manually or employ special tools, both free and paid. Alternatively, you may use particular services or turn to a marketing specialist or SMM manager.

🔧 How To Conduct Classes Online: Technical Questions

Building your own training course is a creative and unique process that requires time.

№10 Preparing Training Materials

The more ready-made materials (content) you have, the less time it will take you to coin a full-fledged course. Having the following materials will significantly reduce the time spent on an entire program:

• Recorded videos;
• PDF files;
• Quizzes and tests;
• Certificates;
• Landing pages.

If you have training materials at your disposal, you can create classes in just 2 weeks, working several hours a day. Creation costs can vary and reach thousands of dollars. It all depends on expenses, used services, and hiring expert people, such as professional video recording staff, designing team, etc.

№11 Organization and Schedule

There is no one-size-fits-all way to organize remote learning. Every created course is exclusive. However, all of them utilize educational platforms to reach the audience. The owner's task is to choose the most convenient platform in terms of cost and functionality and provide technical support for continuous and high-quality interaction.

One of the critical factors for the course's success is its flexibility and accessibility.

Courses can be:

1. Self-paced: The student chooses a convenient time for classes.
2. Modular: Training is divided into topics (modules); the student can start with any of them, then move on to the next one;
3. Traditional: Similar in structure to the academic semester with midterms and final examinations.

After completing the training and finishing all tasks, a final test, quiz, or other knowledge assessment is conducted. Then a certificate of completion is issued: in electronic or paper form (in this case, the document is sent by post or e-mail).

№12 Technical Features

Online learning must include interactive components, for instance, collective or group work, tests and home assignments, discussions in chats, forums, and video conferences. Also, it is imperative to know how to organize a productive webinar that can compete with others.

How to conduct online classes most effectively? Utilizing this list of cutting-edge technology is unavoidable:

1. Video conferences, using software for individual and group communication. This can be Skype, ZOOM, Webex, Google Hangouts, and alike. To maintain good communication quality, you need a high data transfer rate.
2. “Smart” 360° camera for creating an interactive classroom effect.
3. Learning management systems (LMS) allow you to collect all course materials in one place and enable students to access them.
4. A platform for planning and configuring class schedules.
5. Various useful services for students to help with their studies.
6. A personal and easy-to-access library of training resources.
7. Employment counseling and assistance: communication with employers who are ready to hire young professionals to serve internships.

🏁 Recap

? Recap To conduct a remote class as efficiently and profitably as possible, you need to:

1. Set a clear goal and objective;
2. Choose a topic, course form, and find a suitable speaker;
3. Identify and segment your target audience, create an advertising campaign plan;
4. Resolve technical aspects;
5. Optimize your ad campaigns.

If you follow the correct procedure, have a positive attitude, and work hard, everything will work out!

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

• How much can I earn from online courses?

• It all depends on the invested funds and the scale of training. Income ranges from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars. At the same time, each subsequent course brings more profit, as grateful students leave feedback and bring their friends.

• What do I lose if I fail?

• Absolutely nothing, since most of the services for creating and organizing courses are freely available. You won't even waste your time because you'll gain practical experience at the end of the day.

• Where can I find good specialists and the necessary software?

• On freelance web pages and relevant sites, through friends, and at specialized conferences. All the necessary software is available on the web and can be found with just a few clicks.

• Which platform is better to choose?

• The best way to find a platform is to read reviews, ratings, use the trial period, and test the capabilities of each service.