How long should your online course be? It’s one of the many questions new course creators ask themselves, so I thought it would be a great subject for a video!
But this one was going to be a video with a difference because it was my first ‘proper’ live video where I shared some useful content. My previous ones have been quick tests to see how it all works. Here it is:
If you prefer to watch this on YouTube, the link is here.
My Facebook page is Facebook.com/totallycourses if you’d like to follow me? I will be doing more live videos because my reach from this one is pretty good compared to the reach I typically get for my page posts. It’s well worth exploring Facebook Live if you feel brave enough.
Here are the key points from the video:
- How long should your course be? As long as it needs to be to deliver the outcomes your students want. (See my video for examples)
- If it’s your first course, keep it short, say around half an hour. Narrow down the subject of the course so your students can achieve a useful objective in that time e.g. instead of ‘how to bake cakes’ teach them how to make a specific type of cake. Even better, design the course to solve a common problem that your students or clients already have.
- Check the rules or constraints of the platform, if you’re using one. E.g. Udemy strongly recommends courses should be a minimum of an hour long.
- I also give a very simple course outline you can use to structure your course content.
Hope that’s helpful, please do let me know if you have any suggestions for videos!