Congratulations! You’ve been asked to create your first online course!

Online teaching has become not only super important (to our students and to anyone being taught locally and abroad), but online anything has found a place in our new world (Covid-19) and it’s not going anywhere.

Scary? Sure, but I’m going to help you – every step of the way. And maybe even show you how to enjoy the planning process.

Now, before we jump into the steps to course creation mastery, I’d like to deal with the emotions that are probably running through your head:

  • I can’t. I’ve never taught online.
  • I can’t. I’m not tech savvy.
  • I can’t. It will take a long time to get a course up and running.

Let’s go through each barrier in more detail – you’re not alone with these thoughts!

I can’t. I’ve never taught online.

One of the challenges right now is everyone is running head long into online learning with no training or background in the fundamentals. Why? Because we have to.

One of the things that I did when I started down this online journey, was take an online course. My first was a bachelors education degree online in political science. That was my undergrad. The lectures were 2.5 hours long and I stared at a screen watching a man talk about politics. Not engaging or fun, but I got my degree. Next, I took an online education master degree. So much better and it was tailored to what I wanted to learn about. Instructional Design. Sweet!

Here is a list of online education courses that I found:

  • early childhood special education certificate online
  • certificate in nursing education online
  • driver education course online

Although taking an online education course may be scary, do it. Take a course, help teach a course, watch an online course. And ask questions. Instructors love to chat about how they went about finding, understanding how to teach, and teaching their courses!

I can’t. I’m not tech-savvy.

OK, this will probably sound crazy, but play with the software that you are uncomfortable with. When I don’t know how to use a software application, like let’s say Word, I tend to click on all of the tools at the top, work through each menu item, and gulp! break the application! What?! Yes, the best way to learn something is to spend about 20 minutes working through the software and just learn as much as I can about the tool. Sure, Google the question about the software (always a good thing) but play, play, and play.

Don’t try to build anything yet. Give yourself some quality time with the software. The more time you spend with the software, the more you’ll understand it.

I can’t. It will take too long to get a course up and running.

Many people who teach online (and also in-class) struggle with creating courses for their students. For some instructors they are not sure what they are going to teach, for others they have a subject but don’t know how to break down the content into smaller, chunks of information. And then of course there is the creation of videos and instructional material for your students.

My advice? Start small. Very small. Take a look at your course and find one thing that you could move online. Just one. Look for items in your course such as readings or a discussion forum. Find items that if it broke or stopped working, it wouldn’t hinder you from teaching the course.

Yes, it can take a long time. It took me 3 years before my first online course was finished. By finished, I mean tweaked after posted, revised for grammatical errors, rewritten for plain language, accessibility enabled, and of course, gamification added to the course. Three long years. But the course now runs almost on auto-pilot. The course is fulsome and I can get back to my students with great answers to their questions. Without worrying about navigation, structure or viability. Long journey but worth it!

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