How to create course content

In today’s day and age content is key to nearly anything online. This post takes you through how to create course content.

Online course content can be overwhelming to develop. It’s not just one piece of information but a lot of separate pieces that are all aimed at teaching people a particular set of skills. 

There are many mediums to create content in, anywhere from text to audio, video and multimedia interactions but creating the actual course content is where most people get stuck.

Many help sites and courses tell you what to do with your content, how to market it, where and how to host it, how to upload it onto a website or LMS but you still need to have actual content to start with.

Here are FIVE easy steps that show you how to create course content.

1.       You need a clear course topic and course aim

Your course topic and your course aim are intricately connected. The aim is what you want learners to achieve, which means that the aim is the overall point of the course. The topic of your course is basically a reframed aim.

Brainstorm, the best way to come up with your course aim is to undertake a massive brainstorm, or a few brainstorms on similar topics.

This brainstorm will help define your purpose and what you want people to learn. Write this down and keep refining it. Don’t be concerned if this changes as you develop your content.

2.       Create clear steps that reach the course aim

This is where you need to disseminate the content into steps that all reach the course aim. Here is where you start getting into your content creation.

Plan out a clear pathway that students will take to get to the final goal. For example, to make a cup of tea you have to boil water, measure out tea, put tea leaves into a teapot, etc.

3.       Write information for each step

You need to now write, or record if you’re not a keen writer, the information for each step. This written content does not have to be your course content, although it is good to provide students with an option to read content.

This information can then be used for a script or for a visual representation that includes images or video.

4.       Use the written information as a base for visual, recorded or interactive scenarios

From this base information you can re-structure to read as a script for a video, or put into bullet points and then read from the bullet points. You can video using your webcam and built in microphone or a more complex set up. It depends on your need and your tech ability. To start with just use what you have available on your computer or phone.

Using recording tools you can screencast or video yourself as a talking head.

For animations and interactive scenarios you can use other, usually paid, tools. You need to work with your written content to create a story or scenario that can be put into an animation or explainer video.

Power Point is also a good option as it can be saved as a video file. This allows you to use audio and text to help get your point across. PowerPoint can also be used quite creatively with animated characters.

5.       Save your content to an LMS or website for delivery

You can deliver content as a video or text or another file format (SCORM, HTML) but initially you need to have taken these basic steps to plan and create your content.

Your content can then be uploaded to a website, LMS or even an email series to then be delivered to your learners. There are many ways to deliver learning online so don’t be restricted to just one. See this article on ‘Do you really need an LMS’ for ideas on ways to deliver your course.

Following these steps on how to create course content will guide you in the right direction. It does take time to create an online course so you need to put aside other tasks and really commit time to develop your content. The best advice is to stick with your goals and envisign the end result so that you do get to the point where you have really good course content ready to upload to your delivery platform.