Online Course Content Creation – How To Keep Students Engaged And Motivated
Are you struggling when it comes to online course content creation. What should you create that keeps your students engaged and motivated?
Hi Trish Davies here and the focus today is online course content creation. When creating a course, it’s important to keep in mind what you’re trying to achieve.
Is it to help your students achieve their learning goals? Or are you hoping to retain them and keep them engaged with your course?
There are a lot of factors that go into creating content for a course. You have to consider the length of each lesson and the learning objectives for each lesson.
Then the type of content you’re creating (text versus video, for example). Finally the methods you’re going to use to engage your students.
If you’re just getting started with creating online courses, you may not be even remotely sure where to begin. Read on to learn more about creating engaging, motivating content that keeps students engaged and on track.
Online Course Content Creation – Start By Understanding Your Audience
The first thing you need to do is identify your target audience. What kind of students are you trying to reach? Are they all over age 50, or are they millennials or Gen Z?
What else do you need to know about your students to best serve them? You also want to understand where your students are in their learning journey. Then you can create content that’s relevant and helpful to them.
Are they just starting out with their current project or goal? Or are they further along in the project or goal and are looking for more guidance?
Knowing this information about your students will help you create content that’s more relevant and helpful to them. It will also give you an idea of what content you can skip since it’s not relevant to your students just starting out.
Use Video Content
Content is king when it comes to creating online courses. In fact, content is the most important factor in creating a successful course. That’s why you’re reading this article, isn’t it?
So, let’s talk about video content. Video is one of the most engaging, memorable, and helpful types of content you can create.
In fact, a study by Nielsen found that 91% of online adults say they prefer to learn through video. That’s in comparison with just 7% who prefer to learn with written content.
In addition, 65% of those who prefer learning through video say it’s because videos are more engaging than text. That’s why it’s important to include video content whenever possible.
With video content, you can really take advantage of a number of different learning strategies including –
Visual-spacial learning – This type of learning relies heavily on images, diagrams, and diagrams to help students learn.
You can create visual-spacial learning by recording yourself doing a task so that you can use visuals like diagrams, sketches, and photos.
This will help your students understand what you’re doing.
Auditory learning – This type of learning relies heavily on audios to help students learn. You can create auditory learning by recording interviews with experts in your field.
Or with other industry leaders so that you can have your students hear what they need to learn first-hand.
Kinaesthetic learning – This type of learning relies heavily on movement to help students learn. You can create kinaesthetic learning by recording yourself doing a task and having your students watch.
This will help their brains and bodies to understand the content.
Keep Students Hooked With Active Learning
It’s important to keep your students engaged and on track with your course. It’s important to create engaging, motivating content that keeps your students engaged.
However it’s more important to keep the content engaging and on track so that your students don’t get bored.
One way to do this is to keep the number of lessons per unit manageable. Students tend to get bored when they have too much content to consume in too short of a time period.
To keep students engaged with your course, there are a few things you can do. First of all, don’t make each lesson too long.
Keep each lesson under 10 minutes so that students have time to absorb the content and don’t feel overwhelmed by the information.
Secondly, try to incorporate activities or exercises into your lessons. This can help to keep your students engaged and on track, especially if you incorporate a method like gamification.
Finally make sure to add a sense of purpose and motivation to your lessons. This can help to keep your students engaged in your course and engaged in their learning.
Create Summative Assignments
One of the best ways to keep your students engaged with your content is to create summative assignments. A summative assignment is when students have to complete an assessment to prove that they’ve learned certain content.
You can use summative assessments in a number of ways to help keep your students engaged and on track with your course.
For example, you can create a summative assignment when you’re creating an e-book for your course. A summative assignment could be to write a 1-2 page summary about the content you cover in your book.
This allows you to keep track of the content covered in your book and ensures that your students have to write something.
Another way you can use a summative assignment is in your virtual classroom. Create a course leader board that ranks your students based on their level of completion for each lesson in your course.
Use this leader board to keep track of your students’ summative assignments and ensure that they stay on track with their content.
Hook Students With A Strengths Finding Exercise
Another great way to keep your students engaged is to use a strengths finding exercise. You may not be able to find every student’s strengths in one sitting.
However you can use a strengths finding exercise to help your students discover strengths that they may not know they have.
Create an exercise that’s focused on one or two strengths. Then have your students explore these strengths with a project or assignment. This way, they’ll have something to work on while they discover their strengths.
Part of the beauty of a strengths finding exercise is the discovery. By having your students discover their strengths, you’re helping them to grow as individuals.
By creating an assignment that allows your students to discover their strengths, you’re helping them discover their potential. This is admirable and very empowering.
Online Course Content Creation – Use Interactive Content
Another great way to keep your students engaged with your content is to use interactive content. Interactive content is when you let your students choose how to complete a lesson.
This can be done in a number of ways. For example, you can let your students choose from a number of different activities or assignments to complete a lesson. Or you can let your students choose which content they’d like to learn next.
One of the advantages of interactive content is that it keeps your students engaged and on track. Instead of you telling them what to do and what to learn, you’re letting them choose.
This way, it’s more like peer-to-peer learning, which is much more engaging and helpful for your students.
Conclusion
Creating engaging, motivating content that keeps students engaged and on track is important. You want to make sure that the content you’re creating is helpful, relevant, and engaging for your students.
One of the best ways to do this is by using video content, keeping your students engaged with active learning, creating summative assignments, and using interactive content.
The online course content creation formula I have shared with you is very powerful and effective. In fact this is what I share with my Build Your AU members to help them create powerful online courses.
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Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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