How do I start an online course?
Hello Indie Hackers,
I'm thinking about starting an online course, but I'm not sure where to start. I have a background in programming so I'm looking for a solution that is flexible and customizable.
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This reminds me of a great tweet posted recently by @dvassallo.
The best way to do it, is just do it!
I was thinking of something a bit more fancy 😂
Unless you're making a course on video editing I think it's the content that'll matter the most. You can always upgrade your videos once you've gained a small audience :)
I agree. Content matters the most. I used to get so caught up in visuals and 1. it makes finishing anything a challenge 2. It slows you down and 3. for a first version of a course, it's not necessary.
If your course is a hit and you start making sales you can always polish it up in 6 months down the line. I have a course in the no-code game design space (https://www.sovereignmoon.studio/no-code-game-development-course/) , and even I used basic screen-capture software to create the course.
I did everything using camtasia (because I needed to be able to zoom in an focus on certain screen elements). But this allowed me to rapidly create the course. In 6 months from now, if the course is a hit I might re-do the audio recordings in a studio, but I doubt our students will care. For them, they just want to learn how to make 3D games without knowing how to code.
I think being enthusiastic and deep with your teaching can make up for any unpolished edges :) Exceed their expectations with your content and you'll give yourself some wiggle room with style. Free online MIT courses are a great example. 10/ 10 content with 2/10 style :)
Good luck!
Hi @diegodlt
Lots of great responses in this thread about platforms. In my experience, platforms pretty much have feature parity, with some minor differences in cost for things like affiliate marketing. I've been looking closely at Teachable and Podia, along with LearnWorlds, which seems to have the most robust authoring / interactivity features.
A few thoughts on planning and execution:
Hey Brian. I agree, there have been many helpful responses. Thank you I'll check it out.
Hi Diego.
First, you need to find best fit platform you can build your school on. There are numerous platforms, and here is a comparison article you can refer: https://www.learnworlds.com/online-learning-platforms/
Second, you need to figure out how to monetize your courses. The best way is to create a video, especially interactive video which allow users to interact with your courses. You can do this with this platform: https://www.learnworlds.com/?fp_ref=as46hn12
This is customizable with CSS and HTML as you wish.
Check the site out and see how it goes from there!
Good luck!
Check out www.eduflow.com - we offer a very flexible online learning platform.
I just went through this process. although i ended up unbundling the course into individual videos.
Dont complicate it. Make a slide deck of the content, use Loom to record the screen + video.
You can use platforms like Teachable or Kajabi to host your course.
One thing you can do from the start that will increase your odds at success is to "build in public". Use twitter, reddit, and indie hackers regularly to ask questions and get feedback.
Thanks for the advice!
Hi Diego, I launched my first course last Fall on Kajabi. The URL is TheSaaSAcademy.com.
Initially, I was going to use WP and plugins but I did not want to deal with the nightmare of plugin conflicts, maintenance, hosting downtime, etc.
The platform is really easy to use. My referral link is below if you do want to check out Kajabi.
https://app.kajabi.com/r/JcfEcUkU/t/la6qgct3
I have my courses on Skillshare, and I used to also sell them directly on my website using gumroad.com. Skillshare brought in much more royalties than selling directly, probably because the courses have been on it for a number of years with decent number of reviews.
I recorded my videos using ScreenFlick.
My thinking is that doing it on my own platform will give me more control of the price and ultimately result in more revenue. I've read you don't get much from some of the big course providers such as Udemy. But it sounds like you've had a lot of success with Skillshare?
The good thing about Skillshare/udemy is the distribution and existing audience. If your course can stand out, even slightly, the royalties can start to trickle in, particularly once you’ve got good reviews. I didn’t do much marketing for the courses on my own site thus the low sales. It’s a side project and I didn’t want to spent too much time on marketing it, and after deducting the cost of marketing (time included) I didn’t think it would make much sense for me.
Try Udemy
I thought about it, but I'd rather do it on my own platform. I've noticed that a lot of the Udemy instructors end up having their own website where they sell their courses.
You can do both actually. Udemy can bring you a huge volume of low price sales if you're good and fit with what audience there expects.
If your material is heavily text-based, an alternative to the major and most well know video-based course platforms is Leanpub. It lets you adapt a manuscript or textbook into an online course.
I'll check it out thank you.
The best platforms are Podia, Teachable and Thinkific.
I had already looked into Teachable and Thinkific, but I I did not know about Podia. Thanks!
Oh & moreover, we used to teach coding on it so it is suitable for adding codeblocks & stuff which is required for a coding tutorial!
Hey Diego, I used to run an eLearning platform before. If you want the source code, shoot me an email with your offer.
Cheers.
I would take a look at Thinkific. There is a lot of great training for free. Good luck.
That's the one I'm leaning most towards, thanks.