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7 Comments

How to reuse your existing content to create a course

Hello guys,
I have been blogging about Java and Programming since 2010 (http //javarevisited.blogspot.com, and http://java67.com/) and I have a lot of content related to Java, SQL, UNIX, and Programming in general. I want to create online courses to provide a structured learning experience to my readers but struggle to get time. Is there any service that can help? Any other idea to leverage the content I already have?

Thx for your time.

  1. 2

    Hey Javin, I am big follower of your blog and article though I am from .NET background. You can use educative to to create text based online courses.

    1. 1

      Thank you, Vikram, glad to hear that. Educative is on my agenda, thx for the suggestion.

  2. 2

    If most of your existing material is in text format, and you feel comfortable with Markdown, you can put together a course with Leanpub with relatively limited effort as opposed to course platforms largely based on video.

    Here's an overview of the process starting from a book already published to Leanpub, but the idea is similar without a textbook.

    1. 1

      This is awesome, as all of my content is in text format. Thx for this suggestion.

      1. 1

        You're welcome. I use Leanpub for my book and plan to experiment with courses based on future books.

  3. 1

    Hi Javin,

    10 years of technical blogging - respect!

    If you do decide to go for video, I am looking beta users for coursemaker from next month. I'd be willing to offer you a free account for 6 months in exchange for feedback. Feel free to email me if you'd like to know more (email in my bio).

  4. 1

    I've done something similar and it worked quite well. I've blogged about Photoshop CEP Panels development – sort of plugins, so to speak – for many months: after reading Azat Mardan's book "ProgWriter" I decided to author a book on the subject. I've not simply re-arranged the content (easier, but a bit of a cheat IMHO), but followed the same topics list: I've created a bunch of demo code, and wrote everything from scratch – it was still kind-of easy because I was familiar with the subject (thanks to months of blogging). Leanpub was a no-brainer back then: I know they've slightly changed business model, but it's still the easiest path. Depending on the kind of audience you have, you can either decide to sell on Leanpub (they keep a %), or use Gumroad (my preferred choice). In my experience, if you add a second option it'd be better. Say, a book for whatever $$ and book+videos for whatever + 50%; 10 videos or 10 videos + 4 extra; etc. Usually you sell more of the bigger bundle.

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