Free Online Course Launch Checklist

Reader Disclosure

You've decided to design and market an online class - I'm stoked for you. The sharing of your expertise online is a great way to increase your income and also has super high earning potential - well above what you could make teaching in-person classes.

WHAT'S INSIDE          Toggle

•     Research and Planning
•       Free Online Course Launch Checklist Research and Planning
•     Building an Online Presence
•       Free Online Course Launch Checklist Building an Online Presence
•     Course Content Development
•       Free Online Course Launch Checklist Course Content Development
•     Pre-Launch Final Checks
•       Free Online Course Launch Checklist Final Checks
•     Conclusion

There's plenty to be covered that you're probably slightly overwhelmed, but I got you.

At the conclusion of this article, you'll be on a clear path forward and feel prepped for a smooth launch and confidence in the success of your plan.

This online course launch checklist contains the steps and resources you need to make sure your course is off the ground and ready to make you money $$$!

So let's get into it.

Research and Planning

 Skip to Research and Planning Course Checklist

Before you start filming classes or creating courses, you must start laying the foundations to plan your lesson. Nailing the research and planning process will make what comes after easier and more efficient. How to accomplish it:

1. Conducting Analyse Competition

The first step is to look up the competitors. Do some research on similar courses in your niche. What's already out there? What's selling well? Just as importantly - what's missing?

Seek out areas of opportunity in the market. For example, if you observe that the majority of courses in marketing via social media cover general techniques but do not cover TikTok growth strategies, then that's an the perfect opportunity to make your mark.

If you can fill those holes, you'll be able to attract pupils and make yourself an expert within your area of expertise.

Pro TIP: Read reviews of competitors' programs. Negative feedback is important because it tells you exactly what the people are looking for but not receiving. Utilize that information to determine your course.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Once you understand the market, you can focus to whom the course you're designing to cater.

Who are they? What are they struggling with? What's driving them to pursue your class?

For instance, if you're developing a course in affiliate marketing, your audience may range from absolute novices who aren't sure what a referral link is or experienced marketing professionals seeking to expand.

Each group has different requirements, and you have to choose who you're catering to.

 You can ask yourself:

• What problem does my course help solve? And who's more likely to pay for that solution?
• What is the level of education that my ideal student need to have?
• What are their favorite places to hang on the internet (forums or social media sites, etc. )?

The more specific your message is, the easier it is to develop content that resonates.

3. Define Crystal-Clear Learning Objectives

The goal is to lead students toward a tangible result. Define what success looks like to students. By the end of your course, what should they know, be able to perform, or feel confident about?

Bonus:
Clare objectives can aid in staying focused while making the content. If the lesson isn't contributing to the goal, cut it. BE RUTHLESS!

4. Create Your Course Structure and delivery methods

When you've identified the "what" in addition to the "who," it's time to think about the "how." A well-organized course makes the learning experience more enjoyable and keep the students involved.

Each modules should focus on one idea or skill to avoid overwhelming your audience. Examples:

• Module 1: Intro to Affiliate Marketing
• Module 2: Choosing Profitable Niches
• Module 3: Setting up Your First Campaign

When it comes to delivery methods you can mix things with a variety of delivery methods. Different people learn differently. Therefore, mix video lessons, download guidebooks, quizzes and interactive elements. The more varied, the more engaging your course.

5. Choose your Course Tools

Before you begin content creation, take time to learn about the tools you'll employ to develop and teach your course.

The platforms you choose can shape how you structure your content, what features you include (like quizzes or multimedia) as well as how students can interact with your course.

For most creators, WordPress coupled with the Courses is the ideal solution.

WordPress gives you unmatched flexibility and control, while simplifies subscriptions and course creation using powerful tools such as certifications, quizzes and tracking progress.

When you understand what your tool can do upfront and then utilizing your tools later, you'll be able to save time by creating content that aligns perfectly with your platform's capabilities.

Plus, with tools like  the one above, you'll be able to provide professional services without the need to hire a developer.

Free Course Launch Checklist: Research and Planning

Conduct Competitive Analysis

Research similar courses in your niche.
Find out what's available and then determine what's getting the most attention.
Find gaps in the market which you could fill.
Check out reviews from competitors, particularly those that are negative, to determine need gaps.
Utilize these tips to help you shape your direction and distinguish yourself.

Identify Your Target Audience

Determine who the course of action is intended for.
Recognize their areas of pain, challenges, and motivations.
Find out their level of knowledge for you to create content that is tailored to them.
 Ask:
- What problem does my course help me solve?
- Who's most likely to pay for this solution?
My audience - Where do they socialize on the internet?

Define Crystal-Clear Learning Objectives

Create measurable targets for what your students should accomplish.
Make sure that the goals are in line with the capabilities or information they would like to gain.
Cut content that doesn't help in any way to achieve these goals.

Plan Your Course Structure, Delivery Methods and Format

Outline your course into logical modules.
Each module should build on previous ones to ensure smooth progress.
Plan to include a mix of delivery techniques.

Choose the Tools for Your Course

Research and choose the tools to create and present your course.
Evaluate platforms based on:
The content must be compatible with the structure.
Support for features such as videos, quizzes and monitoring.
It is easy to using for both your students.
Ensure your tools align with your goals to save time while delivering a flawless course and experience.

Establishing an online presence

 Skip to Creating an Online Presence Checklist

With WordPress and under your belt there are just 2 steps in creating an online platform to your class!

6. Create a Strong Brand

Your brand's identity defines you, which means it has to be designed to convey the trust of your customers and to establish a long-lasting relationship between you and your target audience. Additionally, your brand must be special, making you stand out from other competitors.

You want to create uniformity across your site and other materials that are designed to appeal to customers. It is your goal to leave an indelible impression of your target audience, which communicates the essence of your business and is a good fit with their needs.

How do you go about it? It's simple. You define your brand identity by clarifying what your brand stands for and what distinguishes you and what emotional bond you want to build to your target audience.

Your entire research on your target market can be useful here - information on their issues and their preferences will guide the design, messaging and the overall branding strategy.

The creation of a distinctive visual identity is the most quick way to make your brand immediately recognizable. It involves selecting a logo and color scheme.

7. Design Your Website (In Minutes!)

ReadyLaunch(tm) is an inbuilt, custom page maker which you can personalize your site for courses with your brand's logo and colors.

It ensures your course pages are mobile-responsive and optimized for sales, with an attractive and well-structured layout.

And the best part is that you can do all this without any coding!

Free Online Course Launch Checklist Establishing an online presence

Build a Brand that is Strong

Make sure you know the purpose of your brand:
- What does your brand stand for?
- What is it that makes you different?
- What kind of emotional bond do you wish to establish with your target audience?
Utilize research about your target audience to guide your tone of voice, message, and your strategy.
 Choose a memorable logo.
Pick a color scheme.

Make Your Website

Use ReadyLaunch(tm) by to build your branded course site. In just a few only a few seconds.
If not using ReadyLaunch(tm) you can manually build the following pages, and make sure they're mobile-responsive
- Account Page
 - Pricing Page
Register Page
 - Thank You Page
- Login Page
You can add your logo, branding colors and your own fonts for a unique website.
Check that your course's website is designed to maximize sales and simple navigation.

Learning Content Development for Courses

 Skip to Course Content Development Checklist

With a new home for your program and a clear idea about the way you'd like it look like and achieve Now it's time to dig further and begin working!

8. Create Your Course Content Outline

You're now ready to complete the course structure you've created from step 4. Each of your modules should be broken down into small, simple lesson plans.

If your classes are delivered in video content, research suggests you should aim to keep your classes not more than 15 minutes in length at a minimum, and ideally less than 10 minutes.

One study conducted by MIT(pdf) found that the typical engagement level of students during recorded lectures was 6 minutes on average.

Keep these statistics in mind Consider ways that you can segment your lessons into smaller videos.

9. Develop High-Quality Educational Materials (Videos and slides or PDFs)

Once you've got the foundation of your syllabus Now it's time to start filling it out with your material for your course!

The most well-known method of delivering the content of your courses, and for one HUGE reason - it's enjoyable. However, ultimately, it's up to you to be the judge of what is the best method to convey your information.

Slides and PDFs provide great references and revision aids for students. They also provide another means for students to take in course materials, catering to different learning styles.

Tips for Producing Engaging Videos

• Reduce Videos to a Minimum: Aim for video lengths under six minutes to ensure maximum participation. Shorter videos require more planning but keep students' attention for longer.
• Use an informal style: Casual, relatable settings can make videos seem more personal and approachable and therefore more engaging! When you're looking for video quality to be good, avoid using an impersonal studio environment.
• Speak Enthusiastically and Naturally: Speak with energy and confidence. A fast-paced, energetic speaking is more engaging.
• Enhance Tutorials to Rewatch: For how-to videos add visual signsposts or bookmarks to make it easier for skimming and rewatching.
• Editing Effectively: Get rid of any filler words, phrases and any other distractions in editing to ensure that content is clear and enjoyable.
• Use a Variety of Teaching Methodologies Utilize animations, visuals, and demonstrations to complement spoken explanations to cater to various learning styles.
• Make Videos Accessible: Add captions and transcriptions so that videos are accessible to learners with hearing impairments or parents who do not want to disturb their baby!

Because Courses utilizes WordPress Gutenberg blocks, it's simple to incorporate video, images, text as well as PDF files to every class.

10. Make Engaging Assignments and Quizzes

Some people think that tests and assignments only serve for testing your students however, they're actually great engagement-boosting tools that help improve learning as well as give students the sense of satisfaction.

If they're done properly They'll help motivate your students as well as make the course enjoyable and engaging. This article will show you how to design tests that stand out

 Let It Be Fun as well as Interactive

Think beyond basic multiple-choice questions. Use a mix of methods like matching or fill-in-the-blank to keep students engaged.

The course includes nine different type of quiz questions that help make things interesting.

Send immediate feedback

With these quiz questions you can offer automated assessment and feedback that gives students immediate results as well as explanations. This can help reinforce learning, while keeping the experience effortless.

Make Assessments that are specific to your Content

Make quizzes and assignments that be in line with your class's goals. In the case of teaching a photography course you could create an assignment that requires students submit edited photos in accordance with a method they've recently learned.

Through the Courses Assignments option, your students will be able to upload all sorts of assignments to be graded from images, portfolios, videos and long-form essays. There is a lot of creativity to your assignments that you wish to assign your students.

This type of assignment implies that you'll need be grading them manually, which is made easy by Courses Gradebook. Courses Gradebook feature.

Keep the Bite-Sized

Don't overwhelm students with lengthy assessments. Short, frequent quizzes or assignments are more engaging and give students frequent chances to check comprehension.

Mix It Up Between Modules

Different types of tests and assignments during your study. You can, for instance, take advantage of the knowledge check quiz early in your course as well as more practical, application-based assignments in later modules.

Allow Retakes and Flexibility

Allow students to retake quizzes or submit assignments again to promote growth and improvement of their understanding of the subject matter.

11. Recognized with Certificates

The joy of celebrating your students' accomplishments is a fantastic approach to keep them interested and interested. The awarding of certificates will not only enhance the value of your course but also provides an actual reward for students that they are able to display in their work as well as personal life. Learn how to create certificates that are important to your course:

What is the significance of certificates?

• Motivation Certificates give students an incentive to strive for to keep them active and focused all through the class.
• Recognize: These certificates serve as an official acknowledgement of the student's effort and achievement in learning.
• Shareable Achievements Students may publish their awards through LinkedIn, resumes, or personal websites that highlight their abilities and skills.

How to Offer Certificates with Courses

Courses makes it easy to issue automatic certificates to students upon the completion of a course.

There are a range of types of designs, and personalize certificates to reflect your company's image and contain all pertinent information, such as:

• Student name
• Course name
• Completion date
• Your name and signature

The certificate function is included in Courses, there's no requirement for any additional modules or manual steps. It's seamless and fully automated.

Add Expiry Dates for Ongoing Certifications

If you are enrolled in courses that require periodic renewal, like specific industry skills or compliance training, you can set the expiration dates of certificates.

It encourages learners to remain up-to-date with their knowledge and retake your class after the specified time frame, to ensure that their knowledge is relevant.

Encourage Sharing for a Wider The Reach

Students who share their certificates they could become effective marketing tools. Your students should be encouraged to:

• Download and share their certificates with friends on social media.
• Add certificates to your professional portfolios.
• Mention your course in their LinkedIn profile.

With Courses, you can offer shareable links to your students to distribute far and wide, sharing their accomplishments and highlight your course as a trusted expert!

Free Online Course Launch Checklist: Course Content Development

Create Your Course Content Outline

Cut your courses into bite-sized easy to digest lessons.
Make sure to keep videos under 15 minutes (ideally at least six minutes) in order to keep students engaged.
Use Courses to intuitively create your courses and modules.

Develop High-Quality Educational Materials

Create engaging videos to deliver your course content:
Employ a relaxed, casual manner.
Speak with enthusiasm and clarity.
Include captions and transcripts to ensure accessibility.
Use additional resources such as PDFs and slides for further assistance with learning.
Use Courses to seamlessly integrate videos, images as well as files to every lesson.

Create Engaging Quizzes and Assignments

Make quizzes interactive by mixing questions in different formats (e.g., multiple-choice, matching, fill-in the-blank).
Make use of the Assignments feature in order for students to upload pictures as videos, documents, or images straight from their devices.
Keep quizzes and assignments short and frequent to maintain participation.
Let retakes or resubmissions be allowed for mastery.

Recognized with Certificates

Motivate students with completion certificates to acknowledge their efforts.
The expiry date for certificates should be set to ensure that they are renewed for continuing abilities.
 Provide shareable certificate links.

Final Pre-Launch Checks

 Skip to the Final Checks The Checklist

So you've finalized your course and accomplished everything that you needed to be done It appears that all is prepared to launch. While this might be an option, it is important to double-check to ensure everything is ready for a successful and smooth launch.

12. Run Tests & Get Feedback

Do one quick test run to ensure your course has been designed to be well-optimized. Ensure that all elements like quizzes video, forms etc., work without any glitches.

Beta testers are also an excellent idea. Get them to run through your program and provide you with comments on any issues or problems they may've encountered.

Lastly, ensure your content is edited and proofread. To ensure this that it is, consider hiring an expert proofreader to go through your content to eliminate the spellings and grammar errors and other non-relevant information that you may've included.

When you've finished all this, you can confidently launch your Courses-based course being confident that you've built the perfect masterpiece that's ready to be a huge achievement!

Free Course Launch Checklist The Final Checks

Testing Your Course's Functionality
Take a test to verify your course is fully optimized.
Check that every component is working seamlessly, including:

• Quizzes
• Formulas
• Videos
• Links and downloads

Get Feedback From Beta Testers
Recruit beta testers to go through the course.
 Collect detailed feedback on:

• User experience
• Technical issues that could arise
• Relevance and clarity of the content

Check and Polish The Content You Have
Check that your course's content is free from errors:

• Misspellings
• Grammatical mistakes
• Non-relevant information
   Consider hiring a professional proofreader for a final review.

Release With Confidence
Use Courses to officially launch your course.
Celebrate knowing you've created a well-tested, polished work that is ready for the big time!

Conclusion

Preparing for a course launch needs a careful approach if you want it to become a huge success and reach the objectives you have set.

Key steps include defining clear learning objectives as well as conducting market research making sure that the course material is well-constructed in addition to implementing a strong marketing campaign.

If you take the time to carefully review those items and preparing yourself to have a smooth, efficient launch.

Thorough preparation is essential for ensuring that your course launch is efficient and ensures that students enjoy a smooth learning experience from day one.

For a simpler and more efficient process, think about using ReadyLaunch(tm) by . The powerful software simplifies the creation of courses by providing flexible templates, responsive design for mobile devices as well as a simple interface that does not require any programming knowledge.

Victoria Lloyd       Victoria has a knack for making small-scale beginnings into huge success, elevating her jewelry line from the bustle of London's markets, up to more prestigious locations such as the Royal Academy of Arts and the Topshop's Oxford Circus the flagship shop. Her expertise doesn't stop at tangible products. Victoria is a pro-active success track record in boosting online engagement for a variety of brands. From innovative startups to well-known brands like Nokia and Jack Daniels, Victoria has applied her potent mix of wordsmith wizardry along with strategic thinking and digital acumen to drive up brand engagement and SEO. At , Victoria leverages her diverse experiences to help simplify and decode the complexities of online participation and growth for businesses. She's here to guide readers with her unique tips, and help them effectively and imaginatively create their membership and online community websites.