New course creators often come up with some preconceived ideas regarding how their course should be like.
Some of these ideas are harmless but some of them are dangerous for your online course business and they will stop your business from taking off.
For example, I thought I need a video with super high production value.
And there are such other myths that really hampered my growth and delayed launching my course.
And I don’t want you to go through those hardships. That’s why I’m writing this article.
So, in this article, we’re going to look at the different things that can affect the quality of your course.
What’s the most important thing that a student wants in a course?
Transformation and not information. That’s all. Transformation is the only thing, a student wants from your course.
They are at point A, facing some problems and they want to move to point B, where they have no problem.
As simple as that.
What happens is we try to cram as much as information we possibly can, thinking that it will make the course valuable.
Because we don’t want to overload people with information and provide no real transformation.
Now, as a course creator, your only responsibility is to accompany your students on that journey and provide them with the necessary help to pass the hurdles.
You want to solve their problem and not overload them with unactionable information.
But what happens instead?
We develop our course with some preconceived notions and degrade the quality of the course.
So, let’s look at the three dangerous myths that may hamper your course quality.
You need Marvel Studios quality shooting
This is a big one.
What happens is we’ve enrolled in some courses on either Udemy, Skillshare or some courses created by very popular course creators.
Now, these courses have extremely high production value.
The high production value is either because they’re already very successful course creators or they’ve ample money to spend on hiring a videographer and editor.
But, you don’t have to fall into this trap.
Remember the Point A to Point B journey?
That’s right.
You don’t need fancy videos, fancy edits and cinematic style shooting.
All you need is videos that are engaging because of the information you’re sharing and not because of the different video gimmicks.
You just need 4 things
Your mobile camera / or a laptop webcam
A good quality USB mic
Screencasting software if you’re recording screens (software like Filmora, Screenflow, Camtasia, even Zoom can work)
Editing software (Filmora, iMovie, Screenflow, Camtasia)
That’s it. Only these 4 simple things are required to create videos for your online courses.
Audio matters!
Even if your camera is bad it doesn’t matter, but you need a good mic. I use BlueYeti for my videos but any USB mic will work for you.
If your students are not able to hear you properly then they won’t be able to consume your course and it may happen that they will not complete it altogether.
So many course creators, don’t even start shooting because they don’t have the best quality gear.
Yes, the high production value is definitely desired, but only after you have validated the course and more and more students are joining it.
Be minimalistic, when you are starting. Don’t aim for the stars.
Duration of the course is important
I have signed up for many courses on Udemy with the duration of the course more than 40 hours.
How many of them, I have completed?
Almost none.
Were these bad courses?
No. They were fairly good.
But 40 hours to learn something that can be learnt in let’s say 10 hours is what I want.
I want the shortest path to success like you and thousands of others.
Nobody wants super-long courses. People are looking for courses with reasonable duration.
Ask yourself if you want to go from Point A to Point B, do you want to drive for 2 hours or 8 hours.
And you have your answer!
You need an expensive course hosting platform with all the features to be successful
You see a lot of course creators hosting their courses on Kajabi or Thinkific.
So, naturally, you will also want to host your courses on these platforms.
But do you need them when you are just starting out?
No, not really. You can read in my other article that, you can in fact start delivering courses for free.
There are tools like Systeme and New Zenler which will allow you to deliver your courses for free.
Of course, there will be some limitations, but you don’t need a full-featured suite when you are just starting.
Many course creators either invest too much in course hosting platforms and sales funnel builders in their initial days as course creators.
The worst thing they wait for the money to come in and delay the launch of their course.
I made this mistake. And it just delayed the launch of my course.
Some of the blame falls on the shoulders of the course hosting platform companies as well.
They promote themselves as they’re the gateway to your success.
Agreed, you need a good course hosting platform. But your hard work is going to make you a winner and not any tool.
So, go ahead and don’t worry about using any expensive course hosting platform. Start with any tool you are comfortable with.
My take
All I want you to do is build a course that will help your students with going from point A to point B. Remember transformation.
Super long or unnecessarily long courses with a lot of fluff are no-go.
Nex thing is you don’t need expensive equipment, I spent heavy money on a gear which later on I found out is not required.
You just need a good mic. That’s definitely a necessity.
And finally, you can start with free tools like a Facebook group or Systeme which will help you host your courses.
That being said, don’t fall for these myths, go ahead and build your first course.
