How to Start Teaching Online Courses

Teaching courses online is profitable and one of the best ways to make money today. The online environment offers a safe place to share information and participate as the individuals are almost anonymous. 

The three major points of online teaching philosophy come to play, which are engagement, commitment, and quality. The online environment allows participation and discussion that is different from the traditional physical classroom. In an online environment, students have time to do research and analyze experience before answering questions and interacting with peers. The depth and breadth of sharing are deeper and more profound than the traditional classroom, as students are not worried about the reactions of other people.

The major component of the online teaching style is engagement. Engagement in the online process is crucial in establishing a teaching relationship with each student. Engagement is created through interaction and follow up, as well as commitment and strategy. An engaged student is likely to succeed as they are driven to complete the process, they become part of the flow. Engaged students are less likely to drop out, even when circumstances and life throw obstacles.

In addition to engagement, another component of online teaching philosophy is commitment. Online instructors are committed to providing the best education via the virtual environment possible. To do this, they establish a viable online presence, so students know their questions will be answered and instructors are available for follow up. Commitment also means that they look up for students that are dropping off and lagging. If you teach online with the right strategies in place and provide a good quality structure for your course, you will provide students with the best educational experience.

In this blog post, we will be covering topics on effective strategies used for teaching courses online and engaging in the online educational processes as an instructor. We’ll talk about marketing strategies used for the promotion of online courses too. Also, you will learn where the best place to sell your online courses is. So, read this article and make a note of the information we provided.

What are the online courses?

Basically, courses that are taught online are represented by blocks of lessons/modules organized in sequential order and packaged together based on a learning path. A learning path can be based on a position, level, or another qualifier. In other words, the content provided follows a progression conducive to learning on the learner’s time frame based on the outcome or objectives set forth by the trainer or training team. Nearly every large corporation has an online university by which specific roles, titles, or positions in the organization can be assigned.

Before online courses actually came into play, there were universities back-ends. These back-ends were “backed” by what was called “LMS” (Learning Management System). An actual purpose of the LMS system was to monitor the progress of learners and provide analytics of the course content, incremental quizzes, as well as final exams. A comprehensive LMS  provided analytics and reports.

Today, eLearning is transforming formal education with revolutionary approaches. These learning approaches are conveyed into the busy lifestyle of most people now. Most learners don’t have the luxury of free time which they can spend in physical learning due to busy and hectic schedules (especially after spending 9 hours in the office). This makes it tough going to the physical classroom and spending hours there learning stuff.

At the same time, online courses provide students with all necessary study materials which are just as good as they would get in brick-and-mortar classrooms.

Two types of online courses are out there:

• Self-paced course (asynchronous course)
• Instructor-led courses (live lectures)

Self-paced courses come with study materials provided in different formats, like Doc, exl, PDF, mp3, mp4. It enables awesome flexibility for anyone to join and study.

It seems like learning online appeals to even more people now because they can receive the most up-to-date study guides from best and experienced instructors. So, online instructors try to teach online courses with a mix of self-paced and live interactions in real-time. Study material plus live classes from various subject experts create a very effective environment for absorbing knowledge. In other words, online courses help to save time and money in a hectic lifestyle.

How to become an online teacher

Here are some essentials that every online teacher should stick to if he or she wants to teach online successfully:

• Good English Communication. Because maximum people prefer English, learn as much as you can how to convey thoughts and ideas in English and deliver them properly. Does your English need some improvements? Learn and practice it with useful courses on the Grinfer eLearning platform. Learn and practice modern American English with  “Business English – Manage a Zoom & Skype call in English … and much more!” course.

You’ll get plenty of practice and great tips on managing and participating during conference calls or meetings. You will be speaking English much easier by changing your sentence forms, direct sentences, and much more!

• Know your subject. The truth is that there is no need to be an expert. Just know slightly more than average people do and provide your expertise.
• Be a good listener knowing how to provide the best explanation to students. Working as an online coach, you’ll always be receiving a whole bunch of questions from people who participate in class. So you should know it all about delivering and explaining something easily without being too boring or shallow.
• Update your tech skills regularly and be an Internet expert. Study all pros and cons of Skype, Google meets, Zoom, etc. There is no such thing as enough knowledge about the use of the Internet. It is the main source of information today and a useful tool that will leverage your income.

How much do online teachers make

Probably at this very moment, thousands of folks are searching all over the web desperately trying to get a grasp on the right solution to a specific problem. No kidding, but lots of people are ready to pay some extra cash for the complete package which will resolve their issues. So, if you know the answers here comes your chance to make an online course on the topic and make some money. 

Believe it or not, there are even very popular online courses that teach guys “How to text a girl”, which are selling darn very well. So, keep in mind that once you have enough knowledge in something, you’ll always find your audience that will push on a “buy’ button.

As an example, read about a guy, whose name is Rob Percival. He became one of the best-selling online teachers who made millions! His online courses teach web development and all kinds of stuff which deals with creating successful websites. Rob started his professional career as a high school instructor, then he turned himself into a millionaire. He was that guy who made $10 000 in just a couple of months. 

Today, he earns millions of dollars by selling online courses and tutorials. His online course is now available on Grinfer – “The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0”, which delivers information in a simple but yet effective manner, which makes it great for newbies with a zero experience. Rob’s online course has already gained a massive block of positive reviews. It is good for learning HTML, CSS, jQuery, Javascript, and other programming and markup languages used in web development. This course provides all additional ebooks to learners for free as a bonus.

On average, online instructors can easily earn over $3000 a month with good marketing skills and the right approach in regard to promotions. If you’re very good at online marketing, you can easily make like $20000 every month.

If you decide to sell courses on Grinfer, you will be provided with all effective tools, tips, as well as assistance to boost sales. Also, you can make additional money with a 1-1 consultations option, which is fully set up on the Grinfer platform now and provides all tech support to consultants. Also, take advantage of Grinfer’s affiliate program and make extra money with a great passive income. Contact Grinfer’s marketing team for all information regarding becoming an instructor, consultant, or affiliate. Review articles and posts with plenty of detailed instructions on all these opportunities in the Grifer’s blog.

How to teach online courses effectively

Making money with consultations and teaching online is convenient. But these approaches can definitely have some potential pitfalls along the way. Therefore, keep a few things in mind while teaching online is a must. The below practices show how to engage with your learners and incorporate in the best possible way:

Focus on active learning

Anybody can get bored even in face-to-face classrooms when the approach of teaching is passive. To make teaching a success, it’s not enough just to provide information. It is very important to make sure that the students engaged in the active interaction acting upon it.  So, add quizzes, discussions, live-chat options to keep learning processes active.

For example, various teaching sites such as AirTract, Teachable, Grinfer allow adding multiple-content types, including text, video, quizzes. On Grinfer, you’ll get an option to live-chat with face-to-face consultations online in real-time settings providing advice and expertise. Even though other eLearning platforms have similar features, it’s essential to choose the best platform to create better engagement.

Divide lessons into smaller chunks

Keeping 2-hour sessions or 2-hour long videos won’t help to deliver effective teaching experience to students. So, divide them into smaller parts for better absorption of knowledge. By the end of every lecture, give some quizzes or any other fun learning activities that would help students practice and review what they have learned in a fun and positive way.

Establish instructor presence and be present

Many professors just create PowerPoints and upload them on LMS or any other platform. However, not omitting the social presence will help you to stay connected with learners and build more trust. Keep live sessions and make them available at a particular scheduler so that all the students get a chance to interact with you or in the group live sessions exchanging and sharing knowledge.

Create a community

Encourage learners to interact with each other by setting up and offering online forums or group discussions.

Feedback

Since feedback is essential during the learning process, ask your students to give you honest feedback. In exchange, also give them timely feedback revising their performance and telling them how they progressed during the course.

How to market courses online and where to sell them on the Internet

Are you an expert in anything? Create useful content and study materials, create a course or two, and launch them online! But before going into the game, learning some tips on how to approach the online market to get your sales going. Effective marketing is something that about 90% of online instructors struggle with at the very beginning. A lot of them are looking for ways to achieve good results at a zero cost.  

Most aspiring online entrepreneurs believe that selling online courses is nothing more than promoting with Facebook ads (or some other social media).

Promote online courses without too much hassle with the following strategies:

• Use an existing learning marketplace, like Udemy, Skillshare, Grinfer, etc.
• Use a commercially available plugin for your own website’s content management system (CMS).
• Build your own LMS (learning management system) where you have full control over what you want it to do.
• Use a 3rd-party LMS that’s not tied to a CMS, e.g. Teachable.
• Send out monthly newsletters. Keep on engaging all past, current, and potential learners with informative newsletters. Inform them about the latest news, new content you created, interview industry opinion leaders, etc.
• Run an online forum. As an educator, you are an opinion leader yourself, most probably. Use this expertise and engage learners with a forum. Of course, it takes a lot of effort to properly administer a forum but once you are up to it results will be fascinating. You can also use it in order to start discussions, get feedback, and come up with new ideas just by listening to people.

Bottom line

What is the most convenient way to sell online courses? Providing expertise on the Grinfer learning platform by selling online courses can bring you money or make an extra buck for your income. Shoot an email to Grinfer’s support team to get more info or if you have any questions. You’ll get personal advice that will make your sales skyrocket. Once you sell your courses on Grinfer, you’ll make money by earning an author’s commission, which is much higher compared to many other online learning platforms.