5 Content Creation Tools to Help You Build Your Own Online Course

People love to learn new things, especially these days where Covid-19 has left us all static and on a new quest for self-discovery. Currently, one of the most popular means of education is the online course. Websites like Coursera and Udemy have seen a large rise in both visitor traffic and content creation over the past year and I would expect that to keep growing as people begin to realise the power, affordability and credibility of online learning. Creating an online course can be a powerful tool in your arsenal and if you were to do it properly, it can offer two key benefits:

A creative outlet: Creating an online course can offer a means to teach others about something you have a passion for. This can only strive to increase your understanding of a subject topic even more because the best way to learn is through teaching others. It can also be great for your mental health because if Covid-19 and its lockdowns and restrictions have left you intellectually starved, something like creating a course can stimulate that side of you. 

 Another stream of income: With restrictions from Covid-19 keeping many workplaces closed or at limited capacity, many people are finding themselves low on income. Creating an online course on something you have a passion for can be a great way of earning supplementary income and can be of great benefit to your mental health too because you will feel like you are doing something good and productive, teaching others a new skill that you are passionate about and making money while doing it! What is not to love?

This article aims to give you some of the best tools that you can use to create the most exciting online courses in any field of study. It will consider:

• Quality of product
• Ease of use
• Value for money

However, before we dive into these tools, it is important to address some key topics because creating a course is a lot of work. It is crucial to have all your bases covered and start on the right footing because if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

Things to Consider

Have a Unique Selling Point: Having a unique selling point makes selling your course easy. This is where doing your research can be an advantage because you want to ensure that whichever area you wish to pursue has a demand! Looking on social media or blogs or forums and gauging interest in a particular topic will help you understand if what you are looking to offer is marketable or in demand. Having a unique selling point is more than just filling a specific niche, if you are making a course, you want to make sure it is not just one dimensional with basic slides. Adding value and content through implementing worksheets, tests or support groups only serves to make your course more comprehensive and adds value. This is something you should consider when finding the appropriate tools to create your course.

Know your goals:

Learning Outcomes: What do you want the people who take the course to learn? Having a set of learning objectives is a good place to start and can help you direct the content in your course to fit those objectives. A good idea would be to get some of your friends to take the course and see how they find it. Asking them to be objective and offer feedback can help you improve your offering.

Financial Targets: Of Course, part of creating a course like this is to make some money, so you need to ask yourself if you have set a financial target for yourself. Setting an attainable target and promoting for it accordingly will allow you to measure your progress and do more promotion if you feel it is needed.

Completion Date: Do you have a target completion date for the course? Setting yourself a target completion date is a good challenge you can set yourself as well. You will need to set yourself some time to get the work done because nobody will want to pay for a course that looks rushed.

Why walk when you can run? Planning or creating a course can be a lot of work, so you want to find the right tool to help you create content easier, with good templates, streamlined and easy to use interface and a good price point. This will make less work for you and let you focus on other aspects of your course creation. You can work hard but remember to work smart!

Screenflow ($129-$209) - Screenflow is one of the most comprehensive video, audio and editing tools that you can utilise to create an online course. It allows you to capture audio and video from any source and create professional looking presentations and videos. Its interface is easy to navigate and use and editing videos is streamlined as well, however for its price you would expect that. For another $50 per year on top of the $129 you get access to their stock media library with images, motion backgrounds and backing tracks, all of which I would say are important for adding depth to your course and making it more aesthetically pleasing. For another $40 per year, you get unlimited phone support and priority response time, which is nice, but I feel should be included in the regular package anyway. It is also only available on Mac, so unless you are lucky enough to have an Apple computer or device, you will need to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, a solid tool with lots of editing capabilities and compared to other tools on the list, a respectable asking price.

ClipChamp ($39.99 per month) – If you are looking for something more affordable with solid video editing capabilities, ClipChamp is a great option. It offers a smooth interface and gives access to professional video editing tools, templates which you can edit and the ability to add GIFs or sound effects if you wish. It offers a free trial too which is a big bonus because it gives you time to try some of the features out for yourself. It is also an online tool which means no downloading software to install it, this just adds to its efficiency. For $39.99 per month, it is good for what it offers, however, the tool itself is limited to video creation and editing, so if you need a tool with more versatility or more content creation capabilities, you may need to look elsewhere.

Graphic River – Everyone has seen and used the Keynote or PowerPoint templates before! There comes a time when you need to stand out and make your content appear a little different. This is where Graphic River comes into play. A content creation marketplace, Graphic River is home to 800,000+ unique fonts, logos and presentation slide designs ranging from $2-$25. What I love about this is that it gives you the opportunity to stand out completely and although it wont help you to edit videos or do a voice over on your content like other tools in this list. For what it sets out to do, I think it does a great job. There are no joining fees, it is as simple as you find a design you like, and you buy it.

Kajabi ($149-$399 per month) – This is the first of two tools specifically designed to help you create a course. So, before you click away because of the price, read on and understand why programs like Kajabi command such a fee. Kajabi offers a wide variety of benefits it offers pre-set templates and themes and even lets you customise them to add a more personal feel. You can upload documents, images, videos, audio files and presentations and even if you are on desktop, your upload will optimise for whatever device it is being viewed on giving you extra peace of mind. A nice feature is the way Kajabi gives you tips on how to market your course. It doesn’t just leave you on your own. It strives to help you create, and help you promote. It offers a free trial, is super easy to navigate and does exactly what it sets out to do. It does cost a lot of money though. $150 per month for basic, $199 per month for Growth and $399 per month for Pro. So, if you do decide to purchase their services, you will need to know exactly what you are looking for and what you want to achieve! However, purchasing a tool like this will only serve to provide you with excellent quality content that should provide you with a solid return on investment. Especially if utilised with their tips on how to promote your course and the best ways to do it. In my view, it is worth the money because with the right backing, you will make that money back. However, for those just starting, this might be a little too steep an asking price to expect.

Thinkific ($49-$499 per month) – The final tool on this list is Thinkific, which is a slightly more scaled back and affordable version of Kajabi. However, there are a few features that I feel give Thinkific its own unique feel and when combined with its price and ease of use, I feel is the ultimate course creation tool. If you have limited ability with designing, this tool makes it easy to create a lot of content, from videos and presentations to surveys and quizzes. It allows you to create voice-overs on your presentations, which is a favourite tool of mine and one I think everyone should look for in a tool before purchasing. It lets you create landing pages and has an email tool that lets you promote your course via email to your contacts. As for pricing, it offers a free trial as well as a 30-day money back guarantee which is a real show of competence. It has a beautiful and easy to use interface and does a solid all-round job at allowing you to create a course, offer coupons for discounts, initiate zoom calls for face to face teaching as well as a host of other benefits, all in one place.