Teaching online courses brings with it a set of challenges not found in a traditional classroom setting. Online instructors often fail to make the connection between what happens in a physical learning environment – whether that be a classroom, training facility or conference room – and what they do when teaching or creating online courses.   Whether you’re using Udemy, Teachable or an LMS to teach your online courses, you can benefit from knowing a few general teaching best practices. 

Here’s a list of best practices that will help you think about what you need to do in your online courses that help to replicate what most instructors would do when teaching in person.

Why Teaching Styles Matter

Understanding teaching styles, like learning styles, is part and parcel of being an effective teacher. We thought it suitable to follow up our previous article on learning styles with some similar advice on teaching styles and how to incorporate them into your Udemy course. 

Why are teaching styles important to consider as an online instructor?  Well if there are a variety of learning styles, then it follows that a variety of teaching styles should be considered to adapt to the various learning styles.

Learning styles are a big topic in the realms of traditional classroom education. Teachers hear a lot about different learning styles and how they should try to adapt their teaching methods to different kinds of learners. A lot of research has been done on the topic of learning styles and suggestions abound for how to cater to different learning needs in the classroom.

Have you considered as an online instructor that the thousands of students who enroll in your course might have several different learning styles?  You might ask yourself why do learning styles matter – it’s just a $10 course?  Well for starters, personal learning styles, in part, affect the learning outcomes for your students. By default that affects the ratings and reviews they give your course.

Online presentation skills do not come naturally to every aspiring Udemy instructor.  Yet your presentation skills can dramatically impact the quality and learning outcomes of your online course. Making a Udemy course is possibly one of the most complicated yet fulfilling profession.  Think about it, how many times have you sat in a room listening to a presenter and found your mind wondering and yourself waiting for the talk to be over?  How many bad YouTube videos have you skipped over looking for something better and more fun to watch? You don’t want your students to start feeling the same way halfway through one of your lessons or your course! Here we will give you some tips not just on how to create a Udemy course but on how to make it an engaging one!

We do live in the age of YouTube, live streaming and instant gratification. So, if your online presentation skills – and we mean both video and PowerPoint skills – are not in tiptop shape, you could lose student interest. They won’t finish your course or worse, will leave poor reviews and you’ll be leaving money on the table. Making a Udemy Course that’s poorly reviewed and with no students would just be a waste of both time and resources.   

A Quick List to Get Going

To make your own videos for Udemy courses, it’s worth putting in a little time and investment upfront to get a great and consistent quality set up to produce your courses.  The choice of equipment can be overwhelming, so here is a brief checklist that you can follow to get going on making your own online course videos.