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. 

eLearning vs. Udemy

A generic definition of “eLearning” would be “any learning that happens via electronic media”. In this sense, Udemy courses fall under the umbrella of eLearning.  Udemy i a MOOC  (massive open online course) platform that has its own LMS (Learning Management System) that allows course creators to create and sell a course.

However, eLearning is an industry that goes well beyond the Udemy platform. eLearning has come to mean something slightly different than what Udemy courses offer.  Nowadays, the term “eLearning” and the “eLearning industry” generally refers to what we think of as “corporate training”, or, “online education” in a school setting, such as K-12 programs. 

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Teachinguide often receives requests for assistance from readers who need help getting started in online teaching and course creation.  We decided to put together 8 first steps to take and factors to consider if you are contemplating making a move to teaching online.

Online Teaching Options

How you proceed breaking into teaching online will depend very much on your teaching and domain experience – whether you have any at all, have a lot, and everything in between.  So, keep this in mind as your read.  In addition, you must consider whether your goal is to make some cash on the side or to make an entire career of teaching online.

Here’s a list of some of your options: