Introduction

When running an online course, it can sometimes be difficult to know how the participants are feeling about the course material and how much they are actually learning. With the massive increase in remote working and remote learning, understanding how the course flows from the participants perspective will provide an insight on how much participation is required and areas that you can improve the quality of the course. In this post, we will go over some tips to look out for when running a course online.

Navigating Feedback

Feedback is the best form of market research you could get from your students. Although it may be difficult to hear, it can greatly improve the operations of the course, and all future courses that you plan to create in the future. Here are some tips for promoting and understanding student feedback:

Open up the idea of feedback: Some students may not know the importance of receiving feedback for a course. Opening up the idea of being able to provide feedback to you will give you a broader image of what is working and what isn’t. Remember that you cannot assume the course is running smoothly and efficiently from your point of view – everyone has thoughts and opinions, and these are crucial for online courses.

Create a safe space: Creating an online safe space for students can greatly affect how much feedback you will receive. Being an open-minded and understanding person will promote your learners to utilize those virtual office hours and ask questions and provide feedback.

Ask questions: Not every student will know how to give proper feedback that can be useful to you. Having a few questions ready and available for your students to answer can make everyone’s lives that much easier.

Close the loop on the feedback: Getting the feedback is one thing, but what will you do with it? Once you have your feedback from your participants, show them how well you understood what they said. Thank them for their time and their thoughts, and go through the comments and ideas you received, and showcase how you plan to implement these changes moving forward.

Addressing Engagement

You have had your first course sell out – congratulations! As you are preparing for the course to start for your participants, we have compiled a list of tips for how to enforce and increase engagement in online courses.

Be Clear With Expectations: At the beginning of the course, it’s important to set your expectations for participation and make it clear to everyone enrolled. A good way to do this would be to send an email or a message to all participants ahead of the official start date to outline some key information they need to know (for example: due dates, office hours, etc). 

Be The Motivation You Wish To See: If you are looking to make this an engaging and enjoyable experience for your participants, make sure to make the content engaging. We recommend adding some visuals and videos to each module to allow for those visual learners to shine. 

Open Your Virtual Door: With learning comes questions. Although the material might seem straightforward to you, it may not be as easy to understand for the participants who have enrolled in this course. Allowing your learners to ask questions to you directly can provide a collaborative learning environment. Since you cannot have in-person office hours, ‘opening your virtual door’ to questions and concerns can allow learners to feel comfortable coming to the source for help rather than stressing themselves out trying to understand.

Promote Interaction: Depending on the course material, allowing your participants to interact with one another can greatly improve the overall experience of an online course. Creating a small community to bounce ideas off of and ask questions can make participants feel more inclined to participate with each other and show deep interest in the course material and community you’ve created. 

Setting A Standard for Inclusivity: Allowing inclusivity in your course learning experience can make the learners feel that much more appreciated and welcomed. Throughout the course, allow some time to get to know one another and share small bits about each other to humanize the experience. Everyone has different life experiences and identities. Being an inclusive and safe space for your learners to feel included should be the standard across all online courses. Avoid assumptions and be mindful that some students may require alternate options for leaning. 

Conclusion

Creating a course is the first step, followed by promotion and official launch. Once you’ve gone through all of that, understanding how your course is being received should be your next step. There is always room for improvement, so don’t always assume that feedback from participants is a bad thing. You are viewing your course from your own lens, but there are many other lenses out there. Fine tuning your course from student feedback will make the course that much stronger and that much more profitable for you in the long run. Unsure where to start with putting these tips into action?