The question is why and how should you create a course? The majority of course creators jump into the course creation arena to make money. It’s common to hear course creators boast of making a killing, which translates to “lots of money”, in one course launch.
Ever since Jeff Walker wrote the book Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams, in 2014, the learning world has never been the same.
Charlatans, rogues, and overnight-millionaires-wannabe prowl about looking for who to devour with their half-baked courses.
Amy Porterfield in 2017 or there about articulated that all you need to create a course is what she called “the 10% edge.” Viola, you can create a course.
So long as you’re technically savvy, you can create a lead magnet, a landing page, a sales funnel, create a course, a payment gateway and dance all the way the bank.
I believe “internet course creators” wannabe millionaires” understood Amy Porterfield upside down. While the 10% edge is a sound doctrine, it presupposes that the teacher knows what he’s teaching.
As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Sadly, most teachers appear when the student least expects. They use Jim Edwards copywriting secrets techniques and lure the student to part with her money.
This is counter-productive, as the 97% failure rate for online courses as Marissa Murgatroyd pointed out circa 2021 illustrates.
Why you create a course
So, what is the number one reason you should create a course?
The reason you create a course is to bridge the gap between what your student already knows and what she needs to know.
This is the process guru course creators call “transformation.”
To transform a person, you must know the person inside out. Creating a courses begins with knowing the person for whom the course is being created for. Sometime you have to know the student more than she knows about herself. This is where the concept of “know your customer” comes in.
However, transformation can’t happen in one fell swoop, otherwise it could lead to traumatization.
How you create a course
In designing a course, mature and trained course creators use what I call the “onion principle.” You have to dig deep from the outer layer to the inner core. You do this until you have covered all the bases of what the student needs to know.
For a student to gain the most from your course, you should arrange your content into three clearly defined buckets:
- Must know
- Should know
- Nice to know
Your students will come into your course with varying degrees of expertise or understanding of the subject matter. Some might even have an idea of what they want.
However, what they want might not necessarily be what they need. This is where the expertise and experience of the course creator come in.
The Dreyfus model of skill acquisition can be very useful in helping the course creator package his course.
The model according to Researchgate dot net, is an influential framework that outlines the progression of skill development through distinct stages.
There are five stages in the model and they provide a comprehensive understanding of the learning process, offering valuable insights into how individuals acquire, refine, and master new skills.
The five levels of skills acquisition (or expertise as I like to call it) are:
- . Novice
- . Advanced beginner
- . Competent
- . Proficient
- . Expert
For each level of expertise, your course curriculum or content must cover the three buckets I earlier mentioned: Must know, should know, nice to know.
As much as possible, students with roughly similar levels of expertise should be grouped together to form a class or cohort.
Accordingly, in terms of content, your course should be designed broadly at three levels of sophistication or depth:
- . Basic (for Novice and advance beginners)
- . Intermediate (for Advanced beginners and competent)
- . Advanced (for Competent, proficient and experts)
Experts may come in for refreshers now and then as the frontiers of knowledge changes rapidly.
Arie De Geus in his book, The Living Company, estimated that the half-life of knowledge, that is, how long it takes for what you know to become obsolete, to be 6 months. That was in 20o2. Today, it may be six hours.
So, it’s clearly counter-productive to design a course and overload it because you want to appeal to all levels of learners by having 24 or 50 modules. This is an overkill and the result will be disastrous.
This happens all the time. That’s why the success rate in online courses is an abysmal 3%, according to a variety of sources, including Marissa Murgatroyd, and online course creators super influencer.
A whopping 97% failure rate does not say well of the course creation industry.
And this is why it’s becoming increasingly difficult to fill classes because a lot of students have had their fingers burnt.
Having designed your course, you have to teach it. A great teacher can teach a poorly designed course, however, a bad teacher can’t teach an excellently designed course.
Experience and expertise do matter.
It’s easy to hop into a studio, record 50 fantastic video lessons, edit them to the hilt, and slap your logo on every page of content. But will your students benefit from your effort?
According to the course creation expert and author of many books, including Teach Your Gift, Danny Iny, three types of students register for courses.
There are those that will succeed no matter how poorly designed your course is. They constitute a tiny minority of about 2.5%.
There are those that will not succeed no matter how excellently designed your course is. They also constitute a tiny minority of about 2.5%.
In between these two extremes is the huge bulk of students that would succeed if given the right guidance, coaching and mentorship. You should focus your attention on this majority.
The best way to teach a course is to use a simple framework that your students can follow.
There are assorted learning frameworks in the industry. Three years ago I sat down and created a framework, which I christened the Internet Business Success Formula (iBSF).
iBSF consists of 7 steps and 2 master-keys (Technology and “YOU”.
The steps are the mundane things techie course creators take for granted, and comprise:
- 1. Learning
- 2. Visibility
- 3. Relationship building
- 4. List building
- 5. Product design
- 6. Marketing and Sales
- 7. Scaling strategy
Technology permeates all the steps. Though an enabler, without technology it’s difficult to get started and eventually scale. It’s the number two master-key.
The number one master-key is “YOU”. This master-key is the most vital for success. “YOU” are in the driver’s seat. Your drive, resolve, determination, mindset, self-confidence and your willingness to be vulnerable, stoop and conquer.
I have used the iBFS framework to teach close to 500 of the students in my Internet Business Mastery Course (iBMC) with great results.
How do I know the results are great?
Because most come back to thank me, and over 95% have remained in our community after completing their cohort. The community started in 2020.
Over 50% have recommended their friends to attend iBMC and the sister course, BWC (Book Writing Clinic).
I have shared the iBSF Framework severally. You can download it here.
Recently I sat down and fleshed out, thoroughly updated, and sent the framework to a graphic designer to make it presentable to give to my friends all over the world.
If you’re interested in the iBSF Framework, with in-depth explanation of the seven steps, ask me for it and I will send it to you. All you have to do is to share your email address by clicking this link.
In 2020, I created Online Course Creators Community For Newbies And Advanced Beginners, a Facebook group, to share best practices on how to create, market and profit from courses. Today the Group is 16,000-member strong. I invite you to join by clicking this link.
Now that you know the why and the how you should create a course, be guided and always keep your students at the centre of everything you do.
If you do, you will succeed beyond your wildest expectations and when you do, don’t forget to come back and thank me.
If you want to write and publish a best-selling book join the September edition of *Book Writing Clinic*. Starts September 14.
If you to learn Digital Marketing, build businesses and make money online the right way, join the September 2024 cohort of *iBMC* (iBMC-13). Starts September 21st
If you want to write in a fluid and flowing manner and elevate your writing to the status of a pro join *Writing Skills Mastery Course*. Starts October 5th.
Joining any of the courses is very simple. Send me WhatsApp message *”REGISTER ME”* to +234-9165245851, or clicking this link to get BWC or iBMC or WSMC or creating this link to get The Combo for a fraction of the three. Here is the link again: http://bit.ly/3yIzlSI
