Creating and marketing an online course for psychologists and therapists part 5: How to create an engaging online course (that people actually finish)Teaching online is a skill you have to learn if you want to have a successful online course. To be honest studying at University means we have often encountered a lot of very very bad teaching in our careers. I’m doing an MBA at the moment and most of the teaching is literally a white, middle aged man talking at me in a droning voice for two hours while I try desperately to stop thinking about what I’m having for tea. That just won’t cut it in the world of online courses. Research suggests that up to 88% of people don’t finish an online course theyhttp://oro.open.ac.uk/43566/ ( have started.) That is completely unacceptable to me. I do not want to take money from people for something they don’t even finish. If we want to make sure people get good results from our courses we need to make sure that they are taught skillfully.
 
In this episode I am going to talk you through the four pillars of creating engaging online lessons that I recommend you consider when you are creating anything educational from social media videos and podcast episodes through to the lessons of your online course.  
 
Every time I plan a lesson, social media video or podcast episode I always start by selecting 3-5 key learning points that I want the audience to take away. I then think about how I can hit that learning point from different angles to make sure it really sinks in for people. 
Imagination - stories, personal stories, composite stories, illustrating everything you teach with a story of some sort will bring it to life for your students. You can hear/read more about how I recommend usinghttps://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/writing-for-your-psychology-or-therapy-website-how-to-get-started-and-key-principles ( stories in our episode on writing for your marketing here.)
Visual - graphics, mind maps, illustrations. This is the stuff I suck at so I usually need help to take my verbally expressed ideas and put them into graphic form but charts, mind maps, graphs, infographics all of these things can really help make an idea more solid for people. It is also helpful to provide a workbook so that visual learners can be scribbling their own doodles that help them to understand what you are talking about.  
Auditory - talking it through and making time for small group discussion of the learning point. It is important to provide time for people to ask you questions as some people will need to hear things put in different ways to apply the learning to their own lives.
Practical - exercises that make people apply the learning to a real life situation they are in or expect to be in soon. Breakout rooms on zoom are great for giving people time and space to do this without putting them on the spot but role plays and hot seat style questions also work well.

 
If you cover off each of these pillars for each learning point you will find the engagement in your lessons goes up hugely. They don’t really allow people to just sit back and glaze over!
 
It is also really important to make sure your resources are inclusive and engaging for everyone you are serving and we will talk more about that on an upcoming episode. 
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Links
Episode 71: Writing for your psychology or therapy website: How to get started and key principles https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/writing-for-your-psychology-or-therapy-website-how-to-get-started-and-key-principles/ (https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/writing-for-your-psychology-or-therapy-website-how-to-get-started-and-key-principles/)


References
Top 75 Online Learning Statistics & Trends for 2021 https://sellcoursesonline.com/online-learning-statistics (https://sellcoursesonline.com/online-learning-statistics)...