Online education is becoming more and more popular, especially among students. They’re looking for alternative ways to acquire the skills they need and improve their knowledge in the areas of their interests. When it comes to writing, it’s one of the essential skills every student needs. That’s why it’s a great idea for you to create a profitable online writing course for students.

But, just because you’re a skilled writer, doesn’t mean your course will be a success. You’ll need to develop and follow a winning strategy to create a course that students are going to love. Luckily, we’ve got you covered. Below, you’ll find a step-by-step guide on how to create an online writing course for students that will sell like crazy.

Let’s break it down.

1.Decide on the Course Objective

The preparation steps of creating your online writing course are the essential ones. Before you start working on any of the materials and writing, you need to make sure you know what you’re doing. So, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the main goal of this course?
• What are the students going to learn?
• What skills will they acquire?

For instance, the main goal could be to teach students with no writing experience about the basic academic writing strategies and tools they need to nail their academic writing journey.

Depending on the type you want to do, you’ll answer these questions and write down the answers. This is your basic idea that still needs a lot of work.

2.Define Your Target Audience

You know that your course is for students, but that’s such a broad notion. You need to dig deeper and think about narrowing your target audience down. This will make your course more specific and thus more profitable and successful.

So, your target audience could be:

• freshmen students with zero academic writing experience
• experienced students who just want to polish their writing skills
• business students who need business writing skills
• graduate students
• etc.

Brainstorm and define who this course is for. Writing for a specific target audience will help you create better course materials and provide your course-takers with the specific information they’re looking for.

3.Decide on the Length

Before you start writing your course materials, you need to decide on the approximate length of the entire thing. How elaborate and extensive do you want it to be? Do you want it to be super-detailed and packed with information, or you prefer making it an introductory course to help with the basics?

Decide which way you want to go and try defining:

• the time the students will need to go through the course
• the length of the video materials, if there are any

This will help you with the steps to follow in the process of creating your course.

4.Define the Specific Skills Students Will Acquire

You have to decide what specific skills and knowledge will the students acquire once they finish your course. This is similar to setting an objective for your course, but you need to be more specific in this step. 

Think about the particular skills, tools, and strategies you’ll help them learn through the course materials. For example, you could teach any of the below-listed skills:

• building an argument
• writing a thesis statement
• doing pre-writing research
• organizing specific types of essays e.g. descriptive, compare/contrasts, argumentative
• overcoming writer’s block
• revising and proofreading

Define what the course materials will teach and decide on the most important aspects of your course. Then, move on to the next step, which is outlining the content of the course.

5.Outline the Content of the Course

Now it’s time to start thinking about the actual materials you’ll be creating and what those materials will cover. That means you’ll have to outline your course and create the initial idea of what it may look like. 

A good outline will include:

• an introduction
• number of lessons
• what each of these lessons will cover
• the skills they’ll acquire in each lesson
• downloadable materials you’ll provide
• takeaway

This outline will be the skeleton of your course, and your starting point for creating more elaborate, detailed, and instructive lessons. It will guide you through the process of creation and help you ensure you’re not forgetting anything.

So, make the outline brief, concise, and well-organized.

6.Start Working on the Lessons

Now that you know what you want to say and teach, you can start working on each lesson of your course. You must practice consistency throughout all your lessons. They each need to be the same in terms of:

• structure
• vocabulary and terminology
• method of teaching

So, if you’re using the term “writer’s block” in one lesson, don’t use other synonyms like “writer’s anxiety” in other lessons. And, make sure each lesson follows the same principle of presenting the materials, whether it’s through audio, visual, or written materials.

Also, make sure to determine the following for each less:

• objective
• specific skills you’ll teach
• what the student will learn

The quality of the lessons will influence students to buy and take your course. Make each lesson equally important and valuable to the course-takers.

7.Provide Helpful Resources

Your course should help students build their knowledge even after finishing the course. That means you should provide helpful resources they can use whenever they’re dealing with academic assignments.

For instance, tell them about the best proofreading tools or credible information sources they can rely on. You could teach them about Lets Grade It and finding the best plagiarism checkers. Make sure they finish the course feeling equipped with new skills, tools, and resources that will boost their writing confidence.

8.Create a Catchy Title

You may not be aware, but the title of your online writing course for students can make a huge difference, especially with the strong competition you’ve got. This is why you need to dedicate some serious thinking and brainstorming to your course title.

Your title needs to:

• be specific and announce what the course is about
• address the specific target audience
• mention the skills they’ll acquire
• invite students to join
• make a promise

You need to think of a title that will give your potential course-takers more than one reason to apply and take the course. Below, we’ve listed some examples that can help you understand what we have in mind:

• Academic Writing Basics: Steps to Improved University Writing
• Writing Academic Papers: 10 Essentials Lessons You Need
• Mastering Dissertation Writing: Ultimate Guide for Graduate Students

For instance, the third title clearly states that it’s a course for graduates. It promises help with dissertation writing and is presented as the ultimate resource you’ll ever need. It’s certainly going to get the attention it needs to sell.

So, think about a title that best describes your course and make sure the students know exactly what to expect from you.

9.Define the Requirements

Depending on the type of course you’ve created, you’ll need to define the requirements that the student needs to meet to take it. This will help the students see whether that’s the right course for them or not. So, make sure to list the requirements if there are any.

Here’s what some writing courses require:

• basic fluency in English
• experience in academic essay writing
• a general understanding of the research writing process
• etc.

You could simply write “strong motivation and willingness to learn” if there are no other specific requirements.

10.Decide on the Price

The price of your course is another important element that will influence its profitability. And by that, we don’t mean the more expensive the better. On the contrary, there’s one rule you need to respect:

• the price of the course needs to be in correlation to the course quality and value

That means that you shouldn’t:

• underprice and not appreciate your hard work and effort
• overprice to make it seem more valuable

The best way to define the price is to take a look at the other similar courses and how much do they cost, especially on the platform you wish to offer your course. Compare your materials, idea, and content to other courses, consider the platform’s payment methods, and you’ll find it easy to see what your work is worth.

11.Proofread

You’re offering a course about academic writing to students. You need to make sure your writing skills are impeccable. Making a mistake as small as a typo could ruin the credibility of your work.

So, make sure to proofread for:

• grammar
• spelling
• punctuation
• vocabulary

Publish the course only once you’re sure it’s perfectly and professionally written.

Final Thoughts

Creating a profitable online writing course for students requires some serious planning, researching, and work. You need to think about the various aspects of your course and try and make it interesting and educational for your target audience.

Hopefully, the tips provided above will help you create a brilliant writing course that students will love.

Description

The article covers the basic steps you need to take to create an online writing course for students that will be educational, interesting, and profitable.