How To Launch And Sell Your Home-grown Online Course During The 2020’s Online Learning Boom

The online learning industry has gathered a substantial amount of momentum since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the disbanding of schools, colleges, educational institutions, coaching centres, libraries and other offline avenues of learning, the online learning and edtech platforms have since then picked up a tremendous pace. 

Pre-COVID, the online learning industry was estimated to be at a total market size of US$319.167 billion in the year 2025 while growing at a CAGR of 9.23%. The latest research indicates that the market is expected to reach a staggering US$680 billion figure by 2027, which suggests almost twice the preceding approximation.  

The rise of virtual learning

Online learning is going to be the mainstay form of education is now definitely an understatement. Today’s technology enables students to not only learn from their peers but to even learn from the best around the world. That too without the need for expensive gadgets. A mere smartphone with Internet connectivity opens up an entire world of opportunities for new learning. It is now safe to assume that the year 2020 will ride on the success of the all-pervasive and tech-powered online learning ecosystem. 

With schools and universities facing indefinite closure, the only feasible alternative left with students is to embrace the online-education surge. From a logistical standpoint, the zero infrastructure costs involved along with the absence of brick and mortar conventions of traditional learning, make online learning the most lucrative and resilient industries for various stakeholders of the segment.

The prospects

The colossal success enjoyed by trainers, experts, professionals, instructors, teachers, professors, academics and other such creators who have launched their online academies is a testimony to the highly prosperous and proliferating nature of these online courses. 

The know-how to know-how

Long gone are the days where one would need to learn technical aspects of content creation such as SCORM, ADDIE and master content creation tools. Thanks to the democratisation of technology that enables rapid content creation, using a platform like Knorish anyone can build their online academy that sells courses and content with the least amount of resources. Over the past few months, thousands of creators have already launched their academies using our platform, and what we have seen is that there are few basic steps that every creator takes to build content for their online courses:

• Domain knowledge for the right audience
  There are several ways to do this cost-effectively. Conduct Keyword research, check trending hashtags and in social media forums for interests on the course topic. Ultimately, an online course can be created for literally any domain. Powered by the world wide web, it's now simply about finding the right audience that is searching for the information that you wish to share. What matters is that the online course must offer content that is of high value to the learner. Content that makes them feel they are getting a lot of value, and learning from the course. Sieve and sift through the content of your course and decide what should remain and what shouldn’t. Make sure you are well acquainted or gather feedback from existing students about the various learning gaps that your audience suffers from and then supplement them. Follow the rule,’ that which pays, stays’!
  
• Course Content Creation
  Zero in on the most suitable and effectual pathway for the dissemination of each topic of the course. While the video is the most popular format of content for online courses, creators must also offer additional learning content in the form of PDFs, checklists, references, case studies, tutorials, assessments, and additional learning content that they can download and learn from later. Several free tools already exist online that need minimal learning to operate and can help build all this content quickly.
• The Ultimate Goal: Sales Success
  The crucial element in any business undertaking is sales success and analysing its monetary aspects. The key to success is pricing the course right. One must understand the paying capacity of the target audience and price their courses accordingly. Not to mention, everyone loves a good deal so if the pricing comes with discounts nothing like it. Additionally, running paid ads on social media platforms, maintaining a significant presence on the applicable social media platform, sharing insights and becoming a thought leader to increase your following are all must-do practices for creators. 

The Result

Over the past three months, Knorish has gone from 500 to 5500 creators launching their online academies. That’s more than a 1000% increase in the number. This is a strong testament to the fact that creators are looking for tech platforms that can enable them to monetize their knowledge as they share it with the world. By utilising the direct plug-and-play solution that the platform offers, the possibility of creating an entire full-fledged marketable course through your smartphone is now common. No longer is there a need to rely on fancy cameras or expensive budgets anymore to create authentic content for your course. 

I believe that in the coming months the number of knowledge entrepreneurs will increase further exponentially. As more experts, individuals, professionals, artists realise the power of technology and how easy it has become to go online and share knowledge from one’s own online academy, we will see many more creators launch their online academies that sell courses across domains and demographics. 

Kinner N Sacchdev

Guest Author The author is CEO & Co-founder of Knorish