How can you find the most motivation for your online course? Of course, by enrolling in additional classes!
You get to experience online courses from the perspective of a student when you sign up for and complete the activities in other courses. This will be useful if you decide to create your own online course as the instructor.
Table of Contents
When deeply involved in developing an online course, it’s simple to overlook important details. You may perceive a course’s actual workflow, look, structure, and content with new eyes when you can examine it from a student’s perspective. Nothing is done with prejudice, premeditation, or awareness of the outcome in advance. The system’s flaws are considerably easier to spot.
To swiftly evaluate the user experience and develop an understanding of how you want to create yours differently, I advise enrolling in online courses. You can accomplish all of this while learning something new! #winning.
You’ll be able to identify the elements of the course that you liked and disliked as you evaluate it, all of which will be useful when you construct your online course. I’m going to walk you through an example of a course I recently took and reviewed to help you learn what to look for when you evaluate different courses.
Why I chose to review a phone photography basics online course
Today I’ll be evaluating a lesson taught by Brit + Co. called Phone Photography Basics. Introducing them to their large audience of more than 125 million online readers, this media organisation encourages female bloggers and business owners to teach online courses on subjects in which they are knowledgeable.
Each online course is recorded at San Francisco’s lovely Brit + Co studio. Classes cover everything from calligraphy to coding, making sure that their target demographic of millennial women learns new information quickly.
Helene Sula, a fellow ConvertKit user and writer, conducts the Phone Photography Basics course. Since I’ve been following Helene’s Instagram escapades for years, I was curious to learn that she mainly uses an iPhone to take her stunning pictures.
I only take pictures with my phone and don’t currently possess a digital camera, so I thought this class would be the ideal approach to improve my Instagram feed. I know it’s worth the time investment since some of my finest copywriting clients have come via Instagram in the last quarter of my career.
Since my level of photography is somewhere in the middle, this class sounded like an excellent fit. Learning how to use the camera on my phone better in a short afternoon was also quite attractive.
Take notes on what you learn as we describe this online course, and comment on what worked and may be improved. Along the process, we’ll also offer advice to support you as you develop your online course. Get started now! We, for one, are!
Online course outline: Phone Photography Basics Class
There are hundreds of subtopics inside a subject like a phone photography, which is a rather vast online course topic. It’s more crucial than ever to focus on the subject of your online course so that you can instruct students efficiently.
By making their course outline public, Brit + Co did a terrific job of demonstrating exactly what you would study in class. They made the choice to combine all of the courses into a single 39-minute video session for this class. Ten lessons, each lasting two to four minutes, make up the whole class. This duration is quite common for Brit + Co sessions, and their pupils develop trust as a result of their constancy.
Here is a complete list of the lessons:
- Introduction: An introductory video short introduces Helene to the audience and explains the value of mastering phone photography.
- Supplies: a list of the resources that must be used to maximise the class.
- Lighting: teaching students the importance of natural lighting with examples of what to look for.
- Camera Settings: a step-by-step tutorial on what camera settings are important to customize and activate.
- Real Shoot – Flat Lay: a live-action view of how Helene styles a flat lay shot from above.
- Roal Shoot – Outside: a brief look at how phone photography best practices change when you’re shooting outdoors.
- Editing a Flat Lay: different techniques for editing and filtering styled flat lay photos.
- Editing an Outside Shot: same as above, only with outdoor photography.
- Sharing on Social Media: a simple walkthrough of how to share your photos on Instagram, especially with hashtags.
- Final Words: very short outro reiterating what students learned and how they can connect on social media.
The online course outline facilitated students’ speedy completion of tasks in this condensed programme. How well-rounded was each lesson, then? Let’s dissect it in an evaluation of an online course.
Online Course Review
As we mentioned earlier, enrolling in and evaluating another course is one of the finest methods to get ideas for your online course. To apply this information to your creative process, it’s critical to identify what succeeded and what needs improvement. Using the same Phone Photography Basics lesson, here is an illustration:
Who would benefit from this online course
As more bloggers leave their DSLR cameras at home while on vacation, phone photography is increasing. We would advise any beginning photographers who want to appear professional on Instagram but aren’t ready to invest in pricey equipment to take our Phone Photography Basics online course.
The lesson is only 39 minutes long, so there is a minimal time commitment. It focuses more on providing the resources needed to begin your picture session. This course might be a fantastic option if you want to take beautifully groomed flat lays or photograph stunning landscapes with only your phone.
What worked well
The video set is expertly constructed. We were immediately inspired to take pictures after witnessing the beautifully prepared film set for a topic like a Phone Photography Basics. The setting was expert, kind, and welcoming. We also think that Brit + Co. made a wise choice because it perfectly aligns with Helene’s brand.
Welcome Intro starting with a Personal Story. We liked Helene’s introduction since she explained how she started with phone photography. She opted to shoot sponsored images using her phone after breaking her DSLR camera while trekking and the business liked them. It was a fantastic selling point to use when introducing the online course!
Shared a specific hashtag for the class that students may use. Helene gives students a hashtag to use when posting their finished images on social media after class to encourage them to participate even more. What a great concept to motivate people to take action.
A printable guide for phone photography was included. Students may review the lectures with Helene and organise their photoshoot by printing out the online course PDF. The class is more valuable because of this extra learning.
Showed a live view of the action taking place on the camera. A phone mockup video with Helene’s audio demonstrates how she navigates between applications and phone settings. It’s a fantastic approach to display a step-by-step visual tour.
The distinction between shooting inside and outside. The workshop demonstrated how your settings and field of view alter depending on whether you’re shooting an indoor or outside topic. These suggestions were helpful for me because I use both for my Instagram feed.
What could be Improved
Even though Helene’s teachings were relatively straightforward, we observed a few problems as we went through the course that may have improved this online course. Each will include a lesson you may learn from this online course evaluation.
Add extra materials to the lesson on supplies. Only three items are listed in the course’s Supplies section as prerequisites (phone, worksheet, and an app). Helene picks up a white foam board and several accessories as you reach the Real Shoot – Flat Lay lesson and begins shooting pictures. Why these weren’t on the initial list is a mystery to me.
Lesson: If you provide all the necessary resources in advance, learners will feel better prepared.
We were lowering the volume of the song during transitions. It’s a minor complaint, but we frequently had to lower the volume while the music played and raise it again when Helene spoke. We still gave this online course a thumbs up despite it. However, it occasionally interfered with our note-taking.
Lesson: Ensure that the audio in your whole online course is balanced.
Overall
Even though we identified a few areas that required work, the Phone Photography Basics session was very actionable and was only 39 minutes long. We were inspired to get out our phones and embark on a photo expedition after the online training.
Our significant takeaways were discovering new methods to use the AF/AE lock and HDR settings on our phone cameras and various picture editing techniques using the A Colour Story app.
Any bloggers and business owners who want to shoot high-quality images for their blog and social media but aren’t ready to invest in a DSLR camera should sign up for this programme, in our opinion. It’s excellent for aspiring photographers who want to understand the fundamentals so they may get motivated and inspired before beginning.
You may sign up for and start reviewing additional free and inexpensive programmes offered by Brit + Co right now! The future? It could motivate you to experiment when developing your online course.
Start selling within minutes
You deserve to be compensated for your creations as an artist. ConvertKit Commerce is a pre-built tool to assist you in selling digital goods.
Questions to ask yourself when reviewing an online course
You may fully benefit from the knowledge you are learning from the online teacher and improve as a teacher by keeping track of what you learn as a student in another online course.
It will be helpful to have a solid list of questions to draw from before you start a new online course. Here are a few questions to be prepared to answer to get you started:
- Did the course address the subject we anticipated? If not, why not?
- How well did the course format match the content?
- Were the lessons sequentially ordered?
- How comfortable are we with the subject now that we’ve taken the online course?
- What did we like doing the most? Was it because it was entertaining, instructive, or both?
- What motivated us to enrol in the course? (Ex: references, advertisements, etc.)
- Which kind of material did they use? Did such forms of content—such as games, quizzes, and Slideshare—work for the subject?
- What more information might have improved our comprehension of the subject?
- How was the online course’s customer support? Did we even need to talk to the teacher?
- When did the online course end? Did it go well with my busy schedule?
- What was the online course’s pace? Were there weekly lessons, or could we work at our own pace?
- How did the audio or visual components sound or look? Did that alter our assessment of the course—for the better or worse?
- Would we pay the same price for what we learnt after completing the online course? Was the value more perfect or lower? Why?
- Would we enrol in this instructor’s online course again?
What have you discovered by enrolling in online courses?
What about the courses you’ve taken have you enjoyed (and disliked)? How are you utilising that data to create a more compelling online course? Let’s have a conversation in the comments.
What are your opinions on this? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Your comment is welcomed. Off-topic comments might be removed.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Do not forget to sign up for our newsletter.
We’ve also got a special eBook for you.
Do not forget to sign up for our newsletter.
We’ve also got a special eBook for you.
Latest Update on January 6, 2023
Disclosure: If you opt to purchase a premium plan, we may get affiliate income for some of the links in this article at no additional cost to you. Our affiliate disclosure may be found in our privacy policy. This website is not intended to offer financial advice. This is only for amusement purposes.
What are your opinions on this? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Referred and Related Articles
What is OTT (Over the Top)?
Over-the-top (OTT) refers to content delivered via the Internet that bypasses traditional channels, like cable and broadcast television companies,…
Best ConvertKit Review | Get Started For Free 2023
With the help of ConvertKit, an email marketing tool, you can increase your audience, automate your marketing, sell subscribers to your digital products, and send many emails at once.
