It’s March and we have a new theme: Course Quality!
Hey there!
It’s officially March and our next topic to discuss is course quality. Throughout the month, we will have discussions about how you can improve your course’s quality and provide a better experience for your learners.
So if you want to hear more about what makes a quality course on Udemy, you won’t want to miss the content to come!
To kick things off, we’d love to hear from you.
What strategies do you use to engage students in your online courses?
Share your comments below
Comments
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I’m excited to hear everyone’s insight. Something that resonates with me is to foster connection genuinely with my learners. This was talked about in last months coffee chat by instructors, in keeping with strategic SEO strategies. Without a connection, the information is the same as any other class. Rapport building with our audience is key to a quality course.
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Strategies to engage students in my online class I would keep easy language for students to learn the course effectively with more and more real.life examples. @Bella
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This is a great theme @Bella
. I have been on Udemy since 2016. I do the following to keep my students engaged:- Incorporate Intros and Outros: I have an intro and outro for each section. My intros discuss what they will learn in the section. The outros discuss what they learned in this section. I follow the principle that says - tell them what you will teach, teach them, and then again tell them what you taught.
- The "You" Language: While scripting my courses, I imagine the students are sitting right in front of me. So, I always try to maintain the "You" language as if I am talking directly to them.
- Use Subtle Tone of Training: My topics are generally dry. So I never try to maintain a serious tone of training. That would bore my students and drown them into sleep. I keep the training content light and sprinkle a few genuine laughs and industry relevant wit.
- Inspire them: Students don't enroll in your course just for the sake of learning. They enroll because they have some aspirations that they want to fulfill. Some may want to dance well, some may want to play piano well, while some may want to get certified in their exams, and some may want to get a new job. Your course seems to be the best choice for them to achieve their goals. So, I never sell them the course content. I talk about what I have achieved because of the content that's there in the course. I share my perspective on how they would achieve their goals by doing what they want to do.
- Craft Real-Life Stories: Wherever possible, I will have a real-life story that would explain the concept in detail from a real-life perspective. This helps the students resonate their conceptual understanding to real-world scenarios.
- Use Udemy Tools: I diligently work on maximizing the Udemy provided tools such as the Q&A Discussion board, quizzes, downloadable pdfs, articles, educational announcements, etc. I would prominently encourage students to use the Q&A Discussion board to share their questions. I would ask students to use the downloadable pdfs. I would also add articles wherever possible. I share educational announcements on a regular basis. These are all excellent ways to add value to student's learning experience and increase engagement.
- Respond to Student's Questions in 24 hours: Students would go the extra mile of sending a private Udemy message to the instructor because they have an issue or a genuine question. They are expecting a response. So, I do make a point to respond to them as early as I can. My personal goal is to get back to them in 24 hours and I try to meet that goal.
I hope this was helpful. Feel free to let me know if you have any follow-up questions
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Quality - a great topic since this is what it is all about.
For me it is important to make it practical and that students can enjoy doing the training.
Would love to hear the other instructors views.
Vanessa Viviers
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Thank you @Bella
for asking to share our comments about a great topic,
Engaging students in an online course can be challenging, however some strategies can be used to keep the learners motivated and interested.
I would suggest, here, some ideas:A. Creating top quality course content with the instructor's face shots in every page/slide.
B. Setting clear expectations can ensure that the learners understand the course objectives, assignment deadlines/criteria from the beginning and help them stay focused and motivated throughout the course.
C. Wisely using multimedia such as videos, images and audio to enhance the course content, break up the monotony of reading long blocks of text in an effort to engage students who learn in different ways.
D. Providing timely feedback to the learners on their assignments and assessments to give them the opportunity to improve their work.E. Providing personalized support to the learners by answering their questions promptly to help building a sense of trust and engagement among the learners.
F. Illustrating course concepts using real-world examples to make the content more relevant and show how the course content can be applied in the real world.
Best regards,
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So true @Deepika chatur! Top quality content, timely feedback, personalized support, and real-world examples are all key factors in keeping learners engaged and motivated. Thanks for sharing!
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Thanks for sharing your tips on how to keep students engaged, @Rahul Iyer! Your use of the "You" language, subtle tone of training, and real-life stories are great techniques to make learning more relatable and enjoyable. It's also great to hear that you're using the Udemy tools to their fullest potential and responding to student questions promptly. Your takes are always very insightful!
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the new theme, @VanessaVivi260! It's great to hear your emphasis on practicality and student enjoyment. Looking forward to hearing from other instructors as well.
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Great strategies, @Ahmed_Jendoubi! I completely agree with you on creating top-quality content and providing timely feedback to learners. Personalized support and real-world examples are also effective ways to keep learners engaged and motivated. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic!
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Thank you @Bella
,Best regards,
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I especially agree with your point 3. Showing a human element and especially humor can really add to the appeal of a course. Victor Borge said that "laughter is the shortest distance between two people." I think humor is far more often underused than it is overused.
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Good to see Udemy is continously innovating.
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I'd like to add assignments, but that process is pretty hard to do, especially the questions part, I'm building the assignment, I have no questions. I always fail on that one. Can we just streamline it down to just being able to add an assignment and an answer key like 2 steps instead of five?
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