How Do You Decide What To Teach In Your Course?

Hi All,

I was thinking about how I decide what to teach. I thought I would share some of my thoughts. I'm curious how others decide what to teach?

For me, there are some subjects I don’t mind teaching about (I won't teach things I don't know about or don't like teaching about even if I think they could be popular) which are more popular for me to teach about, so most of my courses are on these subjects, then there are subjects I am passionate about but which don’t seem popular for me to teach on Udemy. I teach these subjects because I want to, even though I know they will get very few students. So, the more popular topics I teach to create the income to allow me to teach the topics which aren't so popular but which I want to share knowledge about.

I use the insights if I am trying to explore ideas for different areas to teach, or to explore what could be linked with what I teach, but within my main area that I teach I started with creating longer courses which dive deeper into the overarching elements of the topic and then shorter courses expanding on elements of the topic in more depth that only those interested in those parts are likely to be interested in exploring further.

How do you decide what to teach in your course? Do you typically teach the general principles of the topic or do you dive deeper?

All the best

Dan

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Comments

DeniseFletcher

I only teach topics I have real life experience in coupled with passion for the topic. I've been a Personal Development and Leadership Trainer for over 20 years so much of my material comes from that experience but with my individual take on the topic.

All my courses are works in progress. So I start with general principles with the view that over time other deep dive sections will be added. As I said I am a work in progress

GrahamNicholls

I have a list of courses to do that is over 20 long, they are all subjects that I know about and that I have a passion for teaching. I match that with the Udemy Market Insights and the info I gather from my students and FB group to decide roughly which order to do them in.

I'm targeting 1 course per month this year so I tend to do a shorter course one month and a longer the following month. All of the courses go further in than general principles, particularly the longer courses as I want students to have as close to a complete learning ecxperience as I can give them.

ScottDuffy

When you’re first starting out, topic selection is perhaps the second most important thing that determines success. (The first is that you have to meet a basic level of overall quality.) There’s no point having an amazing course on a topic nobody is searching for, or even an average course on a very popular topic. So you need to find out what people are wanting to learn from you and would pay money for.

Once you’ve done that, you start to make sales. You start to get students going through your content. You need to continue to provide quality training on topics those people want to learn. You create 2, 3, 4 or more courses. And if you’ve found a good niche, you just keep doing that. Keep digging for gold where you have already found gold. Don’t move to a new spot just yet!

Eventually, you get to a point where students ask you for things. Students ask, “when are you going to have training on X?” And you thank them for the idea. And if students keep asking, you need to consider making a course on that. You need more than one person asking. The market tells you what they want.

You always have to have an eye on the possible popularity or the size of a market. Don’t get trapped making courses on smaller and smaller topics. You need to still be able to produce courses on big topics to attract even more new students to you. It’s a tricky game.