Creating Better Online Courses (That You can Charge More for) with Wes Kao

Since leaving the classroom in 2016, I've missed one aspect of teaching more than any other: connecting with students in real-time, as I teach the material. And while I love creating evergreen courses, today's guest has a better way to teach online. Wes Kao, a co-founder of both altMBA and Maven, tells us about Cohort-based Courses (CBCs), and I am all in! She'll tell us how CBCs have better completion rates, allow for much less upfront work, and allow you to charge more. If you want to create an online course in 2022, I strongly recommend you consider them. Plus, in Build Something More, where does YouTube sit with all of this?

Top Takeaways:

• Most online learning is one direction. The teacher pre-records a video and teaches. But Cohort-based Courses offer bi-directional learning, which is huge in the online space. It allow instructors to get real time feedback and pivot when needed.
• When deciding what to teach, you need to consider what you're an expert in. Ask yourself, "If Harvard were asking me to guest lecture, what topic would they invite me to teach?" You should also survey your audience to understand where they are at and what they want to learn.
• CBCs are best when they are interactive. You should shoot for 75% interactive, 25% knowledge transfer. Think about how your students can learn something, and practice it right now; this allows them to reinforce what they learn, and get real time feedback from you and fellow students.

Show Notes:

• Wes Kao
• Wes Kao on Twitter
• Wes Kao Podcast
• 10 YouTube Statistics That You Need to Know in 2021
• The Future of Education is Community: The Rise of Cohort-Based Courses - Forte Labs
• Maven: Create and teach cohort-based courses
• MasterClass
• Morning Brew
• Seth Godin
• Building and Evovling Profitable Project Plan with Jennifer Bourn
• Creator Crew

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