How to Conduct Research to Develop Your Online Course Properly

Creating an online course doesn’t have to be difficult. The trick is to know the next right steps. And to have the right research in front of you. In some cases, course creators think R&D stands for rip-off and duplicate. They are just trying to put a “spin” on someone else’s work. But we’re not about that here. To be clear, we’re talking about research and development, not rip-off and duplicate. 

The research phase of creating an online course can send you down an internet rabbit hole like no other. Why do we need to talk about the dark side of R&D? Because it’s where a lot of online course creators live. Some of them don’t mean to rip-off other people’s work; it’s a genuine mistake and lack of knowledge and experience that causes some overlap in the course creation industry. I believe that because I’ve seen it. 

conduct Your Own Research to Create an Online Course

When you don’t know what to do, you just end up doing what everyone else is doing, right? On the one hand, it’s not your fault. What else are you supposed to do? But on the other hand, you’ve got some explaining to do. That’s because there’s no excuse for copying other people’s work, right? So I want to help you avoid doing this altogether. I want to talk about how to properly research your online course before you build it. By researching first, you are able to build a one-of-a-kind online course. Research helps your online course be more valuable. And avoid legal issues.

I’m not saying that every course online is just a carbon copy of another course online. I’ve taken lots of courses where I’ve experienced Deja Vu quite a few times. What’s more likely to happen, is that course creators borrow content from other sources. We’re talking blogs, research articles, videos, and even images, and use them without properly citing those sources. That’s illegal folks and while you might think there’s no harm in it, it’s basically piracy. And while pirates are super cool, piracy is not. So let’s avoid that, shall we? 

There are a lot of online course creators out there who do things such as take an online course just to copy what is being done. I’ve seen it. I’ve been asked to do it. You’d be shocked at how many courses are nearly identical. And that’s why I do what I do. I work to help you ensure authenticity and originality. Because again, pirates are bad, mmk? 

Create an Online Course that Transforms Your Customers’ Lives

Are you worried someone is going to copy your work? Is that why you keep putting off creating your online course? Then you need to book a call with me and let me create that online course for you. I dig into the R&D to create a unique course that speaks to your audience and students. Not just with regards to customer data, but equipment and tools, too.

Be Proactive With Your Online Course Research

Okay so let’s talk about R&D: research and development. The first thing you want to know about R&D is that if you’re not careful, it can go on forever. I have a friend who has been R&D’ing the life out of an idea for over a year now. Every time I talk to this person I want to grab them by the shoulders, shake them and yell, what the hell are you doing? And I can’t help but think, “how about you get to work already?”

The funny thing about research, especially when it comes to creating online courses, is that it’s not about sitting at your desk reading articles all night long until your eyes are bloodshot and you can’t see straight anymore. In business, research is about doing. What’s really going on with my friend, and maybe this is happening to you too and it’s slowing you down, is that they are thinking about making a move. Research is a great disguise for I’m too afraid to try to make this thing so I’ll just keep readying and reading. But that doesn’t get you anywhere. The fastest way to get research done is to do something. Talk to someone. Test an idea. Try to build something. Or come and work with me.

If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that the answers reveal themselves as you begin to work on something new. If you don’t know where to start, just starting will reveal a natural roadblock and then you can deal with the roadblock as it comes. Sitting around trying to anticipate what those roadblocks will be will have you still thinking about potential roadblocks 12 months from now. And since I know time is an issue for you since time is an issue for everyone, then this is clearly now the right approach. The right approach is instead to go to the source of the information you need and do your research there. 

Your Customers Hold the Key to Your Online Course Success

Talking to your customers or potential customers is the fastest and easiest way to test your ideas and get some initial feedback about what you’re trying to create. And if you don’t like doing research, no worries – I do the research for you when you hire me to create your online course. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, the course idea you have in your head is a great starting point, but it’s not until you talk to people about the idea will it fully form and become what it’s meant to be. And that also means it might not be the course you set out to create. The beauty of that is if that’s the case, if the course you set out to create became something completely different than you thought it would, it means the research worked. We’ve done it correctly.

I’m not saying that your assumptions were wrong, nor that they will be wrong every time you crack a new egg like this, but if you find yourself going in a different direction than where you intended to go based on the information you gathered from your customers, then you, my friend, have done this step correctly. 

Stop freaking out about it. That’s like rule number one of course creation is this: follow the students.

So you’ve got to put some parameters around your research phase. I spend about a week doing research and conducting a needs assessment with your audience or using secondary research. Because if I gave you any more time, you’d use it. And again, I’m willing to bet you don’t have it to begin with which is why you’re not already creating your online course, so following strict rules around how much research you should do and when keeps you moving in the right direction. 

Trust Your Expertise and Pair it with Your research to create your online course

The second part of this is the development phase. And the development phase can also go on forever, if you’re not careful. But when you know what it is you’re creating and you can see the finish line well within sight, it becomes easier to push through and get this thing built already. The problem I see with development phases for people trying creating online courses is they want to see what else is out there. They want to take just one more course themselves or read one more sales page or watch one more documentary about their industry. But your research phase is over now. And all of that stuff? It’s research. 

We closed the door to that ride and now it’s time to get on this ride. When it comes to developing and creating your online course, you need just one thing: the information you collected from your customers. Using my unique and efficient systems, we’ll be able to build an online course that speaks directly to the needs of your customers. I don’t send you out to see what the competition is doing because if your customers are telling you that they want x, y, z, that usually means your competition doesn’t offer that service or they aren’t offering it in the right way, at the right time or for the right price.

You Don’t Need a lot of Time to Create an Online Course When You Know What to Do Next

If I gave you a year, you’d take a year. The whole point of hiring me to create your online course is to get you moving and get you delivering your content sooner. You’ve thought about this long enough. There’s no need to think about it anymore. You could do what some other course creators are doing: just copy what everyone else is doing, put it in a slippery sales automated sales funnel because everyone else is doing that, and you can price it at low-ball prices because that’s the only way to sell it OR you could create something truly unique, you could sell it on merit, not with sleazy sales tactics, and you can price it for what it’s worth. 

Want to learn more about how I can create an online course for you to use in your business? Book a free consult with me now.