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How Long Should an Online Course Be?

You can make your course as long as you want, but there are guidelines that you can follow to make it more appealing, so: How long should an online course be?

How Long Should an Online Course Be?

Your online course doesn’t have to follow a specific rule of duration. However, depending on the content that you want to deliver, you can adapt it to fit the content better. You can make small, five to 10-minute videos, or you can make videos of up to 30 minutes in length.

Adapting the Length of Your Online Course

There’s no correct answer to how long or short a course should be. Your course needs to be as long as you need it in order to deliver the information in the right way.

However, that doesn’t mean that you have to make the course exceptionally long. If you make it too long, your students can likely get bored and not finish the course.

Content is better received when it comes to small pieces of information. If you have a reasonable amount of content, you can split that content into a few five-minute videos, rather than one single 30-minute video.

Some experts say that the engagement on an online video class drops after the six to the seven-minute mark. This means that the best thing that you can do is split the content into shorter segments.

If you’re creating an online course, making the course interactive is a great way to make your classes more interesting. These are quizzes, surveys, games, or any other kind of tool that you can implement in your lesson. Interactive courses take more time, but it makes it more fun to do.

Most people like fast and easy courses, and when we´re talking about online classes, the attention span is considerably lower. This doesn’t mean you have to compress all your information into a 10-minute video, but you should pay attention to how you’re delivering your content.

An excellent way to determine the duration of a course is to collect feedback from your students and to look into what kind of audience you are delivering your classes to.

If you have created a course for a very complex subject, you can be more flexible and extend the classes for some topics. However, if it is a simple one, try to make it as engaging and compact as possible.

What Should Be Included in an Online Course?

To create the perfect online course, there are many things that you can keep in mind. However, the best thing that you can do is to keep it exciting and engaging for your students.

Online classes are very different from in-person classes. Connecting with your students online is not as fast or as easy as doing it in person, so you have to make sure that you deliver your content in the best way possible.

An excellent way to create an appealing online course is to choose a topic that has a high demand in the market. Check the internet to see if people are actively talking about that topic, and if there is a low source of information.

With online courses, you have many channels to deliver your content (Text, audio, and video). To make the best of your classes, try to make a blend of the three in order to make your course more interesting.

Be sure to determine the most engaging methods for each class. There are topics that are better delivered on video, others by text, etc. Remember to keep a balance between every type of delivery, so you keep the course fresh.

Students respond better to variety, so in order to get them to understand the information you’re providing, try to include online assignments that allow the students to use that information. This makes accomplishing goals easier.

If you’re delivering content by audiovisual channels, try to complement that by attaching other materials that might help your students expand the information.

How Much Should I Charge for My Online Course?

It depends on the value that you give your content. If you consider your course to be of incredibly high value for your potential students, you can consider giving the course a slightly high price.

For most paid online courses, the average minimum charged is $100. However, more expensive courses can be found for $300 to $400.

If your course is designed to provide an answer to a small topic, you can consider charging $100, which is the minimum.

If you created a course that answers some more complex questions or topics, you could charge between $200 and $500 since that course can provide useful information that may not be found easily in other places.

Finally, if your course is designed to deliver exclusive content that not many people have access to, you can charge from $500 to $1,000+. Most expensive courses provide a wide range of explanatory videos, exercises, worksheets, and many other materials.

How Much Money do Online Courses Make?

As with the last question, it depends on the course. There are many factors that can be considered while telling how much you can earn.

You may earn from $100 to $50k+ per month, depending on how much you charge for your course and how many people bought it.

If you made a $100 course, and 150 people bought it in total, then you can earn approximately $15,000 for that course. Consider the value of your course when determining how much you are charging for it.

Final Thoughts

To answer the question ‘How long should an online course be?’ all you have to do is determine how you are delivering your content. Your course has to be as long or short as needed to provide the information successfully.

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