In this article, I have shared “What Is The Appropriate Length Of An Online Course?”. Are you prepared to begin developing your own online course but are concerned that it will be too long or too short?
What should the duration of an online course be? An online course should be as brief or as lengthy as necessary to achieve the learning results promised.
In practice, you might develop a course that consists entirely of tiny 5-minute films that explain a single concept. You may create 25-50 video lessons, each 5-20 minutes long, for a more in-depth flagship course.
Choosing the appropriate course length might be difficult. You don’t want it to be so long that your kids become bored, but you also don’t want it to be so short that they feel cheated.
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What Is The Appropriate Length Of An Online Course?
It all depends on what your course’s goal is. The most important thing is to offer the learning results that your course promised, regardless of how long it takes you to complete the course.
If you’re only utilizing a small course to encourage people to sign up for your email list, it could be just a few of videos that are each a few minutes long.
If you want to sell a course for $100, you’ll need to make it longer and devote a lot more time to it. Although price isn’t always directly related to how long a course should be, it does have a role. However, the major focus of your course should always be on the learning outcome.
People will become bored and never complete your course if it is too long. People may not feel like they are getting their money’s worth if it is too short.
I’ll share two examples from two distinct online courses I’ve created:
- An introductory course on how to cultivate mushrooms at home: ten things to learn (1 hour, 22 mins)
- A thorough course that teaches individuals how to start a modest mushroom farm: There are 57 lessons (7 hours, 8 minutes)
This is only an example; there is no one-size-fits-all solution for determining the length of a course.
The greatest recommendation is to keep it as brief as possible while teaching everything your pupils need to know in order to achieve the goal they set for themselves.
How Long Should Individual Sections Of A Course Be?
You can have a lengthier overall course as long as it’s broken down into sections, chapters, or modules (these all mean the same thing).
Each module may have three to ten separate lessons, each of which is tied to the larger result and serves as a stage in the learning process.
Each module’s lesson should be confined to a maximum of 5 – 20 minutes in length.
It’s wise to design your courses with time constraints in mind. A significant number of your students are likely to have full-time employment and families to support. As a result, many find it difficult to sit down and view a 30-minute movie every day.
Furthermore, research shows that individuals recall information better when it is presented in little chunks with gaps in between (source).
This method is very effective for memorization. It’s far easier to remember a series of numbers that are broken apart, such as 654 987 321, than it is to imagine them all as one single string, such as 654987321.
Making smaller portions of content benefits you as a creator as well as gives a better user experience. If you need to update or adjust one lesson in your course, a 5-minute video is significantly easier to correct than a 25-minute film.
If one lesson is getting a bit too long, consider splitting it into two separate lessons and find a logical point within it to do this.
Create A Good Structure
Learning and information retention have been found to enhance when learning events are spaced out.
Most courses begin with fundamentals and then expand upon them, and if you do this, your students will feel as if they are gradually grasping the larger concept you are teaching them.
Creating a strong course structure is critical for the student experience and for assisting you in course production, so check out this post on how to create a course outline for more information.
You could wish to provide your students a general overview with particular directions, such as completing only one section of the course every day or completing specified sections or activities before going on.
To prevent people from skipping ahead, certain course systems will allow you to design the course so that only one portion unlocks every 24 hours (this is known as ‘dripping’ course content).
Adding tasks in between presentations is another method to make your course more interactive. As an example, one component of your course might include 5 minutes of video.
The pupils are then advised to take a break and complete a worksheet before watching the remaining 5 minutes of the film.
What Affects A Student’s Concentration Duration?
The subject piques your interest. Someone who is passionate about a subject will be able to focus on it for far longer than someone who is bored with it.
In an online motorcycle riding course, you might be able to get away with longer course portions than in an academic course like learning biology.
It will be easier to hold your audience’s attention if your course is relevant and appealing to them.
Interactivity. When students take an active role in their education, they are significantly more engaged. Consider this: is it more enjoyable to play a game or to watch someone else play one?
Intersperse your teachings with moments of reflection, and invite your students to think of and write down their own solutions. This keeps kids engaged and gives them a sense of control over their own learning.
To keep students engaged, include quizzes, question and answer periods, feedback forms, surveys, and other interactive elements.
The worth of the product. A video with a resolution of 1080p is more enjoyable to view than one with a resolution of 360p.
It’s also easier on the ears to listen to a good microphone with noise cancellation rather than one with poorly tuned settings that frequently pop. Cheap images or a lack of rationally structured material can also detract from the learning experience.
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