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    How to Write an Online Course: From Concept to Completion One Step at a Time
    How to Write an Online Course: From Concept to Completion One Step at a Time
    How to Write an Online Course: From Concept to Completion One Step at a Time
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    How to Write an Online Course: From Concept to Completion One Step at a Time

    By Bobbi Linkemer

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    About this ebook

    How to Write an Online Course: From concept to completion one step at a time is not intended to be an actual how-to guide to developing an online course. Rather, it is a journal of one writing teacher’s exploration of a new and better way to help aspiring authors write, publish, and promote their nonfiction books. When I started blogging about my first tentative steps down the path of writing an online course, it was not my intention to combine the posts into a book. By the time I reached Blog # 48, however, I realized that these musings might be of help to others who are starting from scratch as I was. There is a steep learning curve for the uninitiated. For adult students, who may be new to online learning, their first experience may seem confusing and overwhelming until they learn their way around this unfamiliar terrain. For educators, writing and facilitating an online course requires lots of time; knowledge of the subject matter, learning styles, presentation techniques, and e-learning technology; as well as the psychology of keeping students interested in the material and motivated enough to remain in the course. Sometimes, that is the greatest challenge.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateOct 4, 2013
    ISBN9780988578043
    How to Write an Online Course: From Concept to Completion One Step at a Time

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    • 5/5
      More entertaining than a how to book on the author's experience developing an online course. Some good points on the process and steps that are involved but not how you do it.
    • 1/5
      This is a complete waste of words. If the blind lead the blind...

    Book preview

    How to Write an Online Course - Bobbi Linkemer

    Journey

    In Search of New Horizons

    August 28, 2011

    I’ve been thinking that it’s time to tackle a new project. Last year when the urge hit me, I decided to plan and write a book online. It was a test of the process I teach on Writing, Publishing, and Promoting Your Nonfiction Book, which I was pleased to see actually works well. It was also a lot of work. I did all the preliminary planning and the first draft of the book on this blog, but once the serious editing began, I followed the usual steps of taking the book through to completion, off-line. In case you missed it, the book is Words To Live By, and it is a memoir of my career. The process was fun because creating something new is always fun.

    After the book came out, I worked with Web designer Doreen Hulsey to design a new website. Actually she designed it; I played behind-the-scenes foreman. There seemed to be no end to the steps required to complete that complicated job. It was complicated because Doreen had to work from an existing website, rather than starting from scratch. The result, in my opinion, is fantastic. Then, of course, the blogs looked amateurish by comparison, so our next project was to redesign them as well and make the big move to WordPress.

    In the meantime, book designer extraordinaire, Peggy Nehman, is redesigning the seventh edition of How to Write a Nonfiction Book. I discovered the hard way that if you own that book and try to download a new edition to your Kindle, Amazon won’t let you do it. You will get a message stating that you already own it. To get around this, I have changed the subtitle slightly. I hope that works.

    All of this brings me to my latest dream project—putting together an online training program based on How to Write a Nonfiction Book, my classes, and my own experience as a book-writing coach and ghostwriter. Since I have never done anything like this, the first step is research, which I am beginning right now. As I did with Words To Live By, I am going to track the process in blog posts, so you will know how it’s going every step of the way. Please give me feedback, ask questions, and share your thoughts with me. Your input can only make this a better course.

    Great Advice From a Veteran of the Online Course Wars

    September 3, 2011

    Well, this is a lesson in not making an announcement about my intention to do something until I’m sure I can do it. Blithely marching into the unknown, I told the world I was going to design an online course. Off I went to buy the perfect book to guide me through the process. I found it immediately, bought it with 1-click on Amazon, and couldn’t wait to dig in. I was lost by page two.

    It seems I had chosen a book for course design in an organization that has administrative and tech support. When something goes wrong or you are lost in techno-hell, you just pick up the phone and summon help. Clearly, I was in over my head. Trying to figure out what to do next, I wrote my friend, Rich, who knows a lot about online courses because that’s what his company does. I don’t know what I was expecting him to say, but here was his response:

    YOU are the administrative and technical help. Don’t let that kind of verbiage throw you off track. Learn from the book what you have to offer in a course. Whatever you are teaching—real estate, horse racing, bridge, or math—the basics are all the same. If the administration and technical parts become too big, you hire people later on down the road. The bottom line is that you know the material; you have been teaching it. Think of yourself as a student and write the course as if it is what you would like to learn if you were taking the course.

    At first, I was embarrassed about making a premature announcement; now I’m a bit chagrined about having become so easily discouraged. I’m back on track. Thanks, Rich!

    Setting Goals For My Online Course

    September 10, 2011

    Before I get anywhere near planning this course, I have to fill out three questionnaires. Now I know how my prospective clients feel, which will help me put myself in their shoes. Questionnaire 1 is about goals.

    •  Why do you want to create and teach an online course? This has been a long-time goal. Such a course will be a natural extension of teaching this program to a class, coaching one person at a time, and conveying the information through a book. An online course will reach more people than these other methods and allow them to interact with the instructor and one another.

    •  What are your goals for yourself and your future students? Personally, I would like to design a more structured course and make it available to a larger audience, as well as to generate another source of income. I would like this course to be easy to replicate in other markets with an approach that may lend itself to hiring other teachers. I want to expose my future students to a process that has proven itself to work in bricks-and-mortar environments and in one-on-one relationships. For them, the ultimate goal will be a published book.

    •  Will those goals be met by putting your course online? If you have taken a credited or online course in the past, are there things you would do differently this time around? What are they? I have never taken an online course, which I see as a problem. My first objective is to take one before I plunge into this project.

    •  What benefits and advantages do you think your course will have in the online setting?

    •  What will you need to do in order to maximize those advantages?

    •  Do you foresee any major disadvantages to delivering your course online?

    The learning curve is going to slow me down. This is a case of not asking the right questions because I don’t know what the questions are. I will have neither administrative nor tech support to back up my efforts, and I know it will be important

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