Table of Contents
This post may include affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer for more information.
Interactive Videos
One of the first lessons you’ll most likely have in your course is an introduction video about who you are and some basic information about the course. The easiest way to actually create engagement in the first lesson is to make it interactive! I love using a special tool for free that helps me embed a HTML code in the first lesson and allows my students to immediately respond via video and also text. You’d be surprised how many personal video messages I get and how much easier it is to communicate and get to know my students on a personal level. If you’re at all curious about this, you have to check out my free video training about how I tripled my course engagement with the first lesson without hopping onto a Zoom call!
Featuring Past Clients and Students
At times, I’ll run my courses with a live support component and let students know that those that complete and apply the tutorials will get featured in some way. Towards the end of the course, I will place a form for students to submit their final end product or result. I use a survey form called Paperform. Full Disclaimer, this is totally an idea I learned inside my current business mentor’s program Lizzy Goddard’s Profitable Playground. I definitely reccommend checking out all of her programs since I’ve learned so much about email marketing, course creation, and in general running an online business.
I’ve featured many of my students in past podcast, blog posts, and social media posts as a special incentive for completing the course!
Student & Client Examples:
How Claudia Makes Passive Income Selling Digital Products
Digital Product Toolkit January Featured Students
Transformational Learning with Adam Kol
Social Media Features on Instagram
Silent Co-working Calls
One thing I experimented with during the last live round of my course is conducting silent co-working calls to implement on each module. One thing I’ve kept in mind during silent co-working calls is how to sustainably deliver co-working calls so that they make the most use out of everyone’s time, provides structured support, and also delivers an amazing experience! Many times coaches might feel obligated to add in extra coaching during co-working, but since courses should be contained within the topics at hand, it’s much better to explain and set the ground rules for how your silent co-working calls should be conducted and what is or isn’t the best place for these conversations.
Co-working Call Structure
- 5-10 minutes Introduction and explanation of curriculum and task.
- 20-30 minutes silent co-working time with a 5 minute reminder before silent coworking is completed. I conduct all my meetings via Zoom and did not record them. All of the notes from the meeting we added to the course. Students could ask questions inside the chat, but they were specifically on the curriculum we covered inside of the tutorial discussed.
- 10-15 minutes wrap-up – During this time we were able to wrap up any remaining questions.
Triple Your Course Engagement
With One Free Tech Tool
Triple your course engagement with one free tech tool without hopping on Facebook Live or Zoom and done in less than 5 minutes!
Fill In The Blank Templates
There are many times that I will create a curriculum with fill-in-the-blank areas for students to complete, yet sometimes students don’t always find the time to complete these. What I do instead to increase student engagement is send emails to students a week before the assignment is due and then ask that they complete the lesson during our co-working call. Many of my students really loved this structure! I find that if you can afford the extra time commitment to show up for your students during a higher level support round for your course, your students will see better and faster results.
Student Onboarding Emails
Once you have gone through creating your course and provided support for your students, you can re-use and repurpose these emails and create an email automation. Some people feel that they aren’t really necessary, but I definitely believe there are some major benefits to them!
Benefits of Course Student Email Onboarding
I’ve not only seen students go back and work on lessons, but also will see that students have less likelihood of refunds. After onboarding 1,000 students in multiple courses, I’ve found that onboarding emails can serve multiple purposes.
I do have to mention that I think longer courses or programs may lend itself best to student onboarding emails. Smaller courses or instantly downloadable products I don’t believe require long onboarding email sequences.
Specific Directions
Students should really always receive an email with instructions on how to access their lessons. This decreases confusion and diminishes students from having to email you where they should access their curriculum.
Nurture Related Resources
One other thing I’ve done in my courses is created multiple different links to lessons that refer people to products or programs I’ve liked to use. I’ve found this both supports my students as well as helps me support my business. As long as you add your affiliate disclaimer, you can ethically do both!
The Course Consultant Resources
Are you looking for step by step guidance to engage with your students and grow your online coaching business with a signature course or coaching program? Join me for a free consultation to see if we’re. a good fit.