How to Create a Powerful Course Outline

If you’re new to course creation, getting started can often be the most difficult step. It always feels a little overwhelming when you’re staring at a blank page and struggling to get those first few concepts from pen to paper.  

You may even be questioning if now is the right time to be mapping out your course outline and if you’ve missed out previous steps (my FREE course creation checklist will help you with that). 

But once you get going and are in full creation mode, having a course outline mapped out will actually make your course creation process run a lot smoother.

I also highly recommend having a course creation checklist that will guide you through the entirety of the planning, creation, and launch of your online course, as creating a course outline is just one part of the preparation stage. 

Is Creating an Online Course for Me?

As a business coach and course creator who’s generated over £300,000 in my business so far, I believe that passive online courses are your true ticket to a freedom-based business.

It’s just one of the options of scaling your online coaching or service provider business but it’s one of my favourites as once you’ve done the work once, you can sell it to an unlimited number of people as it requires no further input from you. Plus, if you create a killer content marketing, email marketing and social media strategy, you’ll be able to automate the majority of the sales process. 

The course creation industry is growing rapidly and in the next few years will become in excess of a trillion dollar market, so NOW is the time to get involved. 

What Information Should I Include in my Course Outline?

Your course outline needs to have enough detail in it so you know exactly what you need to create and when. Things you might want to include is the name of your course, the course description and transformation students who complete it can expect to get, details on each module and the lessons inside there and details on any extra bonus modules you want to add on.

How to Start Creating a Course Outline

Firstly, you want to have your ideal client at the centre of everything you do which means nailing the transformation of your online course.

1. The Transformation

If you’re at the stage where you’re ready to start outlining your course then you’ll have already identified your target market, carried out thorough market research and have a good idea where your ideal client’s gaps in knowledge are. If you’re missing these, be sure to refer back to my course creation checklist which lists everything you need to have before you start mapping out your course outline. It’s in chronological order for your ease. 

You’ll also be aware of your ideal clients long term goals. 

Within this data, you’ll be able to uncover the transformation your online course provides.  

You don’t need to overcomplicate the transformation. A sentence or two on who it’s for and how it helps them achieve their goals is more than enough.

Once you have that mapped out, you can start to outline each module. 

2. Outline your course modules  

You can start this phase by writing down all the modules you want to create based on your market research.

Under each of the modules you’ll want to create a quick overview of what you’ll be covering. 

Remember that students will digest smaller chunks of information better. You might want to split things up into bite-sized pieces so they don’t feel overwhelmed and are more likely going to want to take action. 

The more action they take, the better results they’ll achieve and they’ll become a walking talking testimonial for your course. 

3. Order your course modules 

Now you know exactly what you’ll be talking about, you can start to order them in a way you think your student will benefit the most from. 

For example, if we take a look at my signature online course, Freedom Course Creator, I really take my students on a journey from start to finish. From conceptualising their online course all the way to live launching it, marketing it with an evergreen marketing and sales strategy, plus all the steps in between. 

Think about the journey you’ll be taking your students on, it’ll be good to include this information on your sales page too for the analytical buyer types. 

4. Map Out Bonus Course Materials

If you plan on including any bonuses as part of your course, for example workbooks, planning documents, or templates for your students, you can now map out what these will look like and what kind of information they’ll include.

5. Get Someone to Check Through It 

Finally, before you start designing your slides and creating your scripts for your videos, it’s a  great idea to chat with a couple of the people you initially did market research with so you can validate the course structure and see if they find it easy to navigate. 

This way, if they have any concerns or suggestions about the way it’s laid out, you can optimise it before you release your online course and provide an enhanced student experience. You don’t have to give them ALL the details, just the important stuff, structure and topics you’ll be discussing in each module. 

Tools/Templates to use for your Course Outline

I get lots of people asking me what tools are the best to map out their course outline.

The thing is, this depends entirely on you and how simple you want to keep things. 

I like to use a Google Doc for outlining my courses and spreadsheets to help me create checklists and monitor deadlines as it’s nice and simple. Some of you may want to use a project management tool like ClickUp or Asana, so you can map everything out in a calendar view and get automatic notifications about your deadlines. This also works well if you’re working with a team to create your online course. 

Remember that the course outline’s function is to guide you through the course creation process, so just use whatever you’re familiar with and don’t overcomplicate it. 

If you have any questions about the course outline process, I’d love to help you out. Drop your questions below. 

Claudia xx

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