Main page recommendations
The first thing people see before they buy a course is its main page. Here you can post a promo video, provide a course description, info on target audience, and requirements.
- Please fill out the course description with following information: course objective, future theoretical and practical results of the course, and description of education format and ways of instructor support. Divide the information into a short (2-3 sentences) and a long description, where you should specify advantages of your course and answer why it is your course that learners should buy.
- Author’s description in your profile shall be filled out too. It will be great if you describe your expertise: awards, experience, previous projects (with links). This information is automatically added to any course where you are mentioned as an author or instructor.
- If you are making a course on behalf of a company, ask Cogniterra to make your profile into a company one.
A paid course should excel free courses, e.g. explore its topic deeper, include more practical assignments, elaborate on additional topics, provide solution of real practical cases and instructor support. Before creating a course, ask yourself why your course is better than others and why people will want to buy it. Enter the answer in the course description.
Recommendations on the course content
- Look into open courses at Cogniterra that have the same topic as yours. If your course has a similar topic with a course from our catalog or extends it, read its reviews;
- It is great when a course includes instructor support. When learners pay for a course, they expect something more than just access to the content. You can determine the frequency of answering questions and include it in the course description. Make comments open, so the learners could ask questions and get answers;
- We recommend including more assignments with automatic and manual checking and peer review. Remember to use various types of assignments;
- You can launch your course in parts. For that, you need to finish all the modules. First modules should be open for access, other ones should have an open date stated. If you want to launch your course that way, make a course price lower for the starting period and then make it full after the whole course is out. Do not forget to mention the price change in the course description;
- You can make some lessons free, so your future learners could have a look at them before buying the course.
Price recommendations
You set a price for your course on your own.
Cogniterra has no restrictions for instructors in this aspect. However, please bear in mind following moments:
- Look into prices for courses with similar topics. If your course has no important distinctive features, it is better to put a smaller price;
- The more expensive your course is, the more questions learners will ask before buying, so provide possible answers at the main page or leave your contact information. Most probably, potential learners will be interested in how your course is different from others, what they are going to receive and what the result will be.
Course launch recommendations
You can create a course and test assignments first and then start to announce the course and launch the sales.
In order to start sales faster, you can create only several modules (it’s better to fill at least 75% of the course) and set start days for others. While learners study at first modules, you can finish others. That way you can launch the sales earlier and test how high-demanded the course is.
However, remember that if you move start dates further or accidentally open empty modules, it may cause negative reactions from learners and possible demands for refunds.