3 Quick Resources if You’re Serious About Teaching Online

Have you ever had a quote really stick with you? 

For me, it’s this one from Conversion XL: 

“Be the best, it’s the least crowded market.”

But being the best is hard. 

It means not quitting until it’s great. And not quitting, even then. 

Are you the kind of online teacher that goes the extra mile for your students? 

If so, you might see yourself in some of the teaching resources I’ve listed below.

3 Quick Resources if You’re Serious About Teaching Online

People who are serious about teaching online are wholly invested in their students’ success. 

They realize their own success depends on whether students are applying what they’ve learned and seeing real change because of it. 

These resources aim to give your online students a better learning experience, and will hopefully give you a more profitable online course business long-term.

Online Teaching Resource #1: The Life Coach School Podcast, Episode 299 – Great Teachers

In this podcast episode, Brook Castillo talks about what it means to be a great teacher.

Listen to it so YOU can aim to be the same.

Brooke says the student-teacher relationship is sacred.

And that sometimes, the most influential people in our lives are teachers we’ve never met. 

Here are some of the qualities she believes make up a great teacher, and I wholeheartedly agree:

Great teachers live what they teach.

They give examples from their own lives about what they’re teaching, because they’ve lived it.

Great teachers tell stories.

They bring stories to theories they teach, so students can grasp the concepts and retain them better. 

Great teachers help you apply what you’ve learned.

They don’t just drop a new concept into your lap, they teach you how to apply it to your own life. 

Great teachers stay on track.

They don’t indulge themselves by straying from the material, they stay focused on what’s relevant for the student.

Great teachers make things simple.

They take time to break down challenging concepts to make sure their students understand them. 

Great teachers come prepared.

They prepare for each lesson, and bring the kind of energy they want their students to feel about what they’re learning.  

Action step: In thinking about how you can become a great teacher, think about some of the qualities of your own great teachers. 

What made them so great?

How can you emulate some of your favorite characteristics about them? 

In the words of Brooke Castillo, you learn about being a great teacher by having great teachers. 

Use her podcast episode on great teachers as a resource to guide your teaching. 

Online Teaching Resource #2: Book – Beyond Satisfaction, by Breanne Dyck

Right now, no one is talking about what Breanne Dyck is talking about in her book Beyond Satisfaction. 

But I encourage you to read her book if you're serious about teaching online.

She argues that logic and social proof no longer work when trying to sell your course.

Potential online students are used to the false promises and big claims. 

The way to stand out is by being an excellent brand who values student success and satisfaction over all else. 

To recap from her book, a successful online course has:

• activities for student reflection
• the right students
• happy students

Here's a little more about each of her concepts below. 

#1 A successful online course has activities or assignments that help students reflect on what they’re doing, and how it relates to their own life. 

For example, let’s say you have an online course about helping people change their habits. 

You give stats about how 43% of the time, we’re operating based on a habit. (True fact.) 

But how do we get students to actually change their habits?

They have to be able to apply “theories” on habits to their own life. 

Give them an activity where they jot down all of the things they do out of habit, without even thinking about it. 

By doing this, they are applying the idea of “habits/automation” to their own life, and seeing them at work in their own life.

This, says Breanne, is a way to keep your online students engaging with your course, and ultimately, it’s a step in the direction of success for both you and your student.

#2 A successful online course is filled to the brim with the right students.

According to Breanne, there are three types of students who will enroll in your course:

• active students (5-10%)
• passive students (70-80%)
• lurkers (10-15%)

Active students are the ones you want.

They engage with your course and community, they do all of their assignments, and they ultimately complete your course.

Passive students might do some of the work, watch a few videos, and get some benefit.

But they don’t usually participate in the way that you want. And they rarely complete the actual course.

Lurkers don’t do anything but lurk. They watch a video here and there, but mostly, the course remains untouched after purchase. 

When you’re not targeting the right type of student, you end up with more lurkers and passive students than active students (the ones you want).

When you target the right student, you get your completion rates up because you have more active students than passive.

Therefore, a successful course comes from successful targeting.

If you want to get better at targeting the right student for your course, check out this post.

#3 A successful online course has happy students.

Without happy students, your potential for getting more students dips.

This is something Breanne stresses repeatedly in her book. 

And when is your student happy? 

When they’re getting results. When you’re serving them over and over until they do.

And while it’s great that they get results, happy students are an indicator of a successful course because they’re the ones getting other people to buy it.

They’re offering to give testimonials.

They’re asking you about a potential affiliate program so they can get something out of referring it. 

Not to mention, happy students equal long-term success.

Because it means you can either use their testimonials over and over on promo materials in the future, or you can bet that in the future, they’ll tell people about your course. 

Especially if you’ve made an impact on them. 

Online Teaching Resource #3: Newsletter – The Course Creation Chronicle, by Kate Phillips

(UPDATE as of 10/23: Kate no longer runs the newsletter below, will update this resource soon!)

I found Kate Phillips on Instagram, and I was instantly drawn to her knowledge on course creation.

She’s an all-out fantastic supporter of course creators.

She offers a coaching program to help struggling course creators get to the finish line, and even creates online courses for those who just can’t do it. 

Back in October, I subscribed to her Course Creation Chronicle newsletter, and it’s nothing short of brilliant. 

Every Tuesday, she shares tips on better course creation not only from her personal knowledge, but from other business owners in the online course space, too.

Recently, she shared a great personal story about how she’s not trying to be the next Amy Porterfield. 

I loved it because it was real and raw.

It’s something we don’t really hear about in the entrepreneur world, and it’s something a lot of us face as we try to grow our own businesses. 

It’s a fantastic way to stay updated in the online course industry, learn new ways to tweak your course for quality, and pick up a few mindset tips along the way.

Especially since she's more of a serious course creator. 

Rather than someone teaching you how to build a course in 5 days.

Action step: Subscribe to her newsletter, and stay updated on how you can invest more into your students and make a name for yourself as an online instructor who actually cares.

One last online teaching resource…

This is a mindset resource: A quote.

And it applies to everyone: 

Your potential isn’t up for discussion. It’s already been decided.

I hope you remember this as you create your courses, products, or services.

Now tell me, what’s one resource you’ve been using, or plan to use, to add more quality to your online course? 

Leave a comment below and let me know. I always respond. 

Monique