How to Teach Photography Online by Creating an Online Course

Photography is your passion? Then why not create an online course and start a business doing what you love?

If you've got the knowledge, you have the perfect opportunity to create your own photography course and teach others.

Creating and selling photography online courses has never been as easy as it is today, and you can get started with basically no initial investment!

If you are looking to monetize your passion for photography with an online course, then you are in the right place. Keep reading below to learn how to teach photography online and our tips to create an engaging online course that your students will love!

The Basics of Creating a Successful Online Course

Before we get into the details of how to create an awesome photography course, you need to know some of the basic rules to succeed as an online course creator. These principles apply to all niches, not only photography, and will help you get started in the right direction.

The first step to a successful online course is to analyze your audience, create a business model and refine your target market.

Start by deciding the topic of your online course, and by topic we don't just mean "photography" in general. You need to have a good idea of what you want to achieve with your online course, and who is it for. So go in a little deeper with your target by asking yourself questions like these: who is your ideal student? What are their pain points? What are their goals? Is there any aspect of photography you should be focusing on? And so on...

Once you have understood which topic you should concentrate on and who is your target audience, it's time to come up with a specific result for your online course. The analysis you just did should help you come up with the ideal goal for your course: the result should be what you are promising your students, what they will achieve after completing your online course.

Learn more about this: How to Choose the Perfect Name for Your Online Course

Now it's time to come up with a business model for your online course. In other words, how will you structure your online knowledge business? You can choose from a variety of business models including standard online courses, membership sites, online challenges or a combination of these.

After you decided on all of these elements, you can go ahead and think about the outline of your online course, decide how many lessons and modules you are going to have and in what order.

One of the most important steps of creating a successful online course is to choose the right online course platform. We wrote a whole guide to help you make this decision: Top 10 Things to Look For When Choosing the Perfect Online Course Platform

Our Tips for a Successful Online Photography Course

Now that you know the basics of how to start creating an online course, here are some of our tips for a great photography course:

Engage Your Online Course Students

Online courses are a fantastic way to share knowledge and teach others, however, if the course is not engaging enough, you run the risk of losing your students' attention. You want to avoid students leaving your online course before they finish it: this can be really bad for a number of reasons.

First of all, if students leave your course before completing it, they might not get the same value - or any value at all - as they would after your full program.

Most online courses are focused on a result, meaning that students will reach their goals after completing the course. If they leave before reaching the end, chances are that they will not reach the end result and they will probably feel disappointed after wasting time and money.

Another reason why you want to avoid having students leave in the middle of the course is to not miss out on positive reviews from them. Social proof can significantly help you increase the conversion rate and attract new students, and this all depends on the level of satisfaction of your existing students.

A way to minimize students leaving your online course and increase the completion rate is to actively engage them throughout the course.

So how can you engage online course students? Here is how:

• Aim to create an online community: you can build a feeling of community by interacting with your students, creating discussion forums, creating an online space for them to ask questions, share feedback and so on...
• Use gamification techniques: this can be as simple as assigning points, offering rewards after completing lessons, giving out virtual badges or certificates and so on. To do this, you need an online course software like Heights Platform that allows you to offer all of these gamification tools.

• Personally connect with students: it can be hard to create a personal connection in an online environment. A simple act as introducing yourself with a personalized email once someone new joins your course, setting up live virtual meetings to get to know your students and answer their questions can go a long way.
• Choose the right online course platform: Heights Platform is the ultimate online course creation software when it comes to engaging your students. You can assign points for lesson completion, give out badges as rewards, create assignments and projects (we will go through this later in the article), send out emails and messages to students and create a community with our discussion boards.

Assign Photography Projects to Your Students

Projects are a way of showing that students can put the content you've taught them to use in a real-world setting. We believe this approach is much more beneficial to both the student and teacher than a traditional quiz or test.

A Project should be a task where the student demonstrates achieving the goal of your program or course. Let's say your program is about teaching people to build their first app. Your Project might then be titled, 'Show your work', where students would submit their photographs and show what they have accomplished thanks to your online course.

Projects are especially effective with photography online courses as students can showcase their work, share it with the creator and their peers and receive feedback and guidance from the community.

Heights Platform is the only online course software that has a feature specifically designed for this: our project feature allows you to post these kinds of assignments at the end of your online course.

By posting their work at the end of the course, students will be able to really understand the value they received, witness their achievements and see the work of other students. You will give them a chance to interact with each other in a positive way, create connection and a feeling of community.

Another great thing about projects is that the learning experience doesn't end with your course. Former students can log back into your program and still post their work, comment on your current students' posts, offer guidance and still feel part of your online community.

Are you ready to bring your knowledge online and create an awesome photography course? Start your free 30-day trial with Heights Platform today!