The market for online courses is growing sharply. It will be worth $243 billion by 2022. One of the reasons online courses are becoming more popular is that big data has made them more effective.
Big data has created countless changes in recent years. It has played a very important role in the development of online courses.
Artificial intelligence technology is being used to create a number of online courses. There are a number of reasons big data and AI can be useful for creating courses:
- New machine learning tools are better at identifying your target audience (one recent Marketo poll showed that 55% of marketers cite better audience targeting as a top priority), which they have also said AI can help with
- New AI tools have made it easier to create impressive graphics for your courses
- AI technology has made it easier to automate courses to improve engagement
Unfortunately, AI tools will only fix these issues if you utilize them effectively. You need to be aware of common online course creation mistakes and use big data and artificial intelligence tools properly to avoid them.
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Using the Right AI and Big Data Approaches is Crucial for Creating High Quality Online Courses
Developing an online course isn’t an easy task, regardless of the purpose of your course. Whether you’re trying to design a compliance training curriculum for your organizational needs, or simply creating a course based on your expertise, the whole process of development of course material can stretch over months, even when you have access to a great authoring tool. You can use a lot of great AI tools to streamline the development of your online courses. Unfortunately, they aren’t foolproof if you use them incorrectly.
After going through all the trouble of creating a course, if it doesn’t drive the kind of engagement and results you were expecting, the feeling of disappointment can be overwhelming.
There can be a number of reasons that your course wasn’t engaging enough. Big data tools can be great for measuring engagement, but they won’t fix it if you don’t identify the root causes on your own. To help you understand them better, we will discuss the most common mistakes course creators commit while designing their learning experiences.
Without further delay, let’s jump right into it:
Not Understanding Your Ideal Audience
Regardless of whether your course is a personal project or a compliance training, understanding your audience is critical. AI tools are great for helping you tap the right audience. The Marketing AI Institute has shared some insights on using AI to identify your audience correctly.
In case of employee training, an in-depth understanding of your trainees and potential trainees will help you craft training content that speaks to them. This means that you will be able to include examples and real-life scenarios that are relevant to their day to day jobs. Similarly, you will be able to craft a learning path that builds on the knowledge they already possess.
In the case of personally developed courses, understanding your audience takes an even more important precedence. For starters, understanding your audience will help you understand if there is enough demand for the skills you are trying to teach. Similarly, you will only be able to target the right marketing channels when you know exactly who you are trying to reach.
Make sure that you use the right tools to identify your audience. Facebook has some great audience creator tools that use AI. You can use these to test how different audiences respond to your content and then focus on reaching the right people.
Using Text-Only Content
The traditional method of teaching (and learning) through text-only training material has lost its effectiveness. In the age of handheld computers (smartphones) and easily accessible audio visual content, words just don’t hold the same importance.
These aren’t baseless claims. Studies have proven that the use of multimedia in training content enhances the understanding of concepts within learners.
Not to forget, if training content is presented to learners in a format that they are used to consuming all day, like videos, they will naturally be more comfortable and receptive towards the training.
The good news is that AI can help you use create higher quality graphics. Canva, Stencil and most other premium graphic design tools use AI these days. You should use them instead of relying on non-AI tools like Microsoft Paint.
Using A Complex LMS
A learning management system (LMS) is a complex AI platform that allows you to create and store your course curriculum, and allows your students to access the course material. Modern LMS allow learning administrators to add multimedia to their course. They also have features to facilitate learning for the modern learner, like the ability to break long-form content into smaller, meaningful, and easily digestible mini-lessons. Other great features include gamification capabilities, the ability to facilitate social learning, and many others.
Since most of these are cloud-based, they allow learners and training administrators to access the training material from anywhere with an internet connection.
With that said, since your learners will be using the platform to access your online course, it is crucial to choose the right LMS. Think about it, if you choose a complex platform, your learners will have to first learn to navigate through the platform, and may face problems with consuming the course content.
AI and Big Data Are Key to Successful Online Course Development
AI and big data are incredibly being important for creating quality online courses. So these were some of the most common mistakes beginner course creators make. With that said, this list is not exhaustive by any measure. Have you made any mistakes while creating your course that we didn’t mention in the article? Share your story with us in the comment section below.