How to Choose a Stellar Online Class Topic
Last week we talked about choosing a successful teaching subject. You’ll want to choose something you care very deeply about, and something that your passion will show through. That’s because students can literally feel that passion, and it will attract them. Plus, if you end up falling in love with online teaching like me, you want to be able to stick with it for a while. Had I known that I would have been teaching since 2015, I would have been much more careful and picking my first teaching subject. However, don't let this be a stumbling block!
Do your best to choose a subject you think you'll love teaching for a while, and let the rest develop.
When you do, this next step will be much easier. Once you get the passion and excitement for your teaching subject, it’s time to choose an online class topic. What is a class topic? It will be the many individual skills you’ll be sharing with your audience to help them learn the bigger teaching subject.
For example, I teach watercolors, which is an individual teaching subject. However, students are going to need to know how to get started. After that, they will want to learn how to use their watercolors for projects like, watercolor abstracts, watercolor fashion illustration, how to paint with watercolors while traveling, ect. Each of these could be a successful class topic.
So how do you choose which ones to teach? I’m going to take you back to last week’s formula for how to choose a good teaching subject, but this time we’ll change the focus to class topics. Here’s what I mean:
Go to Facebook and check to see how many groups exist on this class topic.
Visit a few popular book-selling websites, like Amazon and Barnes and Noble to see how many books exist on your class topic.
Search your favorite social media sites for the class topic.
Are there lots of offerings in each of these online venues? Does it feel overwhelming and downright discouraging that so many people are using these class topics? Yes, I felt that way too! Don’t let it get to you though.
As I mentioned last week, a popular niche is a good thing. Let me explain why.
This part is very counter-intuitive so stay with me. If you’re anything like me, you’ll tend to shy away from teaching subjects and class topics that already have great classes in place. After all, I’m a beginner who can’t teach this as well as a more experienced instructor, right? Especially when they have the fancy hi-tech filming, audio, and lighting set ups. To top it off they also include beautiful graphics and slides. How do you compete with that?
The simple answer is that you don’t. You stay in your own lane, and you teach in your own style. Even if that style is still being developed. Why? The truth is that no one else is you. Therefore, no one else will teach like you. Maybe there is a big need for how you present things and how you explain them.
How do you know that students don’t need your unique perspective?
Let me tell you a little story about the time I had a long-standing dream to design my own fabrics with my art. There were lots of surface design teachers out there, so I started taking classes. Then I took more classes, and more classes. I had tried to learn Adobe Illustrator for approximately five years, I just couldn’t get it! The program looked so intimidating, and there were buttons, dials, and switches everywhere… Sadly, after that time, I basically gave up.
Then I saw that Bonnie Christine was teaching surface pattern design on her own platform in a course called Immersion, so I decided to give it one more try. She seemed so kind, patient and nurturing. I also liked her students, because they were just like her. It was a nice vibe, so I thought, at the worst, I’ll make some new artist friends.
As it turns out she was the teacher I needed to help me understand this very technical skill.
Her slow and methodical step-by-step lessons gave me exactly what I needed to put all the pieces together. Not only did I learn surface pattern design after the first year I took the course, but I became part of her support team within the course to help others learn it. Two years in a row!
What if Bonnie Christine had not decided to teach? Would I have ever learned the skill that made my dream come true? And this is the question I want to ask you. What if there are students out there that need your particular brand of instruction? If you don't decide to share it, they may never learn something they really need!
Will you accept the challenge?
Think very long and hard about this. As contact creators, this is our responsibility. Bringing our own unique gifts, skills, talents, and passions, is our gift to the world. If we don't spend our gifts, they will stay hidden and never be accessed by those who need it.
Believe me I know it's scary. I was terrified, embarrassed, and mortified when I did my first few videos. However, once you get over the nerves, like anything else, it starts to flow. It's just a matter of taking that leap of faith and taking the first step.
Have a question about teaching your own classes? Let me know in the comments below or email me at info@octopusconnection.com.