When I first started my business I wondered how I could reach more people with my teachings, and maybe you’re wondering how to teach classes online too.
There are certainly many different ways to teach classes online, from pre-recorded audio and video, to PDF handouts or slides, but today we’re going to focus on the live video classroom.
How To Teach Classes Online Via Video
There are so many options when it comes to online education, and what method and tools you choose to use will depend on your context and goals.
For example, if you need to plan, deliver, and track the progress of your students then you might want to use a learning management system. What’s an LMS, you ask? It’s a type of software that can help you structure online courses, enroll students, and assess their learning along the way.
There’s something special about connecting with somebody live through the Internet via video. Watching pre-recorded videos is a great education and marketing tool in your business, but taking it to the next level by doing a live video streaming event is even more powerful.
It’s almost like being there in someone’s living room. You can answer questions live, people can see your enthusiasm, and they will be able to feel how you feel about your materials and what you’re sharing with them.
Teaching classes online through live video is great because you can show things that you can’t show on a phone call or a slides-only webinar.
In my raw foods business, I’ve used live streaming events to demonstrate how to make recipes. I showed people how to make almond milk, and some of my favorite dessert recipes.
I’ve also recommended live streaming events for some of my clients, who teach acupressure and other cool techniques that can be demonstrated visually.
You might also want to do an event where you can showcase more than one speaker live. You could be creating a live virtual conference, that anyone can attend from all over the world.
Let’s take a look at the different options for how to teach classes online. There is no shortage of different systems and tools to teach online classes, so these are just some of your options.
How To Teach Classes Online – Tools
There are a few different tools you’ll need in your tech tool belt to teach online classes.
The first is your presentation software, like Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote for creating slides.
The second is your video recording platform, which can happen live with students on the other side of the web, or in a recorded format that’s available to watch on-demand.
The third and arguably most important tool is your online class delivery platform. Perhaps you plan to offer your training and courses to corporations, or sell your courses directly to customers and students. You can do these things through a WordPress LMS plugin, where you’ll also be able to manage memberships and see student progress.
If you’re planning to take payments for your teachings, you’ll also need a payment provider and sometimes these come built into your LMS or membership software. Many times you’ll want to offer recurring subscription payments, so you can continue to earn income month over month as you enroll more students and customers.
You might also want a membership forum or other way for students to communicate with each other.
Comparing Our Video Options
There are many great options for hosting your videos and integrating them into your learning management system or membership website. These are all live video options:
- Zoom: Zoom is great for teaching small groups and having everyone interact with each other. You can also do large webinar-broadcast style sessions.
- Livestream: Livestream is also great at video, and even Oprah uses it on her site to stream episodes from her network live over the internet.
- CrowdCast: CrowdCast is awesome if you want to have the same chat environment, but you also want to bring other presenters on live via video feeds. It’s a very well thought out platform.
- WebinarJam: If you want to do webinar-style presentations on video or showing slides, then WebinarJam allows you to do that easily. It’s also great for free training webinars that lead to paid courses.
- Skype: Similarly to Google Hangouts, if you’ve got a premium Skype account you can also do live video with a few of your friends or contacts via Skype.
- GotoWebinar: If you don’t want to be on camera, but you are wondering how to teach classes online that have lots of material to be presented via slides – this is my pick.
- Adobe Connect: Similar to GotoWebinar, Adobe Connect is a great alternative that also lets you merge video with slides, so you can have the best of both worlds here too.
There are also some great pre-recorded video hosting options, including:
- YouTube: You’re already familiar with this platform, and it can be a great place to upload teaching material. You can choose to keep your video unlisted if you don’t want them to be searchable through YouTube. People can still share these videos though, so keep that in mind.
- Vimeo: There are a number of different plans and pricing options for Vimeo, and it’s a great video hosting solution. It is dependable and you can control the sharing permissions more than you can on YouTube. There are also some built-in payment options if you need something quick to take payments for video training immediately.
- Amazon S3: This is a more technical solution to help people record videos and teach classes online, but it is the most affordable paid solution. It also gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want to display and track your videos. You’ll usually need a video player to get these to play inside of an LMS or members area.
What Classes Do You Plan To Teach?
Now that you know how to teach classes online using live video, what classes are you planning to teach?
Take a look at AccessAlly and get a free demo of the software, to see if it might be just what you’re looking for to help you teach online.
