Hey there rebel!
Welcome to the Your Courses on Squarespace class, where you'll learn how to host your courses on Squarespace and make them look and work like they would on any teaching platform.
If I'm speaking too slowly for your taste, you can set the videos at 1.5x speed, and then it's perfect, 2x speed is too fast.
Lesson 1: Why host your course on Squarespace.
In this lesson I explain my choice and discuss some teaching platforms. To be clear, I think those platforms are amazing, but I also think that each of us has our own individual needs, and if your aren't met by any of those platforms, then hosting on Squarespace could be the perfect solution.
Disclaimer: I forgot to mention that when you password-protect your course on Squarespace, that means you're giving all of your students the same password, while the teaching platforms give everyone their own username and the students can pick their own password. However, you can use a third party plugin to allow them to do that, like MemberSpace. (I don't because, quite frankly, I can't spare the money.)
Take action.
Make your own list of pros and cons and see which choice is better for you - hosting your course on Squarespace or on a teaching platform. In my case, the PROS of hosting on Squarespace far outweighed the measly two CONS, and I took the plunge. So far so great. :)
Resources:
- udemy (takes a varied percentage of sales)
- skillshare (teachers are paid based on minutes watched)
- teachable (takes a small percentage of sales)
- teachery (takes a flat monthly payment and zero fees)
- memberspace (allows your students to create their own username and password, which is what people use when they want to create a membership site)
- google analytics - inside you'll find all sorts of features, including some that will allow you to create goals and follow specific behaviors of your students
Lesson 2, Part 1: How to password-protect your entire course.
In this lesson I explain the work-around that you need to do so that all of your materials are password-protected and your students don't have to enter the password more than once.
I also show you different layouts you can use for your modules/lessons, depending on the format of your lessons and the materials you're using to facilitate learning.
Lesson 2, Part 2: The layout of your lessons and some CSS codes.
Oops! Loom cut me off, so here's what I was going to tell you about the layout of your lessons, how it needs to flow and make sense, and then how to do the third layout I showed you. I'll also show you where to include some CSS codes to make sure that your course lessons don't look like blogs.
Take action.
1. What's the format that you find easiest and most enjoyable?
- written
- audio
- video
- visual
- mixed-media
- other?
2. Decide on the structure of your course. Will there be modules or just lessons? And how much space will one lesson take? Do your students need to pause anywhere or keep going forward?
Remember that your goal is to make it easy for your students, so don't overcomplicate things, just break your lessons down into chunks and see if it makes sense to group some together.
3. Brainstorm some layout ideas on paper and decide which suits your course the best.
The layout depends on your personal preference, on the format and size of your lessons, and finally, it's important to make sure the layout flows in a logical way, to facilitate learning, not impede it.
Resources.
- for comments - disqus, facebook, or native Squarespace comments (easiest to follow)
- formats - video (host on youtube, vimeo), audio (host on soundcloud), written (use google slides but bear in mind it takes a while to find good templates especially if you want them free, or just plop the text into the blog post body and go crazy with the formatting)
- ALL THE CSS CODES YOU NEED TO MAKE IT LOOK UNBLOGLIKE
- to record this king of tutorial video, use loom
Lesson 3, Part 1: The elements you need and how to implement them.
In this lesson we list all the elements that the teaching platforms provide, how we can simulate them, and then how to implement everything. It's a meaty lesson, so get ready.
Lesson 3, Part 2: How to keep your course secure and sell it online.
And now the final video... where we learn how to embed certain things, what happens after the course, how to keep your courses 100% safe on Squarespace, and how to sell your course and keep in touch with your students to get their feedback, especially in light of the GDPR.
Disclaimer: I forgot to mention that Google Docs cannot be embedded for some reason. Also, I added some GDPR disclaimers to my courses, so that people know what to expect. This way I don't have to ask them to sign up again, but simply warn them they'll get updates. Click on the images to see:
Take action.
1. Think about the elements you love in courses and include those elements in yours.
Maybe you've taken so many courses that you know exactly what's helpful in your case, or maybe you know your people so well that you can tell what will help them the most.
2. Look at the elements that facilitate learning and ask yourself how you can implement them. Remember that you don't have to use all of them, but just the ones your course needs.
- theory
- examples/stories
- real-life applications
- taking action
- resources
3. Take a piece of paper and brainstorm on the following questions.
- What kind of elements does your particular course need in order to be helpful?
- What kind of action should your students take in order to prove that they've learned what you've been teaching them, and also, how can you motivate them to take it?
- Is there a way to see the work your students have done on their own time? Can you ask them to share it with you or to make it so that they'd have to?
- How much do you want to keep in touch with your students and how can you do it?
- How can they get in touch with you when they have questions?
- How will you get feedback from them, and also, how can you make sure that you have consent to send them updates and questions? GDPR and all that...
- How can you make the student experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible?
- What are some of your favorite tools? Can you use them in some way? Some of my best and quirkiest ideas have come from taking a tool I love and using it in a new way.
- How important is it to know how your students are progressing, and how can you find that out?
Resources.
- for workbooks - the Squarespace form, alternatively Typeform (so you see what they did first and send their answers back to them with your comments), or google docs (the students have to make their own copy and can then send it back to you) or ofcoursebooks (paid)
- you can force your students to make a copy of your google doc workbooks, which means that for those who don't know how google docs work, you don't have to give instructions
- I'm not a fan of quizzes, so I can't really recommend anything good
- the facebook comment plugin generator if you want facebook comments
- one tool you can use if you want to have a community for your students is Slack, but bear in mind it's very specific and not everyone takes well to it, so think of your favorite platform for communities and go with that (mine is facebook groups)
- the tools I use for creating and formatting lessons are - audacity for recording and editing audio, loom for recording (and sometimes editing) video, and movie maker for editing video
- to sell your courses - Gumroad - takes a small percentage of your sales depending on whether you're using the free or premium plan (the latter is cheap and it works better)
- alternative to Gumroad - SendOwl - people seem to love it and it's great with adding affiliates to your products, but I have no personal experience, so I can't recommend it 100%
- if you want to understand GDPR better, check out this free checklist
Yay, you did it!!!
I am so proud of you for going through this entire thing, and I hope the tools and methods I suggested will help you have beautiful and functional courses on your Squarespace website.
Have feedback for me? Good, bad, I want it all. -->