How I use Canva to create online courses

Online course creation is one of my favorite aspects of developing an online platform.  There’s so much you can do with it and so much benefit both you and the audience you serve can receive from it.

On any given day, I love opening up my email and discovering I’ve made course sales.  I put a lot of effort into the courses I create.  I want them to represent the highest quality information I can supply.  I’m also grateful that once they’re created, they become a tool I can offer for free or utilize to make long-term passive income.

I know of people who earn a very healthy living from selling online courses.  I recently read the testimony of an online course creator who has earned over $2 million dollars from course sales in the past few years.  His income results are certainly higher than average, but it’s not an uncommon thing for people to make a solid income from the sales of their online courses.

I offer courses at several different price points.  Some of my courses are free but include a pay-what-you-want option in case the person taking the course feels led to be generous.  I also have mini-courses that I sell for $49 and larger courses that range in price from $200 to $300.  In time, I plan to offer some additional courses in the $1,000 price range, but that content is still under development.

One of the absolute best tools I’ve discovered for creating all kinds of digital media is an online software called Canva.  Canva is amazingly versatile and easy to use.  I gladly pay for a premium subscription even though their free version is robust and useful.

I’ve know for quite some time that Canva was a great tool for designing logos, flyers, and other forms of media, but in recent months, I’ve discovered that it can be a very helpful tool for creating online courses by making engaging visuals, slide decks, handouts, and even video content.  I find the creative process on Canva’s site rather intuitive and easy to learn.  My most recent courses have been created by exclusively using the tools Canva makes available.

Don’t be intimidated by the thought of using Canva to create your next course, even if you don’t consider yourself highly technical.  Their software is extremely easy to navigate, and if you ever get stuck, there are tons of tutorials online (plus their customer service is very responsive and helpful).

Here’s a quick overview on how to use Canva to create course content:

1. Plan Your Course Outline

   - Before you start designing, make a detailed outline of your course content. Identify sections, modules, lessons, and key points.

   - Define your target audience and what style might appeal to them (professional, fun, modern, etc.).

2. Choose Templates for Slide Decks and Presentations

   -Presentations: Canva has a wide variety of presentation templates to help structure your content. Search for "Online Course" or "Educational" templates in the Presentations section.

   -Interactive PDFs: If you want students to work on or review content on their own time, interactive PDFs can be a good choice. These can be created with clickable elements and links to make them engaging.

3. Design Engaging Visuals

   -Infographics: Use Canva’s infographic templates to simplify complex information, which can be useful for illustrating processes, frameworks, or key takeaways.

   -Diagrams and Charts: Add flowcharts, bar charts, and other visuals to help students better understand statistics or relationships between concepts.

   -Worksheets and Handouts: Use templates for worksheets or guides that students can download, fill out, or print. These work well as supplemental material.

4. Add Videos and Animations

   - If your course includes video content, Canva lets you add basic animations to your designs or create short explainer videos.

   -Record Yourself: Canva has a video recording feature that allows you to record your voice and even your camera, overlaying it on the content you're presenting.

   -Animated Elements: Animate text, icons, and images to make your content more dynamic.

5. Use Canva’s Brand Kit for Consistency

   - Canva’s Brand Kit feature allows you to keep consistent fonts, colors, and logos across all your designs, which is important for a polished, professional course.

   - Create a “brand” for your course, including a course logo, color palette, and font choices to maintain a cohesive look.

6. Download and Export Content

   - Download materials as PDFs, PNGs, or videos depending on the type of content.

   - PDFs are great for handouts and guides.

   - Videos can be directly exported for uploading to platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, or any LMS (Learning Management System).

   -Presentations can be exported as PDFs or even as PowerPoint files (.pptx) if you want flexibility with presentation tools outside Canva.

7. Integrate Content into an LMS or Hosting Platform

   - Once your materials are designed, upload them to a learning platform such as Kajabi, Teachable, Udemy, Thinkific, or your own website.

   - Organize your files by module or lesson, and consider adding quizzes, assignments, and interactive elements on the LMS platform to complement the Canva materials.

8. Get Feedback and Adjust as Needed

   - Share your course content with a small group of students or colleagues for feedback.

   - Canva allows for quick edits and adjustments, so you can iterate based on what works best.

By using Canva’s array of templates and tools, you can make your online course content visually appealing and engaging for students without needing advanced design skills.  

A few other things worth noting.  Canva allows you to save your course materials in their cloud.  That’s really helpful if you ever want to make updates or changes to your course.  I do this all the time when it’s time to refresh the content I’m teaching.  I find this particularly helpful for the courses I teach live and in-person, but I also find it helpful when I need to update the course content that I’m digitally delivering.

With all that said, I hope you’ll consider checking out Canva as a tool when you’re creating your next (or first) online course.  I’m extremely thrilled with it.  It has become one of my primary partners in my efforts to create valuable content that I can digitally deliver with ease.

© John Stange, 2024