Everything these days is about customization. It sounds great, right? Customization is better than getting some item that doesn’t really fit anyone perfectly.

The digital course industry is just one industry that has seen a big push for customization, and it is certainly not the last.

With all of the innovations and technologies available, customization is a hot topic, but sometimes it can be too hot to handle.

So the question is, should we be customizing your course for our online students? What are our students expecting?

As an entrepreneur and consumer, you’ve probably had expectations of digital learning experiences in the past. As a digital course creator you are probably asking what pieces need to be customized and which can be mass produced.

We definitely want our digital course students to be successful, but customization can get us into trouble.

We can make some big mistakes with customizing our courses that end up being detrimental to our student’s progress and success.

Now, if you haven’t ever thought about customizing your course and are now panicked that you have to customize it, please don’t panic. Listen to this episode and then consider your options. Just know that there are options for best serving your digital course students without overly complicating things on your end of things.

So let’s talk about the dangers of over-customizing online courses and how to customize an online course effectively.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

Your phone chimes with an email from your digital course student at 11pm on Friday night. They are going through Module 2 and are stuck. There is a typo in the worksheet and it doesn’t match up with what you are saying in the video. The student says that they want to make it through your online course, but this is creating a roadblock.

Immediately you regret picking up your phone to browse funny cat videos as you unwind from the week, and the second feeling is one of dread and worry. You’ve already shut down your computer for the day, but you don’t want a student to get frustrated with you. You are wondering what that issue between the worksheet and video is, because as much as you wrack your brain you can’t quite figure out what could have happened. As you start to go through the scenarios in your head, you notice that your heart starts to speed up a little as you wonder if this student will go to the community and complain and get everyone riled up or if they will ask for a refund.

We’ve all had those moments of panic where a student needs support, but we are not available. Whether it is because we are tending to a medical appointment or have shut down for the day.

As small business owners, as creators of online courses, what is the right answer here? I can tell you right now, it isn’t to jump up at 11pm on a Friday night to figure out what is going on. That is the fastest way to entrepreneur burnout.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

You want your students to be successful, but so often they drop off the face of the earth after they’ve entered their credit card number or maybe they make it through Module 1 and then suddenly it is crickets.

Why does this happen with alarming frequency?

A lot of reasons, but one big one is that your students aren’t ready for your digital course, become overwhelmed, lost, and frozen.

This is NOT what we want for our students. We want them to be successful, first and foremost, because we have entered the digital course realm to make a difference. If our students don’t finish our course, then we aren’t having the impact that we hoped to have. Secondly, we want to be able to feature our students, celebrate their wins, and learn from their struggles in the course so that we can make it better.

Neither of these things happen if our students don’t make it through the course. And this brings me to the question of whether you should consider prerequisites for your course and how that works when anyone can get to your sales page and enter their credit card number.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas