10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Launching Flex Classes
Since beginning my Outschool journey during the height of the pandemic in May 2020, I’ve enjoyed teaching all of the course options that Outschool has to offer— One-time, Ongoing, Multi-Day, Groups, and the illusive FLEX class.
Flex classes are pre-recorded video classes that follow a curriculum that you design. I love Flex classes because it allows me to reach learners who may not be able to attend my live classes, or students who like to take the courses in a different country or time zone.
Flex classes have been a decent support of my income on Outschool, and I have a goal of creating a lot more video courses on niche topics!
Here’s 10 things I wish I knew and could REDO before I started my flex classes on Outschool!
KEEP YOUR COURSES SIMPLE!
When I first started with Flex, I assumed that students wanted to learn AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE in a small amount of time. This led me to JAM packing my flex classes with too much information! Parents even left multiple reviews stating that my courses were a bit overwhelming for their learner. There is NOTHING wrong with keeping it simple. Break your courses down into the most basic factors each week. If you can’t cover the whole topic in 4 weeks, make your course longer or add a second level.
Create your course outline and script before you begin recording your classes
Seriously. Have a big over-arching plan for your courses and a plan for each lesson and each video. Make sure that you’re following along with the plan you posted in your class description. This script will also help you when you create your printable outline for your students!
Submit your Flex courses and wait for sign ups before you record
I like to open all my Flex course ideas and then wait for sign ups before I create the course. This can sometimes be a rocky first-go-around of the course, but in the end it’s great because there is nothing worse than spending HOURS creating materials for a Flex course only to have no one ever enroll.
Allow HOURS to create the course materials for each class.
Planning and recording the courses takes FOREVER. And it’s usually snuck in between teaching live courses, daily life activities, and extra noise in the house. I mean it when I say to give yourself quite a few hours to work on your courses.
Learn how to edit your videos
It’s not hard to use iMovie to cut out the empty space in your videos, maybe add some background music, or add some title slides. A little bit of editing goes a long way!
Create a learner booklet to go with the course
Give learners something printable to go with the course. This also takes hours. :) I like to use Canva to make workbooks for all of my Flex courses.
EDIT EDIT EDIT!
It takes multiple run throughs of each Flex course to become a strong class. Don’t be afraid to re-do materials, class postings, videos, games, etc. You need to make sure that you are keeping an eye on your course for quality and relevance.
Reuse materials.
Think about how you can reuse materials from your flex courses. Can you put a small piece of your videos up on Youtube? Can you use the flex course workbook in your live classes, and vice versa? Is there a lesson from one course that can be included in another course? Think about how you can reuse the materials you have created to get the most out of your work!
Create your own materials to sell and base a Flex Class off of them, or consider taking advantage of Amazon Affiliates to send parents to materials.
Make sure you have all of your materials planned out ahead of time, and if families need to buy something, think about how you can be the source of that purchase. Please always be honest about your affiliate marketing and sources.
ANSWER YOUR LEARNERS!
The only interaction students get in this course is an answer from their teacher! Make sure you’re responding PROMPTLY to ever post.
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