Why 90% Of Online Courses Fail (How To Not Waste Your Time)

I get emails all the time about with questions about how to make online courses and teach online.

So many people dream of getting rich selling online courses, possibly because there are so many ads on social media networks advertising how to get rich making online courses.

But the reality of being an online course creator isn’t as bright as the glitz and glamour celebrated in online ads.

Over 90% of online courses fail.

The same is true for books, businesses and most kinds of art that are made to sell.

Even when an online course is good, incompletion rates are shockingly high because most people struggle so badly to focus on one thing and finish what they started these days.

For example, Coursera who offers online courses from the world’s best professors at all those fancy Ivy League Universities has a 90% course incompletion rate for many of their courses.

A New Community Model For Online Education?

Many of the world’s most brilliant academic minds aren’t very good teachers or engaging lecturers.

In fact, the whole passive learning model of watching lectures on video, memorizing information and then writing a test to determine competency doesn’t translate very well into the online arena.

To make online education that works, teachers have to start thinking differently.

So, what should do if you have a great idea for online course?

Don’t spend hundreds of hours of your precious time to make another online course that most people will lose interest in.

If you really want to shake things up and do something that has a huge impact, don’t create an online course at all.

Instead, create a group coaching program or online mastermind where you can hold your students accountable to taking massive action and getting a pre-determined result that they signed up to achieve.

That’s what people need to learn successfully in a world of distraction. Accountability.

It’s the reason why so many young people still pay $30,000/year for an Ivy League education, which if their family isn’t rich will probably be a long-term debt sentence.

They crave the accountability and structure of curriculum and they hope to find a teacher who will take a meaningful interest in their success so they can learn more effectively.

Then, once enrolled the smart kids show up on time prepared for every class, cram the night before the tests or stay up all night to get that essay in on time. That’s the power of accountability. It creates high consequences that forces us out of inertia and procrastination and into action mode.

That’s what people need to learn effectively in the world today. Having accountability to someone who actually cares enough to see that their students helps them develop the grit and persistence necessary to succeed big in a world dominated by mediocrity and meaningless jobs.

Build An Online Community Instead Of Making An Online Course:

If you want to make an online course, instead you should think of yourself less as a teacher or “expert” and more as a coach, mentor and facilitator of greatness for your students.

Most people won’t pay much for lectures or more information. We’re already drowning in information and lectures. Anyone can go on Google and find close to a million free lectures at their fingertips.

But most people will pay for results and invest their money in something they believe in. If you offer the necessary structure, accountability and high consequences to help your students harness their talents and abilities to make a better world then you’ll be also become a huge success.

So, if you want to make a living teaching outside the school system, become the person who gets your students highly desirable results by holding them accountable to their achieving their goals and dreams.

The world doesn’t need another online course but it desperately needs coaches, mentors, storytellers and leaders.

This world is falling apart because most people associate leadership with narcissistic control freaks and over-educated know-it-alls rather than the humble people who supports their community and makes other people perform better by believing in them, mentoring them and holding them accountable to their goals.

If that’s you then it’s your time to step up because the world is desperately in need of these kinds of teachers, storytellers and mentors who can sustainably change people’s lives.