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Topic expertise, an attractive curriculum, and an engaging coaching style are all essential for making and teaching online courses. But what online course equipment do you need before you start? Luckily, you don’t have to have a special webcam or headset for teaching online. Much online course equipment is relatively inexpensive and can help you minimize the cost of developing a course.
Read on for tips on choosing the right equipment for high-quality audio and video, how to build course materials with credible sources, and how a platform with plenty of built-in tools, like Squarespace, can make publishing and managing your course simpler.
Making sure you have a quality audio and video set-up
The audio and video equipment for online teaching is probably one of the most important aspects of effective course delivery. The right hardware will make creating learning material simpler and faster, while also giving learners a better user experience. For the basics, you’ll need tools for professional-quality video, audio, and lighting.
Video
Today, the vast majority of laptops, as well as mobile and tablet devices, are equipped with a built-in camera, giving you cost-effective, broadcast quality video to make your courses look professional.
High resolution is important for the quality of your videos, so make sure your camera offers a minimum of 720 (HD) resolution and ideally 1080 (full HD) resolution. Film a short test video and if you’re not happy with the video quality, look into getting an external webcam.
Audio
Most phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers have a small built-in microphone. These don’t offer the best audio quality, so it’s important to invest in a good quality vocal microphone for online teaching, if you can.
Search online for the best podcasting microphones or vocal mics and try to find an XLR-to-USB cable, so that you can plug the mic straight into your computer without using an audio interface. For better sound quality in your audio recordings, however, consider buying an interface, which should come with preamps to boost your vocal signal, making it louder and clearer against any background noise. They’re generally priced quite reasonably and will give great results.
Other hardware
Once you have audio and video handled, you can start to build out the decor and setup for your online classroom.
You will need a mic stand to hold your microphone, leaving you free to teach. A microphone table clamp stand is the best option for desk-based teaching where you’re sitting down to face the camera, as it’s adjustable, removable, and won’t get in your way. If you’ll be standing or moving around while teaching, you may want to consider a tripod for the device you’re filming with, a laptop stand if you’re using a computer for notes, and a microphone that clips to your shirt.
Good lighting is also key for a high-quality image. Course creators will often use a ring light, which gives even lighting across your face and the impression of broad daylight, helping you avoid any shadows creeping over your face as you deliver your course. You can find smaller ring lights that attach to your computer or larger versions that come with their own stands.
If you’re planning to teach any live classes or host live group discussions, it’s also important to have a reliable internet connection. If your Wi-Fi isn’t the best, you may need a new router or get an ethernet cable to plug into the wall to ensure a stable internet connection.
Building a bank of learning materials from credible sources
Making a course worthy of a customer’s money includes giving them great learning materials, so only use credible sources when preparing to teach. Academic texts and journalistic articles from well-known publications, for example, will reassure your course customers that what they are learning is of value.
Depending on the topic of your classes, you can offer these credible sources as additional reading, as part of the homework in your course, or simply as teaching tools to add depth to your lessons. Another great source of credible learning material is original material published by you. After all, you are the expert.
Original content will also help with the visibility of your course in related searches online, because search engines rank websites with original content higher than those with duplicate content. Consider writing and sharing your own e-books, presentations, or downloadable audio and video materials on your course topic, if you aren’t already. You can also potentially sell these as add-ons for course members by adding an online store into your course website.
Publishing your learning content on a platform with lots of built-in tools
A great online course will engage users in many different ways: via audio, video, and downloadable materials, for example. If you aim to deliver an attractive educational experience, you will need effective software to deliver all of this.
Make sure your students are able to access their course materials from a single platform, so that they don’t need to visit multiple sites and set up multiple logins to get everything they need to learn.
A Squarespace website gives online course instructors:
Course pages to create lessons and chapters
Video embedding and hosting for visual learning content
Membership sites to allow you to put gated content in a password-protected area of your website with simple payment options
Podcast creation and management for audio course content
File embedding for downloadable course content (e.g., assignments and reading materials)
Blog pages to allow you to post topic-specific written content on your site
Online scheduling to allow you to manage everything from invoices to interactive small group or one-on-one sessions
Email Campaigns to automate assignment and course deadline reminders
All of this helps give customers a flawless user experience, which, if they like your course content, will make people more likely to sign up for other courses in your portfolio.
Whichever teaching equipment you use to deliver your course effectively, it’s good to be prepared in advance of launching your online learning site, so take some time to plan and test out your new tools.
Learn more about designing and selling online course content
This post was updated on August 21, 2023.