How to review an online course
So, you’ve completed an online course and are thinking about writing a review of it to share your experience with others. But where do you start?
Below I’ve summarised the process you might go through and provided suggestions of things to consider in each section.
The main steps are as follows:
- Decide whether you should write a review and consider your motivation for doing so.
- Think back over the course and write down some notes about your experience and what you think others need to know about it.
- Decide where the best place would be to write your review.
- Structure your thoughts and get your review written.
Why you should review an online course
If you’ve taken an online business or personal development course, but aren’t sure whether it’s worth taking the time to write a review, then consider the following.
Online course sales pages are full of glowing testimonials written by past students. These are specifically chosen to show the course in its best light and to answer potential objections from future clients.
At best, testimonials are heavily edited responses to specific questions from those who love the course (or its owner) the most. At worst, they are entirely fictitious.
You could help someone cut through all the hype.
People often search for independent reviews when they are thinking about investing in a course, or they ask around in Facebook groups to see what others thought of the course in question.
Writing a review is a great way of collecting your considered thoughts in one place that you can point people towards, rather than answering the same questions repeatedly on Facebook.
Not every course is right for everyone. Many people regret buying a course and feel like they’ve wasted valuable time and money.
This might not be because the course itself is bad, but rather that it wasn’t suitable for them in terms of their experience level, learning style, how it was delivered or the support offered.
Reading your review could help them make a more informed decision, especially if you are similar in some way to the person searching for information.
Writing a review is a great way to ensure that your knowledge and experience don’t go to waste, and can make you feel good knowing that you’ve supported other people in their decision-making.
Reviews can also build your authority as a trusted advisor to others who are coming behind you in this online business journey.
Consider your experience working through the course
Below, I’ve compiled a list of things to think about and questions to ask yourself before writing your review.
The intention isn’t that you answer every question! They are just there to trigger your thoughts and help you consider the different aspects that may have worked well or less well for you.
First, think about what it was like going through the course itself.
Sales & Pre-course Information
- What made you want to take the course in the first place? What were you expecting to get out of it?
- Were the pre-course communications clear? Did they make you feel valued and excited to get going?
- Was it clear what you had to do to access the course and when to expect different modules?
- Was there any pre-course work before the official start date? What did this add?
Structure
- Was the course easy to access and navigate around? What system did it use?
- Were the materials well organised and arranged in a logical way?
- Was there a consistent structure and design applied to all modules, sections and materials?
Format
- What format was the course delivered in? [eg video training, audio recordings, written worksheets, group Q&As, 1:1 calls]
- Was it what you expected? Was the format suitable for the content being delivered?
- Were the materials of the quality you expected in terms of design, sound quality, editing? How did the quality impact your experience of the course?
Content
- Did the course content cover what you expected?
- Was the tone and style of the content clear and engaging, or unclear and offputting?
- Was the amount of content what you expected? Was any of the content redundant or was anything missing?
- Was there any bonus content? Was it relevant and useful?
Support, Interaction & Community
- What support was provided for course participants? [eg written support, live Q&As, community forums]
- Did you get the support you needed to work through the course modules?
- Did you get to interact with the course owner? Did you expect to / need to? Were they accessible and interested?
- Did you feel like you were part of a community?
Timing
- What pace was the course delivered at? Did you get one lesson a week or could you go at your own speed? Did this work for the content being delivered?
- How many modules or lessons did the course have?
- How long did they take? Was that what you expected? Did it fit into your schedule? Could you keep up?
- Did you finish the course? If not, what stopped you?
Now, let’s look back on the course as a whole.
Outcomes
- Did you achieve what you were hoping to get out of the course?
- Did it improve your knowledge of the subject? How confident do you feel in the subject after having taken the course?
- What extra material would have helped your understanding of the topic?
- Would it be useful to go through the material again in the future? Would you be able to?
Cost
- Was the course worth what you paid for it? Are you happy with the amount you paid for what you learned?
- What made the course higher or lower in value than what you paid for it?
Ideal Customer
- Who do you think the course would be perfect for? Who would benefit most from it? Who would it be unsuitable for?
- What experience or existing knowledge would someone need to have to get the most out of this course?
- What style of learning would this course best suit? [eg someone who prefers reading, writing, self-study, group discussions, listening, watching, speaking]
- Would this course suit someone who works best with logic and science, or those who prefer something more focused on intuition or spirituality?
- Do the majority of course participants fall into a specific socio-demographic group? Did this help or hinder your experience? [eg are they mainly of the same country, industry, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, religion]
Other
- What impact has taking this course had on your life or business?
- How does this course compare to others you have taken that cost a similar amount or covered a similar topic?
- Would you take another online course from this same business owner?
- Would you recommend this course to someone who asked about it?
Where to review an online course
Once you’ve got some ideas about what you want to cover in your review, you will need to decide where you want the review to live.
One option, and the one I would (obviously!) recommend, is to add it to a review site. This allows anyone who is looking for reviews to read them all in one place, rather than jumping about between different websites. It also allows you to add ratings, which can then be aggregated to give overall scores, and to rank and compare courses on similar topics.
Angel Rated is the only review site focused exclusively on the products and services most often used, or created, by online businesses owners. This includes online courses for business or personal growth.
A second option is to add your review to your own website. This might be useful if it was relevant to the services that you offer and to your clients, but this won’t always be the case. It is also an opportunity to write a much more in depth review, which is often the route taken by affiliates.
Alternatively, you could post your review on social media, but it will quickly disappear out of sight.
Finally, you could send it directly to the course owner. Depending on whether or not they’re open to feedback, this might be welcomed (or not!).
Or you could do all of the above and repurpose what you’ve written so that it reaches as many people as possible across different forums.
Get your review written
Having decided where to write your review, you can then work out what structure would work best, depending on whether there are any specific requirements.
For example, on Angel Rated, the written part of your review is split into a title, followed by space to provide information on the pros, cons, ideal customer and any other general comments.
This would also work well as a structure for your own review.
Alternatively, you may want to go into more detail about the individual modules, or break it down using the question topics provided above.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that you may want to write a review because you thought a course wasn’t worth the investment, didn’t deliver what it had promised, or was badly put together in terms of format or content.
If this is the case, then think about how you can write your review in a way that is most useful to the reader and doesn’t come across as a direct attack on the course owner. Avoid using offensive language and try to present your negative feedback so that others (including the course owner) can learn from it.
How to review an online course on Angel Rated
Despite the length of this post, reviewing a course on Angel Rated is quick and easy.
Once you’ve signed up for an account and found the course you want to review, then it should only take a couple of minutes.
To begin with, you need to provide at least one rating. This can be for the course overall, or for any or all of Quality, Ease, Support and Value. If you choose not to provide an overall rating, then it gets calculated from the average of those you do provide. So the bear minimum is a single click on an icon to give a rating between 0.5 and 5.
For the written part, you only need to add a title, and then write at least 100 characters of text across the pros, cons, ideal customer and/or additional comments boxes. That’s about half the length of this paragraph.
Obviously you could write far more and the more you write, the more useful it will be to those reading it.
Now it’s over to you. I’d love to read your online course review on Angel Rated, so if the course you’ve taken isn’t listed yet, then drop us a line and I’ll get it added.