Creating and online course?
Everyone loves an online course and you probably have one or are creating one right now! Who can resist them?
You worked really hard to create your content and even with the modern help of AI you have to put your heart and soul into it if you don’t want it sound like AI slop that anyone anywhere could have created.
Did you forget the online course legal side?
You worked hard to master all those course platforms and techniques for videos, downloads and you found a way to get people to pay for your course – congratulations.
For many of us, it took literally blood, sweat, and tears as we did it all in the middle of all the obstacles thrown at us. From school holidays or homeschooling to having to work in between demands for snacks and attention, or recording video at midnight to avoid too much background noise. You got there somehow.
Did you miss something out from your online course?
You spent a lot of time on marketing and content, but how much time did you think about the contract between you and your delegates?
Did you cobble together some bits and pieces from what other people are using?
We have even found people who have nothing at all! or a few lines that ignore data privacy, cancellations, copyright and more.
Here are five things you need to take care of before releasing your course.
- What country is an online course in? Unless you are using geo-blocking on your site to reject people from other countries, you are now open to business all over the world. If you are not careful you can be sued in the USA and other expensive jurisdictions. Make sure your online course contract covers which country’s law governs your course (and make sure your professional indemnity insurers know what you are doing too).
- Does your online course include live video or group support for delegates? If delegates are sharing a support space you are going to need proper releases, rules, and arrangements for who is allowed to share what. People are particularly jumpy right now and you may need to take firm control if things get out of hand. What do your contracts say you will do?
- Do you have the right to record and re-use live sessions? Just because it’s your course doesn’t mean you can record and reuse anything involve your delegates. If you want to do this you will need the right release clauses in your contract.
- How long is your online course available for? If you offer lifetime access what does that mean? What if you change platforms? What if this lasts another 50 years? How clear are you about what happens if they don’t complete the course?
- How do you handle data privacy in your online course? You have to have your delegate’s email address if nothing else. But what information are you collecting and why? You can be amazed by what your website and course host is really collecting. You need to make sure you are dealing with all of this appropriately and securely.
The right online course contract is important
Setting the right tone with your delegates and making the arrangements clear help to create a happy and productive group of customers.
It’s not good giving them something in Latin, or something written by American lawyers that you copied from a big player’s website.
We all need clear and simple agreements that our customers can understand.
You don’t want to let all that effort you put into crafting your course go to waste when people become customers.
If you just want to download something that works check out our specially designed contracts just for you. Part of a family of contracts supporting you the way you work today. You can find more information by clicking here: contract for online programmes.
