You can hardly go to a webpage these days without being pitched an online course or free webinar. While they’re everywhere, they can be a very affordable way to learn about new technology and business practices. But unless you do the work involved with the course or webinar it’s simply a waste of money.
Because I know that as mamapreneurs our business funds are tight, I want to give you some tips on how to maximize your learning when you take an online course or webinar.
1. Print any material provided before watching the lesson and familiarize yourself with the topic.
Whether you feel like you are a beginner with no experience on the topic or pretty close to an expert, there is always something that you can learn about a subject. Courses should always have notes accompanying their lessons, but many webinars will also provide notes for you to take notes on as you watch. Make sure that you have printed all of those before its time to watch the lesson and have read through them so that when the host uses a term that you weren’t familiar with before you will have at least a basic familiarity with it.
2. If you will have access to the lesson for more than one time (via a reply or course archives), watch the lesson the first time without taking notes. Then re-watch the lesson while taking notes.
As we take notes we often miss applicable information that might be said sequentially as we are still focused on writing down the previous point. Therefore, if you’ll be able to watch the lesson multiple times, watch it the first time without taking notes. This allows you to become familiar with all of the content presented and you’ll know what areas you want to really focus on. You can also watch it all once without stopping and then the second time pause the recording as needed so that you can make sure and write down all of the pertinent information.
3. After the lesson is over, take 15 minutes and review/write down any points that stuck out to you and made an impression.
In addition to any notes that you’ve taken, after the lesson is over get a blank sheet of paper and brain dump any points that really stuck out to you from the lesson. Don’t refer back to your notes but simply write the points that are still in your mind even without your notes. This is often the information that you will want to remember the most in the weeks and months following a course or webinar.
4. Jump into the course message board or hosts Facebook group to discuss any outstanding questions or receive feedback on the action takeaways that you made after the lesson. If the instructor gave you direct access to them, reach out to them as well.
Just as discussion in an in-person class is important to help us examine the information from multiple points, so is discussion with others in an online setting. Most online courses will provide a forum or message boards for those who have purchased the course to interact on. This is an ideal place to express what you’re currently working on, ask questions about points that you are unclear on, and receive feedback on the ways you are implementing the information in your business. As well, most if not all webinar hosts will host their own groups on Facebook or another platform which is another excellent place to discuss what you’ve learned.
5. Leave a review and give the instructor feedback.
Leaving a review for the instructor is a way that will maximize your learning in two ways. First, it will require you to reevaluate what you learned and how you’re using the information in your business. This will remind you of points of interest that you haven’t yet implemented and show you the ways that you’ve added your new information into your business successfully already. Second, it will help the instructor refine their teaching, materials, and topics so in the future their courses or webinars will be even more helpful for you and your peers. The one caveat for this though is to remember that the instructors are real people just like you. You should always keep any feedback constructive only and only reference things that the instructor actually had control over.
Tomorrow I’m going to share the courses that have helped me in my business in hopes that you can benefit also. If you have a course that you think is great and mamapreneurs would benefit from, let me know in the comments. Or, head over to the Mastermind Mamapreneur Facebook group and join in to our conversations on e-courses and webinars.
