How To Create An Online Course PDF

The answer is very simple and super easy to execute. 

First, decide which type of PDF it is you would like to create and then simply go ahead and start designing it easily with the online designing tool Canva. You can either use one of the hundreds already premade layouts the software provides or if you feel very creative simply design your own from scratch. 

When you are creating an online course it’s essential for you to create content for the four main learning types. To recap what those types are: 

• Visual (Spatial)
• Aural (Auditory-Musical)
• Verbal (Linguistic)
• Physical (Kinesthetic)

Different people take in and process information differently and therefore learn differently. And your job is it, always remember, to make your student’s life easy and bring them to their end goal (the transformation, the point B) as soon as possible. 

In this article, we will cover the “visual” learning type and how you can cater best to this particular audience in your online course. 

So let’s dive into a few different online course PDFs which you could create to make this happen. 

1. Checklists at the end of each module
2. Transcripts of each video lesson 
3. Data tracking sheets
4. Workbooks 
5. Presentation slides

When you are creating your online course material, you will need to think of a “support system”, and PDFs are a great way to support your student’s journey. 

So, which of the above will help your students the most? Are there several, or maybe all?

1. Why create an online course PDF checklist

The reason why people are taking your course is they don’t know much, or not enough about a particular topic to get to the next level. Chances are that they may feel overwhelmed with all the video content they have just been through and by the time they arrive at lesson #6 for example, they already forgot what they learned in lesson #1. 

A checklist will solve this problem. It will help them to stay on top of their game and assure they follow each necessary step in this particular lesson without missing out on any important moves. An online course PDF checklist should be easy to read and digest and accessible quickly. 

Just a few words on that list will guide them through what they need to do and remind them have they have learned. 

How to create an online course PDF checklist

• Open up your free (or paid) Canva account
• Type “checklist” in the search bar
• Select your favourite layout
• Adjust colours to your brand colours
• Adjust fonts to your brand fonts
• Insert your content 
• Click download as PDF
• Upload PDF to your online school

2. Why create an online course PDF transcript of your video lessons

When it comes to online course creation, the majority of course creators out there think of using video only, and unfortunately, most do. 

And that’s a bad thing for the people who learn through reading best.

The good thing is, it doesn’t really require much more work from your side to create a transcript of your video lesson. 

How to create an online course PDF transcript of your video or audio lessons

• Open up your free (or paid) Otter account
• Click “Import” on the right corner of your screen
• Select and upload your MP3 file 
  • If you only have MP4 (video) files, you will need to convert those first into MP3 files. Just google “convert MP4 into MP3” and plenty of options will pop up. 
• Let the bot do its thing (depending on the length of your audio it will take some time)
• When ready, come back and edit the transcript as it won’t be perfect 
• Copy & paste it to your chosen Canva layout & create a PDF
  • Or simply paste it below the video in your online school and don’t create a PDF

3. Create data tracking sheets as a supportive online course PDF

In my online course “From Idea to Course”, I offer my students a marketing tracking sheet where they need to track their marketing activities and progress daily. 

So, if you have any activity they need to track, then it would be best if you offer a tracking sheet, because 99% of the time, they won’t create one for themselves, even if that means to just create a few lines on Excel. 

You can create a tracking sheet on Excel or on Canva. 

If you choose to use Canva to create a PDF, your students can easily write on it (click right on a Mac > open with preview > write on it). 

If you create a tracking sheet with Excel, they can just upload it to their Google Drive, open it that way online (essential on a Mac) and write directly on it from there. 

Related: Why people will buy an online course, even though there is so much free content out there. 

4. Create workbooks as part of your online course PDF support system

For some reason people really LOVE workbooks. In my online course “From Idea to Course”, I have created workbooks to help my students to get through different exercises. 

For example, I even offer one of my workbooks as a freebie, “How to create an online course outline template”.  In this workbook, I explain step by step (in addition to the video lesson) what a great course outline should have and how you can create it. 

I then break it down into further specific steps which the students need to take to get to the end result (in this case a finished online course outline). On each page, there is enough space to write what they need to write before going on to the next step. 

So every action which requires them to create and develop something, (not just do something) is explained again in a separate workbook in detail. And after the explanation, students are required to write down their own results. 

How to create workbooks and as part of your online course PDF support system is the same procedure as explained before: 

• Open up your free (or paid) Canva account
• Type “workbook” in the search bar
• Select your favourite layout
• Adjust colours to your brand colours
• Adjust fonts to your brand fonts
• Insert your content 
• Click download as PDF
• Upload PDF to your online school 

5. Create presentation slides as part of your online course PDF support system

This is the easiest thing in the world. Forget about Powerpoint and other annoying software which don’t leave room for beautiful creativity. 

When you are recording your online course, you don’t just want to be the only thing in front of the camera what your students get to see. You want to help your students increase the amount of information they can digest, and therefor have slides prepared, so they can read important information while you are explaining it. 

This way you are almost covering all learning types: 

• Visual (Spatial)
• Aural (Auditory-Musical)
• Verbal (Linguistic)

While you are explaining things, people will be able to follow along looking at your slides, listening to your voice and even understand your body language if you know how to use it the right way. 

With a software called Loom, you can easily record your screen and have your face shown at the bottom of your screen as well. 

You can work with visuals a lot and insert relatable pictures to your slides. One picture says more than a thousand words, use it to everyone’s advantage. 

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