Creators' Guide — Here's How Long Your Next Online Course Should Be

Launch Your Online Business in Just 7 Days

We’ll take a not-so-wild guess and say you’re looking to create the perfect online course.

And to some extent, that means knowing the ideal course length for your students to enjoy and benefit from.

So, how long should your next online course be?

Around 7 minutes is how long it would take you to learn the answer by reading this article!

Know what you’re dealing with

To better understand how long your next online course should be, you should clearly understand the parameters surrounding online courses for your industry and target audiences.

Know your industry

And by that, we mean having answers ready to these questions:

Are online courses in your industry even a thing? (Good luck finding a specific manufacturing course on Udemy, for example)
What type of info will you be sharing? Is it actionable or strictly academic?
Who are your competitors in making online courses? (More on this later)
Are there enough people in your industry looking for the course you’re going to provide? Or better yet, is your niche stable or volatile?

To some, these may seem redundant or obvious, but many course creators fall into the trap of “make it now, find students later” and it would cost them a lot of time, effort, and money.

— Off-topic but an important question, how do you have students ready to watch your course before selling and marketing it in the first place?

You build an email list of interested students before even launching your online course, obviously.

Know your audience

Typical online course lengths are heavily influenced by the state of the audience they’re presented to.

Once again, try to answer these questions:

What’s the level of expertise of your target audience? Beginner, intermediate, or advanced?
What’s the level of info you’re trying to convey? Is it easily digestible? Or is it technical and more complex?
What’s the exact goal you want students to achieve after watching your course? And why do they want it in the first place?
If you were just starting in your niche, how long would it take you to absorb all the info needed to achieve said goal?
Are you planning on keeping the content up to date?

Having clear answers to all of these questions will not only get you closer to an ideal online course length, but will also help you determine the cost of your new online course.

So far, we’ve been looking outwards to gather as much information as possible to determine the length of your online course.

Let’s shake it up a bit and look inwards.

Know your course structure

Now that you have all the data needed to go ahead and create your online course, it’s time to sit at the drawing board.

Start by visualizing a whole map from the start of the course to the finish.

This map should:

Have an intro and a conclusion (start with stating a goal and end with you accomplishing it)
Detail all the topics you’re going to cover
Break topics into ideas, problems, solutions, execution methods, etc
Show the placement of resources on each step of the map (media files, books, exams, assessments, etc)
Always link back to the goal of your online course

This will help you craft the perfect learning experience for your students, and, of course, narrow down on the ideal length of your online course.

— So that’s it?

Is that all I need to have the optimal length range in mind before I start the course creation process?

Potentially, we can definitely take it a few steps further.

Look at the average online course length for your competitors

Source: Giphy.com

If your competitors are successful enough, why change the formula?

Because you need to.

See, to bring in a consistent stream of students to your online-course business, you simply need to stand out from the rest.

So much more goes into creating online courses than just getting the perfect course length, but consider this:

If you’re promising the same audience the same or better results in a shorter period of time, who do you think they're going to choose?

Of course, you’ll need to build social proof and an effective sales page for your online course for people to actually believe you, but you get the point.

Note: we’re not saying re-invent the wheel, we’re saying take what works and improve on it.

— Wait, how exactly should I do that?

And wouldn’t this throw me in a loop of trying to pick between different lengths for my online course?

No, because if you’re following this post correctly, you have a clear goal that your online course aims to achieve.

And by improving, we mean to accomplish that goal for students in the shortest period possible.

— Okay, but wouldn’t shorter courses seem less valuable to my students?

(Which will push my course price down)

Such an excellent question.

And we’ve got an excellent answer.

Students want shorter online courses with clearer formats, and here’s why

Let’s be savvy for a second, open the Oxford dictionary and look for something, more specifically, the term “attention span." We find that it’s defined as:

The length of time for which a person is able to concentrate on a particular activity or subject.

Dictionary closed.

Did you know that attention spans for humans are on the decline?

That means you now have less time than ever to:

Keep students engaged with your online course. (We’ll show you how to do this later in the post)
Deliver a clear and detailed piece of course content to students
Even catch the interest of your students from the get-go to make them want to continue watching

If you think about it, this is also true for content consumption in general.

Just look at how hard YouTube is pushing YouTube shorts to compete with the likes of TikTok and Instagram.

And this nicely leads us to the pricing argument. Does shorter video content mean it’s less valuable?

Nope, it doesn’t.

And since it’s claimed that educational videos are better for learning, you’re actually positioning yourself to price your online course more aggressively by providing shorter videos.

Of course, that’s the case as long as you’re delivering on your course objectives the same or better than your competitors.

So let’s cut it clean for you…

How long should an online course be?

Your course should be the shortest it could possibly be without compromising the quality or depth of the objectives your course aims to achieve.

But since you probably saw that coming from a mile away, here’s something you didn’t:

The average online course length on Skillshare is 20-60 minutes (according to their help center)
The average completed course video duration on Udemy is around 4 hours and 30 minutes
The average length of an online course on Coursera is between 4-12 hours
The most profitable course video length on Thinkific is between 10-25 hours (according to their blog)

Safe to say, your course length will also be affected by the platform you’re publishing on.

(This makes sense, considering each platform has a more unique audience that it appeals to.)

How to increase engagement in long online courses

People naturally look for instant gratification, but things are more complex than ever and they take time to be fully understood or utilized.

So your job — as a course creator — is to keep gratification levels as high as possible throughout your course up until you complete the objectives of your course.

We know, easier said than done, right?

Still, you have streamlined ways you can always count on to drive more student engagement.

Break topics into small lessons

Remember that map you created for your online course structure?

Well, you need it now more than ever as it’ll help you split the main concepts of your course into multiple small abstract arguments.

These notions or sub-concepts should be easily worked into short video lessons that are efficiently and easily digestible by students.

Each video lesson should hook viewers with a unique value proposition and a clear understanding of why they’re watching it.

Make sure they feel coherent, complete, and complementary to the overall goal of the course.

You should constantly link back to why students are watching in the first place.

You can also shuffle in a healthy dose of media, graphics, and editing skills to make video lessons as engaging and/or short as possible.

Speak directly to the audience, and make them do something

Avoid being passive.

Just like in a real conversation, if you’re not constantly engaging the other participants with real talking points, you’re going to lose students in the first few minutes.

Focus on using language like this:

— You should do X to get Y, and here’s how we’re going to do that.

Additionally, always ask intriguing questions, talk about the effects of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and instruct them to take notes.

And every once in a while, break the ice a bit with some humor.

You don’t need to be on Kevin Hart’s level, even some corny jokes or puns would succeed in grabbing their attention — which is your goal.

On the other hand, if your video lessons aren’t packed with valuable and actionable information that students can implement, then expect some students to get bored and lose interest, or even drop the course.

Create and sell your first online course for free with systeme.io

Systeme.io’s logo

Say you want to start a profitable online-course business on your own terms, set your own length for courses, and choose your own format.

You can’t really do that on platforms like Udemy or Skillshare, they have their own rules and expectations for course creators that you need to consider.

So what do you do?

Easy!

You can go get your forever-free account from systeme.io and enjoy the following:

On the main dashboard, you’ll find “Courses” under “Products/Sales” (yes, you can sell all kinds of physical and digital products)

Products menu in systeme.io

Effortlessly upload your first course, break it into different modules (chapters), and break each module into different video lessons/lectures

Course dashboard in systeme.io

You can add an unlimited number of students and take advantage of features like drip content, quizzes, and more
Once you’re done uploading all of your course materials, they’ll be displayed in a nice course view that you can also customize the theme of

Admin course view in systeme.io

And this is just a glimpse of what systeme.io puts in your hands.

A complete website builder with a proven templates library, full email marketing features, automation rules to run your business on autopilot, and so much more — are all just a few clicks away.

— But how does a platform provide all of this amazing variety in one software package?

You see, systeme.io was built from the ground up to create, grow, and scale online businesses.

But hey, don’t just take our word for it.

Check out more than 1,100 reviews on Trustpilot — we have an amazing average rating of 4.9/5!

Systeme.io’s pricing

Systeme.io’s pricing

Our pricing is as clear as it gets. We have 4 plans:

1. Free: $0/month

2. Startup: $27/month

3. Webinar: $47/month

4. Unlimited: $97/month — Limitless access to all features and a 1-1 kickstart coaching session

The Free plan is free forever — and with it, you get:

Full access to the website builder and library of templates
Unlimited file storage, unlimited hosting, and connect your custom domain for free as well
A blog with unlimited blog posts
Ability to run your own affiliate program

(And sell products/services with 0% transaction fees!)

As you go up in the plans, you’ll get higher limits on all the tools you have in the free plan, and unlock new features as well.

FAQs

How long should each course lesson or module be?

Each course lesson should feel complete, tackle specific concepts, and go as in-depth as needed to fully convey their technicalities and importance.

With those variables in mind, you should make each lesson as short as possible.

What is a mini course?

It’s an online course that usually has a duration of less than 2 hours.

It also has low preparation time and no resources or assets that come with it.

Additionally, it sometimes resembles a small piece or module of a much larger course.

How can I be sure that I have the ideal online course length?

If you’re positive that your course:

Fully delivers on its objectives
Every lesson of it is needed and can’t be dropped
Every minute of your course is packed with valuable information that students actually need to achieve the course goals
Doesn’t spend much time selling your other products or services

Then you’re as close as it gets to the ideal course length.

Additionally, you can always collect feedback from students.

Should I aim for the shortest course length possible?

Yes. Students are looking to extract value from courses at the fastest rate possible.

Simply because people are trying to survive and keep up with day-to-day life more than ever before.

Is drip content really effective for online students?

Splitting your course modules/chapters into lessons that can be sent to students on a specific schedule could give them the time needed to absorb the value of each lesson.

Furthermore, you can send assessments and quizzes between lessons to ensure students are able to fully utilize the value of your lessons.

Conclusion

So what did we learn today?

Despite having no exact figure for an ideal course length, you can always rely on making your online course as short as possible.

But that doesn’t mean you should compromise on your courses’ quality, in-depth arguments, valuable resources, etc.

And of course, if you’re looking for a platform to launch your online-course business, look no further than systeme.io!

Get your forever free account and experience all the features you need to hit the ground running!

That’s it folks, cheerio!