Using OpenAI's ChatGPT to Write Your Next Online Course: A Guide

In recent years, the popularity of online learning has skyrocketed, leading to a rise in the demand for online course content. As a result, instructional designers, HR managers, and educators are looking for efficient and effective ways to create engaging and informative course material.

Enter OpenAI's ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI. It is capable of generating human-like text and more based on the input it receives, making it a valuable tool for those who want to create content quickly and easily. That's right, you ask it to write something for you and it does, instantly. You can be incredibly specific, and it will produce results that can be astoundingly good. While it might not always be perfect, it can an incredibly long time to produce a lot of written content, not to mention the creative thought process required to make important learning design decisions. ChatGPT's almost instant results means if ask the right way, you can get a customized pre-filled course template built for you, so you can feel more like an editor and instead of a creator with writer's block.

Step 1: Determine the Course Outline, title and description

Before you start creating any content, you need to determine the course outline or structure. This means that you need to decide what topics you want to cover in your digital course. If you're open to ideas (and working so much faster), try asking ChatGPT to design the course outline. If you have an idea of some of the attributes of the course like who the audience is, how many topics and quizzes it will have and how long it will take to complete, make sure you include that in your prompt.  

ChatGPT can also write a title and description for your course so your learners can quickly grasp what they're in for before starting.

Step 2: Create the Course Content

Once you have determined the course outline, it is time to start creating the course content. You can use a variety of content formats, such as written content, videos, audio recordings, and interactive quizzes. Besides just writing sentences and paragraphs on your course topics, ChatGPT can write scripts for your videos, and write quizzes on each of the course topics. Just provide the details in the prompts to ChatGPT. Written video scripts can then be turned into a video using only the script with AI tools like Synthesia and Steve.ai.  

The key is to create content that is engaging and interactive, so that your students can stay engaged and focused throughout the course which will help them retain the information and complete the course!

Step 3: Import into your course builder or LMS and edit

As you create your course content, you'll need to bring it all into a platform like Coursebox where your learners complete your courses. As a subject matter expert in the topic your course is on, you can decide which parts of what the AI has written needs changing, and where bits are missing. Once you're happy with the course, it's a good idea to go through and test it yourself as well as get others to test it as well and the refine it based on any feedback.

Step 4: Launch Your Digital Course

Once you have tested and refined your digital course, it is time to launch your course. You can use a variety of platforms to launch your course, such as Coursebox, Udemy, Coursera, your own website, an LMS, or an HR platform. The key is to choose a platform that is user-friendly and that allows you to reach your specific audience. If it's a course you are interested in marketing publicly and even selling then also take into account the ChatGPT can help you write a marketing plan for your course.

In conclusion, using OpenAI's ChatGPT to write your online course is a fast, efficient, and effective way to create high-quality content. With the right input and training, you can quickly generate text that is relevant to your course and engage your target audience. Give it a try, and you'll be amazed at the results!