How to Start Creating Online Courses for Free

As an instructor, you may find yourself wondering how to put your course and lecture materials online. Your institution probably already uses a learning management system as a part of its eLearning initiative. Given that higher education in the UK and Ireland embraced LMS implementation widely and mostly prefers Moodle, Canva, or Blackboard, you know where to publish your courses.

However, you may not know how to approach the field of eLearning and exactly what will help you make your materials ready for online delivery. So, why beat around the bush? You want something simple and quick to turn your piles of slides into eLearning in a snap.

Below, you’ll learn about a fast and easy way to convert presentations into online courses in three steps.

1.  Build Courses in PowerPoint

You can actually create courses using PowerPoint – and make slides web-ready right there. This is possible with a free PowerPoint add-in like iSpring Free. You can install it now via the link – only your email is required.

As the name implies, this tool is free and makes your presentations ready to display in an LMS or just in a browser. 

It will come in handy if you:

• Want a handy no-frills tool
• Have a zero budget
• Want to avoid red tape in your institution

iSpring Free integrates into your PowerPoint. You don’t need to master some complex software or learn how to code – you just keep using PowerPoint, which most university computers have.

With iSpring Free, you can use your regular presentation as the basis of your course and enhance it with quizzes, articles from Wikipedia, or videos from YouTube. This is all possible within a single toolbar in PowerPoint and is entirely intuitive.

2.  Add Interactive Quizzes

You can improve learner engagement with interactive quizzes. The quiz functionality of iSpring Free offers the essentials for effective online learning. For example, you can create a survey or an engaging trivia for your learners with the pre-made templates of multiple-choice, multiple response, and short answer questions.

 You can leave quizzes ungraded for surveys, or apply points and passing scores for tests. You can also randomize questions, shuffle answers, or set a time limit to prevent cheating.

Don’t forget to enable the answer feedback option and provide a message for your learners after each correct or incorrect answer. You can explain the answer, provide a hint, or share a fun fact.

You and your learners can get reports of their quiz results sent via email. Or, if you upload the course to your LMS, you can track how learners succeed in more detail. If you’re ready to explore more types of interactive quizzes and want to build whole dialogue simulations to test your learners’ knowledge, consider using a full-fledged authoring tool iSpring Suite.

3.  Convert Courses to SCORM or HTML5

With iSpring Free, you can turn your slides into the following online formats: SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 (for LMSs), and HTML5 (for browsers). Regardless of the format you need, if your presentation contains effects, triggers, and animations, they’ll stay intact and play beautifully on tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

The conversion of PPT to HTML5 or SCORM works straight out of the box. By simply opening your existing presentation and tapping on Publish, you can convert it into the required format.

In the Publish window, select how you’d like to publish your file.

If you need an eLearning course for an LMS, choose the LMS tab. iSpring Free is compatible with SCORM-based LMSs, and you can upload your ZIP file to any of them, including Moodle.

To post your file on the Web, select My Computer.

Congratulations! That’s how easy it was to create your first online course!

Summary

In conclusion, here is a brief outline of what iSpring Free enables you to do:

• Convert PPT to HTML5 format to take courses on mobile and desktop devices
• Create online quizzes (3 question types) to check knowledge
• Enhance courses with YouTube videos and web objects (articles and links)
• Publish content to SCORM 1.2 and 2004 to distribute via an LMS

iSpring Free is a robust helper for teachers of any level of experience. It’s available free of charge, with no credit card required.  Start using it right away and create online courses today!