Online learning got a real boost with the coronavirus and what is now just shy of 2 years of lockdowns in some way or form. People have been forced to see the value of online learning and courses. Many have turned to online courses as business ideas. The question is of course which in-demand subjects can one offer online teaching on? Let’s look at some course ideas that are popular in Zimbabwe.
Financial literacy
The beauty with online learning as we have come to know is that it doesn’t a lot of facetime. You could actually put together a course with audio, video and text resources and never have to spend any facetime with your students. One big issue that many were forced to look at over the last couple of years is financial management. A course on this would be well accepted if you can prove to be value for money.
Crafts
There’s a lot to think about here. People may have existing skills or you may teach them new skills through your course. However, having the skill is not enough. You can offer courses on turning the skill into a business. Teaching people how to build the required infrastructure around craft skills to turn them into a business. Crafts that could work for this include painting, sculpting, beading and more.
Cooking and baking
Banana bread and scones took over for a while as lockdown started to set in. There is clearly a huge interest in baking. Just as much as there is in cooking. Teaching people to cook is a good online course business idea. Here’s the thing, it’s not just about a recipe, it’s much more about technique. Cooking and baking have this in common. With baking, it extends to cake art as well.
Business
Business is one of the most popular subjects in general. There is so much to business, so many facets that you can teach on. Business in Zimbabwe is its own area of study and someone who really understands the Zimbabwean business landscape can do well by creating courses around the understanding business in Zimbabwe.
Investing / trading/ cryptocurrency
Yes I know these are 3 different things but it felt best to group them. They share characteristics especially because people are most concerned with the ‘how to’ part of things. Zimbabweans have a checkered history with finances and investment but people are very happy to find a person who knows what they are talking about and instructing on.
Graphic/web design
The more businesses move online the greater the demand for online content. Teaching web and graphic design via online courses is a great business opportunity in Zimbabwe. There are many ways to go about these but much like cooking and baking it’s more about teaching techniques than teaching people how to use certain products or software.
Social Media Marketing/Digital marketing
While we’re on the subject of things going online marketing has definitely made the transition too. Businesses need people with these skills, so this is a very good area to look at if you have skills and experience in this area. This is a very wide area. There are tools and methods that you can teach. You can also teach techniques. Whichever way you go if you can prove that you are worth it, you will do well.
Content generation
The internet is that gift that keeps on giving. Content is at the centre of this whole movement as the online world requires content. Audio, video, graphics, long copy and short copy are all part of the internet. There’s a growing demand for these different types of content and you can, if you have the skills and experience, teach people how to master the production of all these types of content.
