Know Your Audience (Abe Crystal)

Over the past few episodes, Course Lab has gone beyond the design of courses, diving deep into the platforms that host them. We’ve been talking with industry leaders about their vision of the future and what that means for you as a course creator. Today, Course Lab features our own co-host, Abe Crystal, co-founder and CEO of Ruzuku, an online course platform focused on student engagement.In this episode, Danny and Abe talk about industry trends, increasing engagement and why  deeply connecting with students and potential students is paramount. We also get a sneak peek into some big news headed our way for Ruzuku, this week’s featured company!In this episode we discuss:The future of evergreen courses vs. more facilitated courses.Adding courses to an existing business.Offering additional products and services to an existing course.Broader trends in educational shifts to online learning.The importance of really knowing your students and what and how they want to learn.“I think what we're seeing is people are shifting their time and attention and their budgets from some of those formats to online experiences that are finally now proving that they can deliver as good or better results.”“The most important thing any course creator, or prospective course creator can do is just to get as close to your customers as possible.” – Abe CrystalAbe Crystal is the CEO and co-founder of Ruzuku, an online course platform focused on student engagement. He’s also a strategic advisor to Mirasee.Abe helps authors, coaches, speakers, and other independent experts create their own online courses and learning communities. He and his team at Ruzuku are on a mission to usher in a new wave of independent, authentic teachers around the world and invest them with the tools and support to succeed—everything the clients need to create, sell, and teach amazing courses.Abe is also the author of The Business of Courses, about the process of adding online courses to your product and services offerings.Abe is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He specializes in learning design and user experience research and earned his Ph.D. in human-computer interaction at UNC-Chapel Hill.Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:Mirasee Abe’s websiteAbe’s LinkedInCredits:Guest: Abe CrystalHost: Danny Iny Producer: Cynthia Lamb Executive producer: Danny InyAssembled by: Geoff GovertsenAudio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher MartinAudio Post Production: Post Office SoundMusic soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely     If you don't want to miss future episodes of Course Lab, please subscribe to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. And if you liked the show, please leave us a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.Music and SFX credits: • Track Title: Bossa BBArtist Name(s): MarieWriter Name: Chelsea McGoughPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION• Track Title: GraceArtist Name(s): ShimmerWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS• Track Title: Carousel LightsArtist Name(s): Chelsea McGoughWriter Name: Chelsea McGoughWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONPublisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS• Track Title: Coo CoosArtist Name(s): Dresden, The FlamingoWriter Name: Matthew WigtonPublisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONEpisode transcript: Know Your Audience (Abe Crystal)  coming soon~~~~~