How Coaches Can Use Canva For Course Content

The good news is that there are tools that will make creating your course content easier. 

Canva is one of those tools and something all our team members depend upon. In this post, I have several videos that will help you use Canva to create course content and marketing content that will make you look like a world-class designer - even if you have no design skills at all! 

How to Create a Course in Canva

There are 3 main types of online course content you'll need for your students:

• Visuals
• Handouts and Downloads (such as worksheets)
• Videos (recording slideshows is preferable)

With Canva, you can create all of those either from scratch or using the brandable, done-for-you content from Content Sparks as your starting point.

You will either use the build-in templates Canva has in their library and add your own content. Or, you can use the templates we provide and customize them to your needs. You can even import slides! 

The focus for the first 3 videos below is on editing existing images and templates. While there are many already in the Canva library, you'll have to add all your own content to fit your course. To speed up the creation of your course assets and slides, I've focused on the ones we offer as part of our white label course kits, assessments, social media images, and more.

How to Customize an Image Template in Canva

In this first video, I walk through customizing images in Canva, especially the brandable social media ones we provide in many of our courses and bonuses. 

Not only are images a powerful marketing tool, they're a great course asset too.

Follow these steps to edit your Canva image templates each time:

1.  Open the Canva template
2.  Change the template name and make a copy
3.  Edit the text in the template
4.  Change the background image (if you want) 
5. Move and resize any text as needed
6.  Add your logo
7.  Add your Call-to-Action url
8.  Download your new image from Canva

How to Edit Canva Templates for Coaching Tools, Worksheets, and More

You can also use Canva for your worksheets, planners, assessments and other course templates.

This next videos will walk you through the steps to take your course content from meh to marvelous! 

Follow these steps to edit Canva templates for course worksheets, assessments, and planners:

1. Open the Canva template and rename it
2. Make a copy and give it your course name as a prefix
3. Change the template colors to fit your brand (Select an element, change the color, then click 'Change All' at the bottom)
4. Edit text and fonts as needed
5. Add your logo (if desired)
6. Add your Call-to-Action at the end (your url if you want people to go somewhere)
7. Delete the instructions page (for Content Sparks Canva templates)
8. Download your course worksheet or handout as a pdf

How to Use Canva with PowerPoint to Create Online Course Videos

But what about your online course videos? We recommend you create slideshow presentations that give your students a visual to engage with, rather than having them just staring at you. It will help reinforce their learning.

Unfortunately, most slideshow presentations aren't particularly exciting to look at. PowerPoint gives you some design features to jazz them up, but Canva gives you far more!

In this next video, I first give you a brief intro to how to create a presentation from scratch in Canva. The easiest way is to use their templates.

But what if you already have a PowerPoint presentation, like our brandable ones that are ready to teach, here at Content Sparks?

In the main part of the video, I show you how to import your PowerPoint slideshow to Canva, including any Smart Art graphics, and apply Canva template styles and your own customizations.

On the Canva help website, you can read more about how to import PowerPoint presentations to Canva and how to copy slides from one Canva project to another.

The basic steps for importing PowerPoint slides to create course videos in Canva are:

1. Go to your Projects page in Canva
2. Open your Files folder on your computer
3. Locate your PowerPoint slideshow and drag that file to the page on Canva. (It will automatically start to upload)
4. Repeat for all PowerPoint slideshows you want to work with. 
5. For SmartArt graphics from Content Sparks, upload the ppt file with the _Shapes extension (in Student Materials > Graphics)
6. In Canva, open the main slideshow that just uploaded from PowerPoint
7. Apply a Canva slideshow template to all slides. (Find a template you like and scroll past the slide layouts to find this option)
8. Insert the relevant SmartArt graphic where needed in your presentation (Add a page > Projects > Select graphics uploaded > Click on relevant slide)
9. Copy speaker notes from old to new SmartArt pages
10. Make any additional edits to your new Canva slideshow (such as using layouts in your chosen template or adding elements).
11. Record your course videos in Canva or as a screenshare

Bulk Create Social Media Posts for Marketing Your Course

Creating professional-looking marketing content so you can sell a profitable course is also a breeze with Canva. While you'll find a massive range of options for different sizes, platforms, and other marketing collateral you might need, social media posts are probably the simplest to create.

And if you have all your social media image text in a spreadsheet, like the ones we give you with many of our products, then you can quickly create those images using the 'bulk create' feature in Canva.

I did a demo video of the process here:

The basic steps for bulk-creating social media images in Canva are:

1. Pick the type of post you want to create (e.g., an Instagram size).
2. Find a template you like that fits the theme of your posts. 
3. Delete or add text boxes, leaving only the ones for your image text and CTA text.
4. Resize and/or move any elements as needed to adjust your layout.
5. Brand your new template with your fonts, colors, and logo.
6. Locate the 'Bulk Create' option in the left-hand menu (might need to find it in the Apps)
7. Click on 'Enter Data', clear existing table, and paste in the text you want added to each image, column-by-column, based on the number of text boxes on your template. Name each column according to what the text is, e.g. Text for one and URL or CTA for another. Then click 'Done'.
8. Connect the text boxes on your template to the relevant column in your entered data by clicking on the 3 dots that show when you select a box, then clicking 'Connect data'.  You'll see options based on how you named your columns. 
9. Click 'Continue' and then 'Generate' to bulk create your new images. All the data you pasted into the table will then be put on individual slides, using the template you just set up.
10. (Optional) Edit the individual images for more variety. E.g., shuffle the colors in your 'Styles' in the 'Design' tab to have a different mix for each. 
11. Download your new images via the 'Share' and 'Download' menu in the upper right. You can also schedule posts directly from Canva in that section!
12. (Optional) Create a video or resize your images, using the 'Resize and Magic Switch' options in the top menu.

Ready to dive deeper into the ins and outs of creating online course videos with Canva?

In this series of videos the Canva team show you how to create the perfect presentation. They show you every step from planning to presenting your slideshow!

As you can see from these videos, Canva is the perfect tool for creating course content and other marketing materials. Not only does it make things easier and more professional-looking, it also speeds up the course creation and selling process.

Need course content to get you off to a fast start?

We can help you with that part too... Take a look at our online course bestsellers, then upload your PowerPoint slides into Canva and start customizing!