Top Tips to Find the Best Topics for Your CE Course

In previous posts, we discussed what continuing education (CE) courses are and everything you need to know about CE course accreditation. Now that you know what these courses are, let’s assume that you are accredited and ready to put together your first CE course for the world to enjoy. 

Many people think you should dive right into creating content, but this approach is not ideal because you need to understand your audience's needs before you build a CE course. The best place to start with your CE course creation process is to choose a topic that you want to teach about. 

Choosing a topic that is in demand and relevant to the needs of your audience ensures strong engagement, meets industry needs, and maximizes your return on investment. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to identify trending topics, analyze your target audience’s needs, and evaluate competition, so you can confidently choose a CE course topic that adds value and attracts learners in your field.

Choose Profitable, In-Demand CE Topics

Choosing the right topic is one of the most important steps in creating a successful continuing education course. 

In this section, we’ll explore how to identify profitable, in-demand CE topics that not only align with your expertise but also meet current market needs. 

Whether you're targeting healthcare, legal, or business professionals, understanding what your audience is looking for will help you stand out, attract more learners, and increase your chances of getting your course accredited.

1. Assess Your Expertise

The first step to choosing the right topic for a CE course is to identify subjects where you have strong knowledge and real-world experience. Think about your career achievements, certifications, and areas where colleagues often ask for your help. 

Starting here is important because you want to bring expertise and examples from your coursework to help learners understand the material and get the most value out of your CE course. 

You can create a spreadsheet and make the first tab about your expertise. Here you can keep notes and build out ideas based on your strengths and interests in the field. 

You can begin to build your courses based on this insight alone, so be sure to include practical insights, case studies, and specialized knowledge that learners can't find anywhere else. 

2. Research Market Demand

Sure, you could make the best CE course in the world, but if no one is looking for the topic, does it matter? This is why the next step in researching a great CE course topic is to understand what people are looking for.

This step helps you build a course that people are interested in, so be sure to explore what skills and topics are in demand within your industry. Here are some tips to help you find popular topics for your CE course: 

• Job boards: Be sure to check out general job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn Jobs, Glassdoor to identify trending skills, compliance issues, and knowledge gaps for professionals like lawyers, nurses, and other credentialed fields.

• Discussion boards: Explore forums like Reddit, Quora, or industry-specific groups to find specific questions potential learners are asking online to understand what challenges professionals face. Common pain points often reveal valuable topics for continuing education.

• Other CE courses in your field: You can find existing courses online to find patterns about topic popularity, pricing strategies, content types, and more. Find popular CE courses by searching things like “popular [field] CE courses” and “best CE courses for [profession]” to find other courses in your field. You can use this information to identify gaps, outdated content, or opportunities to present a more up-to-date and relevant course.

• Professional development platforms: Check platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or Skill Success to see top-performing courses in your field. Pay particular attention to reviews and enrollment numbers to gauge what learners value most, so you can choose topics that resonate with that demographic. 

You can use this information to add a new tab to your tracking spreadsheet. Be sure to include information about your findings to help build out a knowledge base that you can reference later as you examine the competition. 

Choosing the right topics for your CE course can be difficult, but by using the above tips, you can speed up the process by examining what already exists in the market. This research can help you target profitable and popular topics and avoid those that are not trending in your field. 

3. Analyze The Competition

Now that we have reviewed how to find popular and emerging topics by reviewing existing content, it’s time to take a look at your competitors. 

You want to take this step for several reasons. First, your CE course is going to be competing for learners against other content creators, so you want to understand how they are performing in the market. 

Second, you can use competitor research to validate your research from the previous step further about what topics are popular, pricing strategies, and topics to include in your course. 

Be sure to check out different aspects of CE courses from your competitors: 

• Types of topics: You can look over the course catalogue of competitors to understand what topics are popular in the field. 

• Course title: Take note of keywords and popular topics that you can use for your own courses in the future. 

• Course description: The description is essential because it tells a potential learner exactly what they will learn in the course. Take note of keywords, formatting, and length of the description so you can create a description that engages the reader. 

Create a new tab in your spreadsheet to keep track of patterns and findings during this process. Be sure to include links to course catalogues and other data that you may want to reference again in the future. 

The important part about this process is to identify patterns of frequently taught topics to find topics that learners are looking for. 

4. Validate Profitability

Before developing your CE course, make sure the topic covers information that potential students are willing to pay for. Survey your target audience to gauge interest, or analyze similar courses for enrollment trends and pricing. 

A general pricing guideline is around $50 per credit hour. However, many CE providers offer discounts for multi-credit courses, bundled packages, or even all-access subscriptions to help learners save.

High participation and positive reviews often indicate a strong market, helping you confirm that your course can generate revenue and long-term value.

5. Surveys and Polls

One of the best ways to find potential topics to build CE courses around is to talk directly to your target audience. You can use surveys and polls to understand what people are looking for to help you craft a compelling CE course that people will engage with.

Create targeted surveys using tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey. Ask potential learners about their pain points, career goals, and preferred learning formats through the survey with email lists, LinkedIn, or relevant professional groups, and with people you know to get the best responses possible. 

Keep track of responses in your spreadsheet so you can get even more validation for popular topics you can teach about in your CE courses.

As you can see, there are several ways that you can use to find popular topics for your next CE course. Even if you are just starting out, you can use these tips to research the market and analyze your competitors to understand the best way forward for your course creation. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right CE course topic starts with solid research. By exploring market trends, analyzing competitors, and understanding your audience, you can create a course that truly meets demand. 

A strong continuing education program starts with the right strategy and support. Whether you're offering CME, CLE, or other CE courses, BeaconLive’s powerful platform makes it easy to deliver, track, and grow. 

Ready to elevate your continuing education offerings? Learn more about BeaconLive’s complete CE solutions today!