The Playbook to Design an Instructional Video Course
It's true: creating online courses takes many hours of labor- often becoming a frustratingly lengthy procedure, particularly when you record a ton of videos for instruction.
One thing that can help you simplify course design and production? Stories.
Elise London, 's resident video expert who film all of our in-house and marketing courses She explains that the secret to creating engaging virtual classes is using stories in order to organize and present the information.
Identifying the story in the issue your course addresses as well as structuring the content according to the technique of storytelling using hero's journey can be game changers. The following is what you should be able to do in order to plan, structure, and film an engaging online video course. It includes the tools you'll need.
Jump ahead:
- The perfect topic for your online class
- The process of planning and structuring your online course
- Shooting your course video content
- Are you ready to create your online course?
Finding the ideal topic to your online class
There's no need for a fresh, out-of-the-box idea for your virtual course.
Choose a subject which is already popular. Understanding your goals and public will assist. Here's how:
Recognize what's currently resonating
Utilize data measurement tools such as Google Analytics to find high-performing publications. You may find an ebook about one particular subject that performs particularly well? Consider expanding it into a detailed video course.
You can also survey your list of email subscribers to discover subjects that your readers would like to take a course in virtual reality on. Send the same survey out to social media (if you have an engaged crowd there) and also to any communities that you are involved in.
Remember: the goal is to find a course subject that the audience has an appetite for.
Go deep, not wide
"If you examine the questions learners have around their topic and the emotions they feel as they tackle your subject, you can position your video course as the answer.
The concept"live streaming" can be wide, yet it is a challenge for novices to grasp." Elise London, Senior content production manager
The answer? Reexamine the emotions your audience faces when tackling a topic.
You can ask yourself:
- What kind of confusion are we encountering as they solve the issue?
- How do we deal with overwhelming feelings? we can help them overcome?
In the case of live streaming, for example it could result in feelings of anxiety as folks set up the first stream. The subject of a course would then be "How you can easily setup live streaming so that you aren't overloaded."
The best tip you can use for the course's name
If you're thinking of names for your course, think about how your public feels in relation to the issue you're solving and integrate this into the name.
Designing for and structuring the online class
Elise recommends using the hero's quest to design the online training course. This includes:
- Addressing the issues that students have. Find these by asking the right questions about your course's topic.
- Guiding them through overcoming obstacles and finding solutions. This is where you split the content into sections as well as video lessons -- each answering questions.
- Leaving them with the promised change. Offer additional resources, such as checklists, templates and other forms to aid students to apply the lessons they have learned.
Learn how to identify your audience's needs and questions for planning and structuring your course:
Research questions your audience has
Instead of thinking about it, try these actions:
- Search Reddit as well as Quora to create a list of frequently asked questions.
- Survey and hold one-on-one calls with learners to ask questions directly.
- Take calls from customers with sales and support teams to uncover common questions.
- Look up bestsellers' page indexes on Amazon for a deeper understanding of the questions they answer on the course topic.
If you've been hosting webcasts related to the topic, you can also look over questions the attendees asked in order to inform your research.
The course's topic can be broken down into buckets
Next, reference the challenges and concerns of your audience in order to divide your topic into narrative modules that build on each other as the next logical step in the learner's journey.
"Instead of saying that we're going to train you using Interactive Studio' (which is a broad, hard-to-wrap-my mind-around thing) Instead, state "We'll teach the beginner, intermediate advanced, and intermediate features. That way, the topics [for your online course] will fit into one of those three buckets." Elise London, Senior content production manager
Simply put "disparate ideas " into smaller pieces and then put them in buckets, so that, when you look at the course from afar, the course appears more manageable."
Pro tip for course structure
Make sure you lay out the course structure to meet learners where they are in their development. It's often easy to overshare and make students confused due to the curse of information (a cognitive bias that assumes the audience is as knowledgeable as you are). Remember to revise the course's design to ensure it is simple.
Video lessons to be planned
- Make sure you address your students' challenges that relate to the issue the video lessons will help resolve.
- Respond to the questions with answers to the problems that they're dealing with.
- Summarize the video or offer other resources to assist them in their to change.
Video lessons on a script-on-demand
pro tip
Shooting your course video content
The tools you'll require
To get a good production tool kit and setup You'll require:
- Microphone, cameras (two at a minimum) and a 3 or 4-point lighting kit
- Learning Management System (LMS). The software will house the course's video, making it accessible for students. Examples: Teachable, Podia, and Kajabi.
- . A platform for video that is ad-free that lets you host, record edit and even incorporate interactivity into educational videos which you could later upload onto your LMS.
- Teleprompter. A display device that shows scrolling text on the screen, making it simple for people on the screen to record video.
- Music pedal. It is a budget-friendly, foot-operated keyboard which allows you to change the direction of slide slides displayed on screen.
Building an ideal video production setting
Elise recommends you:
1. Do not use fluorescent overhead lights.
They can create harsh shadows upon your face. Sometimes, fluorescent lights flicker and can cause a greenish shade and altering the video's quality and consistency.
2. Record with no natural light
Natural light patterns change through the day, and should you are recording for a long time consecutively the lighting quality in your video won't look even, Elise warns. Also, this could be a issue when you choose to transfer sections from one video into a different video.
3. Set your cameras at different angles
The second camera can't "just spice up the editing (which can be helpful regardless of whether you are using a script or even if you are able to do it all right in one take) however, it also helps to break the monotony of people looking at the face of the instructor."
"More importantly, a second camera can be used to hide cut-outs," Elise adds. "So when you're making a presentation that does not have the potential to be rolled out in one take, then the way that you hide that edit is either using B-roll or cutting onto a different camera."
4. Create a clean free of clutter background
Do not use bright colors like magenta, orange, and yellow since these can reflect color, and are distracting for viewers. Go for neutral background tones including dark blue, grey or soft white. These look great on camera and are also comfortable on your eyes.
Recording your online video course
The recording process can be somewhat nerve-wracking. If you dedicate enough time in planning and drafting the course of your recording, it isn't a big deal.
5. Always make use of the Teleprompter
Teleprompters help you avoid being stuck in a screen freeze as you try to remember what the next point is.
The recording process is easy, and helps with editing, however "it will also allow you to maintain eye contact with your camera when you are looking into the screen on your teleprompter" notes Elise.
6. Use a music pedal to toggle between slides
"Instead of using a keyboard or clicker, which is visible in your palm, you can use the music pedal in order to switch the slides you're playing. It's essentially an USB Bluetooth keyboard with a left and right. It means that the person presenting doesn't have to reach for the keyboard or the mouse to advance it."
Editing on-demand video content
Try to cut down on the length of your edits and to provide a fun viewing experience using these professional guidelines:
7. Refine your edits ruthlessly
8. Add B-roll content for maximum engagement
One method to break through the monotony of a talking-head video is to switch between cameras on a regular basis.
It is also possible to incorporate graphics, animations slides, slides, stock footage, or personalized recordings to provide an engrossing learning experience.
9. Layer in interactivity
- Enjoy a build-your-own-learning path
- Click on hotspots for video for more information about learning tools
- Jump between sections relevant to the content (useful for onboarding video in the company)
In turn, interactive videos boost viewer participation, resulting in better retention. It is also possible to assess your students' understanding through creating video-based quizzes with Interactive.
Ready to design your online course?
Designing a video course the audience enjoys can be summarized as:
- Be specific with regards to the issue that you are trying to fix
- Making the data into a coherent story
- Then, organize the information so it's simple to read and understand
And don't forget, with the right equipment, you can alleviate the strain the process of creating high-quality videos and provide a full-immersive learning experience.