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One Thing Every First-Time Instructor Should Do Before Recording Their First Lecture

PrecisionLab

Before I start recording my first Udemy course, I've been thinking about something that seems more important than having expensive equipment or perfect editing:
Understanding the learners' needs first.
I'm planning to spend time identifying the most common questions, mistakes, and challenges students face before creating the course content.
I believe that a course becomes valuable when it solves real problems, not just when it covers a topic.
I'm curious to know how other instructors approached this. Did you validate your course idea before recording, or did you refine it based on student feedback after publishing?
I'd love to hear different experiences from the community.

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Comments

BrianJackson

@PrecisionLab,

I think your post is dead on. When creating a course, a book or even a YouTube video, make sure you're focused on solving an important problem for your audience.

I certainly considered this before publishing, but didn't validate it in any way after publication.

I tended to publish what I was interested in. As a result, I'm not doing very well now. I suppose I should have focused on Udemy for Business-worthy courses, but what fun would that have been ;-).

All the best,

—Brian

ChrisBankes120

Understanding the learners' needs first.

Sure - and that points to course content. But sometimes the actual content is NOT what students need, it is the validation. They want some sort of Diploma that they can parade on LinkedIn and elsewhere - perhaps even start a business with it. A consultancy, perhaps. And if they can get that after doing very little work then they can get it quickly. And if they subscribe for a month then they can get maybe 20 Completion Certificates, 10 internationally accredited Diplomas from different accreditation bodies and that will enable them to kick start their business. I regularly look at Linked In and see studdnts being congratulated for having finsihed Course X on udemy and being awarded their Diploma and how marvellous it all is and when I check, the course they completed was less than an hour.

So some students need validation.

Some students like to do a course they find amusing and entertaining and the Instructor 'brings the subject tio life' - so their first desire is to learn but learn-through-humour or learn-through interest-and entertainment.

62,486 of my students have looked at at least one lecture in the last 5 years. But that's out of 250,531. So about 75% of my students have never ever looked at a lecture. At least 100,000 students have paid for courses - so what did they enrol for and not look?

I suggest they wanted a course they could do quickly, learn 'something' and then feel they have 'completed' something worthwhile.

So what are the students' needs?

A high quality, interactive course that teaches them something new or confirms what they already know
In a short form OR in a long form that they can progress with over several years
That gives some sort of 'Diploma' preferably accredited by some official-sounding body
And taught in a clear but (maybe) entertaining way.

You asked :

I'm curious to know how other instructors approached this. Did you validate your course idea before recording, or did you refine it based on student feedback after publishing?

My early courses included 2 stroke courses as I had just had a stroke and wanted to share what I'd learned in the hope of saving lives.

That was a big mistake.

The course was professionally filmed, three cameras etc etc

20,696 enrolled

659 have looked at at least one lecture

So what I think is useful is not necessarily what sells.

The course took ages to make.

As a dare I created a course 'Menopause for men'. Took 3 hours.

244 out of 6013 have looked at at least one lecture.

So, did I validate before recording? No.

Did I change it?

No but in one case, yes.

I used to have a course called Business Studies, or Business Studies A level (I forget which)

Sales low

Participation low

Enrolments low

I then realised that what people were very interested in was the course title BECAUSE that title appeared on the completion certificate.

I changed the title to : MBA in 50 hours (and made NO other changes) - and sales rose significantly. (That course is now withdrawn because….well, that's another story.)

So bear in mind what people want from your course and what appears on the Completion Certificate.

So, ''How to develop a Business Strategy' might well sell less than 'Diploma in Strategic Business Analysis' etc etc.

One final point: google IAOTH - you can get ALL your courses 'internationally accredited' for about $100.

(No, none of mine have been accredited by them - they're based about 20 miles from where I live and stopped corresponding when I asked them what the point of their accreditation was except as some sort of marketing spiel.)