Firstly I am happy to have my courses on the Udemy Marketplace.
In my 3 years of creating course materials I have learned the following points and I hope it can help new and aspiring creators to make better courses from the get-go so here goes.
1. Always keep the student in mind and try and simplify the material
2. If you are using a screencast video, generally engagement will be low as viewers may get bored, alternate between screencast and stock video. Or just bite the bullet and record with the camera on. I have found students completion rates are much higher for courses that have video recording. It took me almost 8 months to brave the camera but it was worth it. The courses where I face the camera reached best-seller must faster and have a higher enrolment rate.
3. Ensure you use stock videos and pictures which are either free for commercial use or ones you have purchased. A great source for free images and video is pixabay and Pexels .
4.For simple animations and intro-videos you can use softwares that add extra professional look. It's easy to use and saved me tons of money than hiring a video editor to do intro videos and animations. You can get started for as low as a dollar.
5. For presentations and templates use canva. It can help save a lot of time making slides and worksheets. You can get started for free and then upgrade according to your requirement. Nowadays you can even use canva's presenter option to record your presentations.
6. Try and bring your own story and personality to the surface to engage better with the students. Including examples of own life, experiences helps build student rapport.
7. Don't wait for your course to be perfect to publish it. Start with what you have and work on getting your course out there. You can always improve based on student feedback and update your course
8.Always keep a hard disk and back up your videos to ensure that you don't lose them or they get corrupted
9. Investing in a ring light and a microphone can help the quality of your audio/video and the sooner you do it the better and more time you will save editing. The blue yeti is a good microphone to get started with .
10. Success may not happen overnight so don't be discouraged. It takes a little while for students to find your course and enroll. Having a good promo video can help.
So these are the top 10 learnings I can share with any new instructor. Hope they help you in your journey of course creation,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and A Happy Prosperous New Year!
Author:
Jasmine Bayer (@JasmineBayer
)