Small Guide for the First Time Creators

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Small Guide for the First Time Creators

This guide will give new instructors a little bit of idea on how to start creating content on Udemy.

 

Step 1: Planning your course/video

The first step is to plan on the topic of your course or the video. I mean, for example, if you want to explain about the table let's say, then you need to think about how you can best explain the concept of a table. As most of the people that look for online content are generally beginners, so, start with a simple explanation.  Please do good research before you start recording. You would not like to repeat the video just because you explained something wrong or the content was not sufficient.

I have faced this. Earlier, I used to just start recording on whatever I knew about a certain topic but later I realized that it's not a good practice to do that. So, write down the points which you want to cover in your video and make sure that you cover all of them.

Later, when you will focus on building courses, the same practice you must follow. Make proper planning of the topic and the contents of that course.

Notes:

  • Make sure you know well about the topic.
  • Keep the explanations simple and as far as possible always touch the practical side of the content that you are teaching. You should be, at least on some scale, different than most of the teachers out there.
  • Make a proper plan on how you want to take your course or the video so that the objective of creating that course/ video is met.

 

 Content Selection

What content you should make the course/video on? If you are an architect, let's say, you must be knowing what are the things that you had problem understanding in your field or think that the new students might be struggling to learn. Make a video on such topics. You can also make videos on the trending topics of your field. You can find the youtube channels related to architect and see what they are making contents on and which of their videos are most watched. And if you want to take courses on certain software, you can search for which software is in demand.

Don't worry if you don't know much about the subject that you want to teach. All it takes is a little bit of effort and time to do some research to prepare yourself. You can find complete paid courses in torrents that you can download and learn and also think about how you can do better.

 Step2: Recording

After you are done with the planning of your course/video, now you can start with recording. Recording consists of two aspects:

a.      Audio

           You can record sound using a simple microphone. If you are very serious about starting your course or teach on youtube, you can purchase a cheap condenser microphone. You can find such microphones online. A microphone worth of at least $20 to $25 will be sufficient for starting.  Later you can upgrade once you get some returns from your courses. If you can initially afford, go for better equipment because you wouldn't want to re-record the entire course due to bad audio. I regret recording my first-course using inbuilt microphone of my headphone.  I use blue yeti now and sound is quite good.

Do not purchase lapple microphones. They work only on phones and cameras and you have to then sync audio and video later which might be difficult. USB condenser microphones can directly record on your laptop which is time and effort saving.

b.      Video

Videography is quite flexible. It all depends on how you want to present your content. Generally, if you want to teach any software, you need to record your screen. For that, you should use a screen recording software. I use Camtasia. You can get any free screen recorder like bandicam. It is also good but they will not give you much feature and rendering is quite slow.

If you want to teach something by writing it, you should use a graphics tablet. Graphics tablet worth of $100 will be sufficient. Do not forget to check the review before purchasing anything online or offline.  

Graphics tablets will help you to write and you need a software where you can write. The Autodesk sketchbook is quite good.

 

So, all you need is sketchbook, graphics tablet and screen recording software to record the video.

 

Step 3: Editing

This is very crucial. Your recording is never flawless. You make mistakes which you need to filter while editing. For editing, use adobe premiere pro 2017. Later versions of this software are not that handy. you can learn the basics of the software via youtube You will only need the basics of this software which you can learn in a couple of hours. The videos that you record on Camtasia , you can edit on premiere pro and render them to get the final video. You can make edits on the Camtasia as well but it is not very user-friendly.

 

Step 4: Publishing

Publishing on youtube/Udemy is quite simple. Once you have made the video, you simply upload it on Udemy. Initially, you will not get much students. Do not get worried. If your course is good and give quite relevant information, then surely people will find you out and once people start rolling in, there is no turning back.

But

On youtube, you can practice teaching. Though I have shared this information which I have known through the couple of years during which I have been involved in teaching online, you will need to grow yourself up. It's not that i had known these things since I started. I have made a lot of mistakes and learned. I have done experiments on making things effective and sometimes I have failed badly. Once I had to record the entire half of the course because i thought putting low music on the background will help students learn better. I used to use a microphone from my headphone due to which the audio quality on my earlier videos is awful which i cannot change now. So, you learn and grow. That is why you need youtube.

Do not jump directly into Udemy. Practice at least a year on youtube. This will help you to get feedback. You must understand that the audience on Udemy is quite different than on youtube. ON youtube, if you are an average teacher, it will work and students will praise you and give you likes but on Udemy, you have to be good to be considered as good.

And you need to understand that, youtube is not a platform for teaching. Yes, few of the students will get benefit from your course but if you are investing so much time and energy, you must get returns of it as well. The thing that you do must be sustainable. Udemy will help you get the value of your teaching. It will help you to make yourself independent of any kind of job. Once you become a pro in udemy, then you will never have to bother about losing your job. But money shouldn't be your driving force. Helping out students and individuals out there should be. Money is just a byproduct of your help.


Engineer, Engineering Academy-Nepal
3 Replies

Thanks for sharing @Gokul ! I'm sure new instructors may find this useful. Smiley Happy

Thank you. This is quite useful, especially the part about first trying it on YiuTube, which has certainly worked for me. 

Thanks a lot.This piece of advice is enriching I am forced to read it on a daily basis.


@Gokul wrote:

This guide will give new instructors a little bit of idea on how to start creating content on Udemy.

 

Step 1: Planning your course/video

The first step is to plan on the topic of your course or the video. I mean, for example, if you want to explain about the table let's say, then you need to think about how you can best explain the concept of a table. As most of the people that look for online content are generally beginners, so, start with a simple explanation.  Please do good research before you start recording. You would not like to repeat the video just because you explained something wrong or the content was not sufficient.

I have faced this. Earlier, I used to just start recording on whatever I knew about a certain topic but later I realized that it's not a good practice to do that. So, write down the points which you want to cover in your video and make sure that you cover all of them.

Later, when you will focus on building courses, the same practice you must follow. Make proper planning of the topic and the contents of that course.

Notes:

  • Make sure you know well about the topic.
  • Keep the explanations simple and as far as possible always touch the practical side of the content that you are teaching. You should be, at least on some scale, different than most of the teachers out there.
  • Make a proper plan on how you want to take your course or the video so that the objective of creating that course/ video is met.

 

 Content Selection

What content you should make the course/video on? If you are an architect, let's say, you must be knowing what are the things that you had problem understanding in your field or think that the new students might be struggling to learn. Make a video on such topics. You can also make videos on the trending topics of your field. You can find the youtube channels related to architect and see what they are making contents on and which of their videos are most watched. And if you want to take courses on certain software, you can search for which software is in demand.

Don't worry if you don't know much about the subject that you want to teach. All it takes is a little bit of effort and time to do some research to prepare yourself. You can find complete paid courses in torrents that you can download and learn and also think about how you can do better.

 Step2: Recording

After you are done with the planning of your course/video, now you can start with recording. Recording consists of two aspects:

a.      Audio

           You can record sound using a simple microphone. If you are very serious about starting your course or teach on youtube, you can purchase a cheap condenser microphone. You can find such microphones online. A microphone worth of at least $20 to $25 will be sufficient for starting.  Later you can upgrade once you get some returns from your courses. If you can initially afford, go for better equipment because you wouldn't want to re-record the entire course due to bad audio. I regret recording my first-course using inbuilt microphone of my headphone.  I use blue yeti now and sound is quite good.

Do not purchase lapple microphones. They work only on phones and cameras and you have to then sync audio and video later which might be difficult. USB condenser microphones can directly record on your laptop which is time and effort saving.

b.      Video

Videography is quite flexible. It all depends on how you want to present your content. Generally, if you want to teach any software, you need to record your screen. For that, you should use a screen recording software. I use Camtasia. You can get any free screen recorder like bandicam. It is also good but they will not give you much feature and rendering is quite slow.

If you want to teach something by writing it, you should use a graphics tablet. Graphics tablet worth of $100 will be sufficient. Do not forget to check the review before purchasing anything online or offline.  

Graphics tablets will help you to write and you need a software where you can write. The Autodesk sketchbook is quite good.

 

So, all you need is sketchbook, graphics tablet and screen recording software to record the video.

 

Step 3: Editing

This is very crucial. Your recording is never flawless. You make mistakes which you need to filter while editing. For editing, use adobe premiere pro 2017. Later versions of this software are not that handy. you can learn the basics of the software via youtube You will only need the basics of this software which you can learn in a couple of hours. The videos that you record on Camtasia , you can edit on premiere pro and render them to get the final video. You can make edits on the Camtasia as well but it is not very user-friendly.

 

Step 4: Publishing

Publishing on youtube/Udemy is quite simple. Once you have made the video, you simply upload it on Udemy. Initially, you will not get much students. Do not get worried. If your course is good and give quite relevant information, then surely people will find you out and once people start rolling in, there is no turning back.

But

On youtube, you can practice teaching. Though I have shared this information which I have known through the couple of years during which I have been involved in teaching online, you will need to grow yourself up. It's not that i had known these things since I started. I have made a lot of mistakes and learned. I have done experiments on making things effective and sometimes I have failed badly. Once I had to record the entire half of the course because i thought putting low music on the background will help students learn better. I used to use a microphone from my headphone due to which the audio quality on my earlier videos is awful which i cannot change now. So, you learn and grow. That is why you need youtube.

Do not jump directly into Udemy. Practice at least a year on youtube. This will help you to get feedback. You must understand that the audience on Udemy is quite different than on youtube. ON youtube, if you are an average teacher, it will work and students will praise you and give you likes but on Udemy, you have to be good to be considered as good.

And you need to understand that, youtube is not a platform for teaching. Yes, few of the students will get benefit from your course but if you are investing so much time and energy, you must get returns of


@Gokul wrote:

This guide will give new instructors a little bit of idea on how to start creating content on Udemy.

 

Step 1: Planning your course/video

The first step is to plan on the topic of your course or the video. I mean, for example, if you want to explain about the table let's say, then you need to think about how you can best explain the concept of a table. As most of the people that look for online content are generally beginners, so, start with a simple explanation.  Please do good research before you start recording. You would not like to repeat the video just because you explained something wrong or the content was not sufficient.

I have faced this. Earlier, I used to just start recording on whatever I knew about a certain topic but later I realized that it's not a good practice to do that. So, write down the points which you want to cover in your video and make sure that you cover all of them.

Later, when you will focus on building courses, the same practice you must follow. Make proper planning of the topic and the contents of that course.

Notes:

  • Make sure you know well about the topic.
  • Keep the explanations simple and as far as possible always touch the practical side of the content that you are teaching. You should be, at least on some scale, different than most of the teachers out there.
  • Make a proper plan on how you want to take your course or the video so that the objective of creating that course/ video is met.

 

 Content Selection

What content you should make the course/video on? If you are an architect, let's say, you must be knowing what are the things that you had problem understanding in your field or think that the new students might be struggling to learn. Make a video on such topics. You can also make videos on the trending topics of your field. You can find the youtube channels related to architect and see what they are making contents on and which of their videos are most watched. And if you want to take courses on certain software, you can search for which software is in demand.

Don't worry if you don't know much about the subject that you want to teach. All it takes is a little bit of effort and time to do some research to prepare yourself. You can find complete paid courses in torrents that you can download and learn and also think about how you can do better.

 Step2: Recording

After you are done with the planning of your course/video, now you can start with recording. Recording consists of two aspects:

a.      Audio

           You can record sound using a simple microphone. If you are very serious about starting your course or teach on youtube, you can purchase a cheap condenser microphone. You can find such microphones online. A microphone worth of at least $20 to $25 will be sufficient for starting.  Later you can upgrade once you get some returns from your courses. If you can initially afford, go for better equipment because you wouldn't want to re-record the entire course due to bad audio. I regret recording my first-course using inbuilt microphone of my headphone.  I use blue yeti now and sound is quite good.

Do not purchase lapple microphones. They work only on phones and cameras and you have to then sync audio and video later which might be difficult. USB condenser microphones can directly record on your laptop which is time and effort saving.

b.      Video

Videography is quite flexible. It all depends on how you want to present your content. Generally, if you want to teach any software, you need to record your screen. For that, you should use a screen recording software. I use Camtasia. You can get any free screen recorder like bandicam. It is also good but they will not give you much feature and rendering is quite slow.

If you want to teach something by writing it, you should use a graphics tablet. Graphics tablet worth of $100 will be sufficient. Do not forget to check the review before purchasing anything online or offline.  

Graphics tablets will help you to write and you need a software where you can write. The Autodesk sketchbook is quite good.

 

So, all you need is sketchbook, graphics tablet and screen recording software to record the video.

 

Step 3: Editing

This is very crucial. Your recording is never flawless. You make mistakes which you need to filter while editing. For editing, use adobe premiere pro 2017. Later versions of this software are not that handy. you can learn the basics of the software via youtube You will only need the basics of this software which you can learn in a couple of hours. The videos that you record on Camtasia , you can edit on premiere pro and render them to get the final video. You can make edits on the Camtasia as well but it is not very user-friendly.

 

Step 4: Publishing

Publishing on youtube/Udemy is quite simple. Once you have made the video, you simply upload it on Udemy. Initially, you will not get much students. Do not get worried. If your course is good and give quite relevant information, then surely people will find you out and once people start rolling in, there is no turning back.

But

On youtube, you can practice teaching. Though I have shared this information which I have known through the couple of years during which I have been involved in teaching online, you will need to grow yourself up. It's not that i had known these things since I started. I have made a lot of mistakes and learned. I have done experiments on making things effective and sometimes I have failed badly. Once I had to record the entire half of the course because i thought putting low music on the background will help students learn better. I used to use a microphone from my headphone due to which the audio quality on my earlier videos is awful which i cannot change now. So, you learn and grow. That is why you need youtube.

Do not jump directly into Udemy. Practice at least a year on youtube. This will help you to get feedback. You must understand that the audience on Udemy is quite different than on youtube. ON youtube, if you are an average teacher, it will work and students will praise you and give you likes but on Udemy, you have to be good to be considered as good.

And you need to understand that, youtube is not a platform for teaching. Yes, few of the students will get benefit from your course but if you are investing so much time and energy, you must get returns of it as well. The thing that you do must be sustainable. Udemy will help you get the value of your teaching. It will help you to make yourself independent of any kind of job. Once you become a pro in udemy, then you will never have to bother about losing your job. But money shouldn't be your driving force. Helping out students and individuals out there should be. Money is just a byproduct of your help.



it as well. The thing that you do must be sustainable. Udemy will help you get the value of your teaching. It will help you to make yourself independent of any kind of job. Once you become a pro in udemy, then you will never have to bother about losing your job. But money shouldn't be your driving force. Helping out students and individuals out there should be. Money is just a byproduct of your help.


 

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