How much time and money is needed to create a course?

[shreya-gupta-usc]

Hi everyone!

I'm new here and have done various webinars and guest lectures but have never recorded video lectures so I don't have any software or hardware for recording or editing the course. How much time and money can I realistically expect to spend to create my first course?

Thanks!

[Alexia]

@shreya-gupta-usc There is some helpful info in this thread with recent recommendations for an audio video set up. If you add a camera and microphone to your computer set up, that will help. I use zoom to record and iMovie to edit as I have a Mac. You have an advantage, with your webinar experience. 

https://community.udemy.com/t5/Audio-and-video-solutions/Need-Better-Audio-and-video-quality/td-p/13...

[ThomasMitchell]

General rule of thumb is 20-40 hours of labor for every one hour of produced content. This assumes high-quality output. 

[EmilyLMortl033]

Even though this is not my post, I found this very helpful. I thought maybe I was taking too long on content and curriculum research. 

[LawrenceMMiller]

@shreya-gupta-usc It is almost an impossible question to answer because there are so many determining variables. For example...

• A course can be thirty minutes or thirty hours. 
• Do you have an existing knowledge/instructional base? When I started I had already spent several decades doing similar training and writing. So, my first courses were exploiting my existing work. I wasn't generating new intellectual property.
•  Do you currently have the needed tools (camera, microphone, lighting, editing software) and do you have the skills to use them effectively? Much of my first couple of years was spent mastering these tools and learning how to use them well. 

These are just some of the more obvious variables that make the question difficult to answer.