Memories :was it difficult to create your first course?

[MarouaOuakrim]

I am currently preparing my first course that it is somehow fun and at the same time a hard thing for a beginner , I learned editing from scratch and recording audio ,which is something new for me to do , but also enjoyable and intresting

Question : Old instructors ,was it difficult  to create your first course ?

Thanks in advance

[Lizzy]

I am a new instructor as well and it's a huge learning curve! I spent a year researching sound/camera/setting and learning software. Now I am uploading lectures and even that's tricky and taking ages. Next time, I will do it differently. You live, you learn!

[MarouaOuakrim]

Yes, Lizzy agrees. It's hard, but what makes it fun is that we're learning something new every moment.
I wish you success and great luck in your first course 

what's important is never ever give up

[Lizzy]

I am getting there. Thanks for the encouragement! 🙂

Good luck with your course. 

[Avril_Impacts]

I started January this year (2019) and still at it. It takes hard work, I agree. And a lot of it! During the ”dry spots” of developing my first course, I remind myself to have fun and connect with WHY I am doing what I am doing it. Just this past week, I felt disillusioned and overwhelmed - still so much to do! I just know that I can't stop now. I have to stay at it. And then I come to this platform and feel encouraged - I am not ALONE in this. So I am at it again towards completing the last major phase of creating my FIRST Udemy course.

[MarouaOuakrim]

Hi Avril , im  in  the  same  situation as you, sometimes i feel tired but I keep reminding myself that there is no  option for giving up now, just  keep going,and  I tell  myself that even if I submit the  course may not be very  successful at the  beginning, for this , I have to prepare  the  2nd course and the  third and we will not stop until we succeed  , right? so  keep going  

[LawrenceMMiller]

The answer is "yes." It took me a good six months to develop my first course, even though it was based on training I had done for many years and a book I wrote. The content wasn't my problem, the video skills - in particular lighting, was my big challenge. I wasted a huge amount of time trying to fix things I screwed up on the first take.

Two year later, after several more courses, I went back and completely re-recorded my first course, all fourteen hours of it. 

[MarouaOuakrim]

Wow wonderful thing Mr. Lawrence, the amazing thing that commitment has given a result.
I always read your articles , you may not know this but when When I frustrate, I re-read them again lol  

[LawrenceMMiller]

That is sweet! I am glad they have helped.

Persistance pays!

[Lizzy]

Lighting has taken me months of experimentation. I am working on my videos now and feel the endless perseverance is paying off. I hope others agree. Perhaps I should post something...

[ShaunPoole67]

Hi, I'm new and It was not problem for me to create my course wich I created in 2010 powerpoint. but I can't find out how to upload my course to the Udemy platform..  I don't know how you found it when you tried to upload your course.  

[LawrenceMMiller]

@ShaunPoole67 Are you just trying to upload your PPTs? Udemy is a video format platform. Your course has to be in video (MP4) format. 

[ShaunPoole67]

Hi Lawrence, Yes I'm trying to upload my Ptts.  I have Powertpoint 2010 and I have the whole thing completed 53 slides with Audio over the top of each of them.. For some strange reason the whole thing works in my play back but when I saved as a movie file I can't hear any audio at all.  I have no idea why.. I then put the file into Windows movie maker and layered the Audio over the top and when I save it,,... it works fine.  I tried up loading just one of the slides to Udemy  to see if it would work and it keeps saying upload failed.  Now it saves it as a WMV file.. I can't get it to save as an MP4.. I have no idea how to get it into MP4 format.  I was wondering if it was because of the WMV file is why it doesn't like it.  I was hoping there was a video showing how to do it but I can't find one.   Do you have any ideas that might be helpful..   Thank you. 

[Lizzy]

In the Edit course section, it is under the Curriculum tab.

[ShaunPoole67]

Hi Lizzy,  yes that's where I've been trying to upload my files is in the Curriculum tab.  Cheers. 

[ShaunPoole67]

Just letting you know I finally worked everything out and found out my problem was on my windows computer there was some kind of software problem.   I use my Mac,  and use new software and everything worked out well.  I was having so much trouble because I was doing what I was told but behind the scenes my software wasn't letting my videos show when uploaded.  All fixed now and my first course has gone live today.. Thank you to for your help..  Kind Regards Shaun. 

[MikeXCohen]

Nah, my first course was really easy to create. I sat down in one weekend, recorded the whole thing through, didn't do any editing, and then submitted it!

And then the quality-control guy wrote back and said that technically the course would pass AV check and could go on the marketplace, but it wasn't very good and probably wouldn't do very well. He gave a bunch of specific and general suggestions.

That day, I was furious and thought "F@ Udemy, I know how to teach!" And it's true -- I had been teaching "live" for years. But I had no idea how to create an online course, which turns out to be totally different than being in front of actual students for 50 uninterrupted minutes. The next day my temper cooled. I swallowed my pride and looked at my course and his suggestions from an objective perspective. And that guy was right of course. 

So then I spent around a month and a half to remake the 4-hour course. I was probably working 20 hours a week on it. I resubmitted and the course was approved. And then I made more courses, and each one was better than the previous. I also added more to that first course and now it's around 6.5 hours. That first course is not a top-seller, but it does pretty well and I'm happy with it.

So that's my story. I am grateful that the Udemy AV person took the time to give me honest feedback, rather than just being lazy and approving it. (I thanked him profusely for his help.) 

The good news is that after your first or second course, you will spend more time on the fun part of making courses (i.e., actual content), and a lot less time on the annoying part of making courses (getting the AV just right, figuring out how to use the editing software, etc.).

Good luck!

[MarouaOuakrim]

I'm glad I knew your udemy story , it's motivating , I also thought I would finish the course quickly but it took two months right now ,and I did nt  finish it yet.

[MikeXCohen]

Two months isn't a long time to spend on one course, especially if you are doing it part time. Keep it up!

[FrankKane]

When I started, I figured "let's try this Udemy thing - what do I have to lose apart from a couple weeks' of time?" That couple of weeks turned into a couple of months, and my irrational determination to spend no money in the process made it more painful than it had to be, as I had to work extra-hard to squeeze decent results out of free software and the hardware I had on hand.

Glad I stuck with it though! Udemy changed my life, and also the lives of many of my students.

[MarouaOuakrim]

thanks for your  reply Frank , your  coures are amazing , that's why it changes your life , and students lives