Memories :was it difficult to create your first course?

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!

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 :smileyvery-happy::smileyvery-happy:

what's important is never ever give up:smileywink::smileywink:

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.

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 :smileyvery-happy: :smileyvery-happy:

LawrenceMMiller

That is sweet! I am glad they have helped.

Persistance pays!

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.

I am getting there. Thanks for the encouragement! 🙂

Good luck with your course.

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...

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

MikeXCohen

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

Alfa-eLearning

For me first course creation was not difficult as I had created in just 2 days over weekend. Right now that course is not public. The amazing part is its review process. It was in review for around 2 months before getting published. First review team provided some feedback and I did accordingly but some feedback I was not getting so I left course over there. That was March 2014. I got busy in my office work and never looked back to my Udemy account and course was still in review.

But destiny had some different plan for me and not wanted to end my journey very soon with Udemy.

After 2 months, In end of April 2014 Instructor Community Manager (Eliza) mailed me and told me that she was reviewing my account and found that my course is really close to get approved. She asked me what happened and told someone from team to help me. That person helped me and I did some corrections for few days and my 1st course got approved.

So this is my memory for my very first course on Udemy.

Destiny plays a role sometimes, and helps us to achieve what we want, happy to know your story

RamziDeveloper

I am in the same situation, actually i am preparing my first course and i am in 70% but i have to work very hard to complete the 30%. The problem for me is that i am very perfectionist, i try to do everything perfectly and that takes a lot of time.

I hope that it will be one of the best courses in the arabic content specially in python programming langauge.

Wish all the best for you friends

Perfectionism makes you unable to move forward, so I think you should submit it if you finish it , and update it later

Good Luck :smileyvery-happy: :smileyvery-happy:

RamziDeveloper

Thank you @MarouaOuakrim
, perfectionism is terrible, i really want to finish my course and submit it but i am still working on the last 5 sections...It will be submitted soon.

Good luck for you

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.

Hey, @RamziDeveloper

I don't think perfectionism is always a bad thing. Many of the world's most successful people are perfectionists!

It's only a problem if you are using it to procrastinate but it doesn't sound like you are.

It takes a lot of time to attend to the details. The only question to occasionally ask is whether anyone else will notice. If not, there might be a better use of your time.

Good luck with your course!

RamziDeveloper

@Lizzy
Thank you so much

DeniseFletcher

Hi @MarouaOuakrim
I'm an old instructor. I came to the platform 5 years ago whilst I was recovering from Breast Cancer. I was looking for a way to earn some money to pay my bills whilst I was recovering. I have over 20 years experience of stand up training and a mountain of material that could be easily converted or so I thought. Things were easier 5 years ago but also there was far less Udemy support to get your course live. I really struggled with the tech side of creating a course and it took me a whole 6 wks to create just my test video and 6 months to get my first course live.
My 2nd course was created in 3 weeks and was on Procrastination lol. And then my next course was created in 24 hours! Yes really! And my 4th course a was a free course just for Women. I now have 10 courses.
So my first year on the platform was very tough and a steep learning curve. I spent a ridiculous amount of time motivating and helping other instructors get their courses live and go on to greater success when really I maybe should have focused on my own courses. But I am a coach in real life so it's in my nature to help others.

So 5 years down the line I can say I'm still learning. I completely envy those tech minded instructors for me that is still the struggle to convert all my material.

@DeniseFletcher
Thank you Dennis for your reply ,You are a strong woman, your story is very inspiring Thank you again, I am also currently struggling to just submit my first course,Sometimes I feel frustrated, sometimes I feel like I am chasing a distant dream, and I procrastinate because of the fear of failure , by the way your article https://community.udemy.com/t5/First-time-Course-Creation/Course-Creation-Blockages-AKA-PROCRASTINATION/m-p/24482#M2247 about procrastination was very helpful , thanks:smileyvery-happy: :smileyvery-happy: