The Playbook to Design an Instructional Video Course
The truth is that making online courses requires many hours of laborand can be a very long procedure, especially when you record a ton of educational videos.
A way to help you simplify course design and production? Storytelling
Elise London, our resident video specialist who produces all our marketing and in-house courses, shares that the key to creating engaging virtual courses is using stories to plan and deliver information.
The ability to identify the main story behind the course's problem and structuring your content with the hero's journey storytelling technique can be game changers. Here's everything you need to be able to do in order to plan, structure, and create an exciting online video course. It includes the tools you'll need.
Jump ahead:
- The perfect topic for your online class
- Designing and arranging an online class
- Shooting your course video content
- Ready to design your own online course?
The perfect topic to use for your online training
There's no need for a fresh concept, straight from the box for your virtual course.
Find a topic which is already popular. Understanding your goals and public will assist. Here's how:
Identify what's already resonating
Use data measurement tools like Google Analytics to find high-performing written pieces. Find an ebook that covers one particular subject that performs particularly well? Consider expanding it into a detailed video course.
You can also survey your email list to unearth the topics that people would love to take a virtual course on. The same survey can be distributed on social media (if you have an engaged public on those platforms) as well as to the communities you're associated with.
Keep in mind that the aim is to identify a course area that your students have an appetite for.
Deepen your dive, don't widen it.
"If you consider the kinds of questions that learners ask around their topic and the emotions they experience as they work through your subject will help you position your video course as the answer.
In this case, the idea"live streaming" can be vast, but it can be overwhelming for students to comprehend." Elise London, Senior content production manager
The solution? Examine the struggles that your audience is facing when it comes to a topic.
Do you ask yourself:
- What difficulties are our readers experiencing as they work to solve the issue?
- What feelings are overwhelming that we can help them overcome?
When it comes to live streaming, for example it could result in feelings of anxiety as folks create the first stream. A course on this topic would then be "How you can easily setup live streaming so that you're not overwhelmed."
The best tip you can use for your course name
If you're thinking of names for your class, consider what your target viewers is feeling regarding the particular issue you're addressing and work that into the title.
Designing for and structuring the online class
Elise recommends using the hero's story to outline the course online. This involves:
- The challenge that target students are facing. Find these by answering the questions people ask concerning the topic of your class.
- Guiding them through overcoming obstacles and finding solutions. It is here that you divide the subject into modules as well as video lessons that each answer an inquiry.
- Leaving them with the promised transformation. Provide more resources like checklists and templates that help students apply the lessons they have learned.
This is how you can dig up audience questions and desired outcomes to structure and plan your course:
Ask your audience members questions about research
Instead of making assumptions, take these actions:
- Explore Reddit or Quora to create a list of questions that are frequently asked.
- Survey and make one-on-1 calls with learners to ask questions directly.
- listen to calls from customers from support and sales teams to answer common queries.
- Visit bestseller book's page indexes on Amazon to gain insight into the issues they ask about the course topic.
If you've been hosting webcasts related to the topic it is also possible to examine questions that attendees have asked in order to guide your investigation.
Break the course topic into buckets
Then, refer to the questions and challenges of your audience for breaking your subject into narrative components that build on each other to create the next step on the journey of a learner.
"Instead of saying that we're going to train you to use an interactive program' (which is a broad difficult-to-understand thing) Instead, state "We'll teach you beginner, intermediate, and advanced features. That means that the subjects for your online course] will fit within one of these three categories." Elise London, Senior content production manager
Simply put "disparate concepts" and place them into buckets so that, when you look at the course from afar, the course appears more manageable."
Pro tip on course structure
Be sure to outline your course's structure in order to meet learners where they are in their development. It's often easy to overshare and make students confused due to the trap of knowledge (a cognitive bias that presumes the audience is as knowledgeable as you do). Make sure to check the course's design to ensure it is simple.
Video lessons to be planned
- Touch on your student's challenges related to the question a video lesson will resolve.
- Respond to the questions with solutions to the issue they're facing.
- The video should be summarized or provide additional resources that can help the students change.
Video lessons on a script-on-demand
pro tip
Shooting your course video content
Tools you'll need
If you want a quality production tool kit and setup You'll require:
- Microphone camera (two at the minimum) and a 3 or 4 point lighting kit
- Learning Management System (LMS). This software houses the video content and make it available to students. Examples include: Teachable, Podia, and Kajabi.
- . A free video platform that allows you for hosting, recording edit and even add elements of interactivity to educational videos which you could then upload onto your LMS.
- Teleprompter. A display device that shows moving text on screen, making it simple for on-screen folks to record videos.
- Music pedal. It is a budget-friendly, foot-operated keyboard which allows you to change the direction of slide slides displayed on screen.
The ideal video production setting
Elise is adamant about:
1. Do not use fluorescent overhead lights.
The shadows can be harsh upon your face. The lights of fluorescent bulbs can flicker occasionally creating a green color and affecting your quality of video's stability.
2. Recording in darkness without natural light
Natural light patterns change through the day. If you happen to be filming for several hours consecutively, the light quality in your video won't look consistent, Elise warns. This is also a problem should you decide to move sections from one video into a different video.
3. Set your cameras at different angles
The second camera doesn't "just spice up the editing (which is helpful even if you are using a script or even if you do get it all perfect in one go) however, it also helps to break the monotony of people looking at the face of the instructor."
"More importantly, a second camera is used to cover cuts," Elise adds. "So if whatever you're delivering will not come out in a single take and you want to hide it, the method by which to cover that cut is to use B-roll, or simply cutting it to another camera."
4. Clean and clutter-free background
Beware of bright colors such as orange, magenta, and yellow since these can cause color reflections and be distractions for the viewers. Use neutral tones for your background like grey, dark blue, and soft white instead. These look great on camera and also feel comfortable on your eyes.
Recording your online video course
Naturally, recording can feel slightly nerve-wracking. If you devote enough time to planning and scripting your plan, recording isn't a big deal.
5. Always make use of an teleprompter
A teleprompter saves you from getting stuck on the screen while you struggle to figure out which point you need to remember.
This makes recording easy and reduces edits, but "it can also help you keep eyes on the camera when you are looking into the screen on your teleprompter" adds Elise.
6. Utilize a music pedal change between slides
"Instead of a keyboard or clicker visible on your hands, try using an electronic music pedal to change your slides]. It's basically just an USB Bluetooth keyboard with a left and right. Using it means the person presenting doesn't have to look for either the mouse or keyboard for it to progress."
Editing the videos you have on demand
Try to cut down on the length of your edits and create a memorable watching experience by using these expert tips:
7. Edit ruthlessly
8. Add B-roll content for maximum engagement
One way to break boredom of talking-head video is switching between cameras on a regular basis.
It is also possible to add animations, graphics slide as well as stock footage or custom recordings for an immersive learning experience.
9. Layer in interactivity
- Enjoy a build-your-own-learning path
- Hit the video hotspots below to dig into more learning tools
- Jump between sections most relevant to these sections (useful for onboarding video in the company)
In turn, interactive videos improve viewer engagement and improving retention. You can also check your students' skills by creating video-based quizzes with Interactive.
Are you ready to create your own online course?
The process of creating a video course that the audience enjoys can be summarized as:
- Being specific about the problem you want to solve
- Making the data into a coherent narrative
- The content should be organized so that it's simple to follow and digest
Also, don't forget to use with the right equipment, you can alleviate the strain making high-quality instructional videos, guaranteeing an immersive learning experience.