Creating my first online course is a huge learning curve
This week I'm filming my first online course, all geared towards validating ideas (more info here https://howtoproduct.co/#define-design-validate). Over the years I've led 100's of workshops with internal and external teams on this exact topic, but filming a course on this is a totally different experience.
Three days into filming and this is what I've learned:
- Talking on camera totally different than leading the same thing in person
Why, there is no feedback or engagement so you're the only energy in the room. And as a reserved British person, this doesn't exactly come naturally!
- Predicting what people will struggle with is really hard
Normally people can ask a question if something isn't clear. When filming an online course you can only hope and assume you're explaining something right.
- It's more tiring than real-life workshops
I think this is similar to how being on zoom causes more anxiety than meetings (no 'energy in the room'), and also how you have the ability to keep reshooting if you don't think something is perfect.
These have been huge learnings, but from what I can tell, simply worrying less about how you sound/look, focussing on what you're talking about, and taking breaks between filming are great ways to get around the issues.
If you have any other tips, I would love to hear them!
In my own little experience, routine helps tremendously to get consistent results: for the last videocourse that I've recorded, I always went through the day's material in the morning; had a short-ish session on camera in the late afternoon; editing the material in the evening. Rinse and repeat. Energy levels varied (some afternoons I couldn't get a decent take until very late – maybe I was tired, maybe the coding part was harder), but the more you can maintain the same routine day by day, the better IMHO
Defo - once the novelty wears off it can become a bit of a grind. Getting a good routine and having short, regular session makes a big difference.
Your users will be able to tell when your energy levels drop. I did a full day of filming for a course I released last year and you can definitely see the difference in energy between the first and last few
+1, Routine > willpower
Make sure you have a course outline, with each lecture listed (including things like recording status, lecture notes) then you can progressively cross them off like a to do list which is surprisingly motivating. Here's one of mine
It's important to pace yourself as it does take a while the first time you create a course.
I can imagine how tiring it must be filming on your own!
In my experience, I do change my personality a bit even if I don't intend to on video just to come off as more interesting.
But then it backfires cause then I realize I haven't been 100% authentic and people can see that. It's a hard one and let me know when you've cracked it.
Also, yes, taking breaks per bullet point helps!
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