Build Your Course Materials

Quick reference

• 00:04 As you assemble a course outline and think about each lesson,
• 00:08 it should give you a clearer idea of how big your course will be.
• 00:12 And you should start to envision what your course will look like.
• 00:17 Will you appear on camera and be the host or narrator of video lessons?
• 00:23 Will you record yourself walking through an app and show screen recordings?
• 00:27 Will you prepare slides with bullet points, definitions, screenshots,
• 00:31 and other figures?
• 00:32 Will you show charts and data?
• 00:34 Or perhaps a mix of all of the above?
• 00:37 Everything you create should support the learning objectives, but
• 00:41 as we've mentioned before,
• 00:42 it's helpful to switch up formats to engage the learner in different ways.
• 00:47 If you show a screen recording of you completing a task,
• 00:51 complement that by cutting to a checklist reviewing the steps that you took.
• 00:57 If you explain a concept perhaps do so with a simple animation or
• 01:02 related image that gives more insight than simple text.
• 01:07 So we're starting to generate ideas, things that we want to create.
• 01:12 Well, how do we go from our plans, our blueprints,
• 01:15 to actually creating those pieces for the course?
• 01:19 You will need the right tools and expertise to generate screen recordings,
• 01:23 edit video, and audio, and create animations if you need all those elements.
• 01:29 As you prepare your outline and
• 01:31 content, go through each lesson and make a list of what you'll need.
• 01:36 Video, photos, icons, diagrams, whatever.
• 01:40 Maybe you have a video production team, a graphic design artist, or
• 01:44 a digital animator, if so, you can share those requirements
• 01:48 with the different people helping you produce the course.
• 01:52 But even if you are the only member of this course building team,
• 01:57 planning what's needed for each lesson will save you time in the long run.
• 02:03 It will also help you plan which tools you'll need to acquire and
• 02:07 which pieces you might need to outsource.
• 02:10 Depending on your organization, your team, your own situation, you may have
• 02:14 many tools and resources, or you may be quite limited, or somewhere in between.
• 02:20 My advice is to focus your own efforts by working on the pieces
• 02:25 of the course that you can provide the most value for.
• 02:29 What I mean is that, if you personally have the skills and
• 02:33 availability to easily record and narrate hours of screen recordings,
• 02:39 that an editor could then slice and dice into valuable video content.
• 02:44 That is a great way to maximize your value for the course.
• 02:49 If you are not very skilled at creating graphics, on the other hand,
• 02:53 you're going to waste your time spending all day trying to
• 02:56 produce artwork that someone else could do much more quickly.
• 03:00 Stay focused on the things that you do well and get other people to do the rest.
• 03:07 Whether you reach out to people on other teams in your company or
• 03:12 use online services to hire freelancers and contractors, look for
• 03:16 ways to get talented people doing the work they are best at.
• 03:20 And perhaps, you can even use AI to generate parts of a scripts or art work.
• 03:26 Your comfort level using whatever tools are at your disposal,
• 03:29 will determine how quickly you can produce all the pieces you need.
• 03:34 Overall, course materials should look and feel consistent.
• 03:39 Videos and other visual elements should feel like they all belong together.
• 03:43 So try to define some specifications, use design templates and color palettes.
• 03:50 You may already have some that you use at your company.
• 03:53 Use the same fonts for text throughout the course.
• 03:56 Use the same color combinations for backgrounds, text,
• 04:00 sidebars, highlights, and any other onscreen elements you use.
• 04:06 Same goes for any additional files or written pieces you create.
• 04:10 This consistency will help the learner feel comfortable and
• 04:15 your end results will look more polished as well.
• 04:18 As you begin to assemble all the pieces of your course,
• 04:22 you want to ensure everything looks and
• 04:24 sounds as good as possible, be sure to build in a review phase for your course.
• 04:29 That could mean, periodic checks along the way, or
• 04:33 a round of QA after the lesson pieces are assembled.
• 04:37 If you are producing everything, try to get someone to check your text and
• 04:42 review your video and audio.
• 04:45 If someone else is producing lesson elements, make sure that you or
• 04:49 someone assigned to the task, has a chance to review them.
• 04:52 Now, one last point about building the course.
• 04:56 Depending on your platforms and processes,
• 04:59 you might build the entire course pieces at a time, or
• 05:03 you could be assembling everything within an LMS, or a Learning Management System.
• 05:09 An LMS is a platform where you build courses, so it has space for lessons,
• 05:14 videos, quizzes, downloads, and anything else you want to include.
• 05:20 What you ultimately use is up to you, but in the next lesson,
• 05:24 I'm going to show you how we assemble many of our courses at go
• 05:27 GoSkills using our award winning course builder.
• 05:31 If you've never created a course of your own,
• 05:33 I think you'll be surprised how easy it can be.

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