How to Create a Course for Your Business

Welcome to our section on planning out your course. In this section, we'll lay a strong foundation for you to build the rest of your course upon, and make the process as streamlined and easy as possible.

We'll cover picking (and refining) your course topic, setting your course publishing schedule, and creating your outline. We'll cover the theoretical and the practical, so you'll know how to actually use the Udemy curriculum tool.

In the supplemental material of this lecture, we've included our Planning Worksheet. We've also split down the worksheet into it's smaller segments for each individual lecture as well.

Picking your topic is such an important part of teaching -- after all, it is what you're teaching! Even if you know exactly what you want to teach, make sure to take a look at this article: we'll go over not just picking a topic but refining one, with the Udemy for Business audience in mind. We'll talk over:

• Picking (and refining) your topic
• Determining your audience
• Surveying the field (doing a market analysis)

We've also included the individual "Picking Your Topic" worksheet in the supplemental materials so, if you haven't already, go ahead and download it and fill it out as we go along.

In this lecture we'll go over how to think about a realistic course production timeline, all while balancing the reality of a busy work week. In the attached pdf "Set Your Schedule" we give you three different sample schedules -- one for publishing in 15 days, one for publishing in 30 days, and one for publishing in 60 days. Follow these as closely or as loosely as you like -- they're just suggestions for scheduling your time.

Now that you've set you topic and schedule it's time to get into building out your outline! A good outline will make your entire course creation process run smoothly. We'll go over how to structure your course, how to break it down into sections and lectures, and how to actually build out the outline in our curriculum tool. Let's get started!

Hoping to get feedback on your outline? Follow the directions in the links below for creating an outline with Google Docs and sharing it to the Udemy Studio. We're here to help you make your course amazing!

P.S. if you haven't already, download the "Creating Your Outline" worksheet to fill out with your own ideas as we move along.

This lecture will discuss how to determine whether you produce your course internally or outsource production.

We'll go over all the key points from Section 3: Planning Your Course. We'll highlight some key takeaways to make sure that you remember what's what!

Introducing Danielle, our Udemy production expert who will be leading the next section of the course.

Welcome to our section on producing your course! We'll dive deep into the nuts and bolts of how you actually film your videos for your lectures, and how to assemble your course on the Udemy site. Never created a video before? Don't worry! We'll map out our entire support system for you so you know exactly where to turn if and when you need help.

We'll cover how to select good equipment for filming, how to create a test video and get feedback on your technical setup, and how to assemble your course. In the supplemental material of this lecture you can find a personal production checklist -- use this to help check off your technical specs, to make sure you're not forgetting anything!

Throughout this section, you'll find various links to our favorite external resources -- which will all help you film and edit your course.

Equipment isn't everything -- you'll have to also think about how you're engaging with the camera, your energy levels, and whether you're communicating your passion for your topic! But equipment is important, so in this lecture we'll cover what sorts of cameras and microphones will work for shooting your course. In the supplemental resources of this lecture, we've included the individual worksheet on equipment as well.

Getting on camera is a key way to ensure your students know, like, and trust you. In this PDF lecture, bestselling instructor Alexa Fischer shares her top ten tips for getting comfortable on camera:

1. Squash the thoughts that have been holding you back
2. Commit to a positive attitude
3. Check your equipment
4. Start practicing in everyday situations
5. Learn to love the lens
6. Prepare, prepare, prepare
7. Speak from the heart
8. Set the stage (choosing your background)
9. Dress the part
10. It's about them, not you!

If you'd like some feedback on your camera presence from the instructor community, just upload a test video (more information in the next lecture on test videos) and post it in the Udemy Studio. Be sure to specify what type of feedback you're looking for!

Alexa personally coached two instructors from our community through the filming and production of their introduction lectures. To see their video examples along with Alexa's in depth feedback, check out the Make it or Break It link below.

As we noted in the previous lecture, getting on camera is the number one way to connect with and relate to your students. Yet we hear from many instructors that they feel scared, insecure, or uncomfortable on camera. Len Smith is here to help!

Len just published his twelfth course and has 3+ years of experience as a Udemy instructor. In this video, excerpted from Len's latest course, Len demonstrates how to film a top notch talking head video by overcoming the "But I hate my face" fear that's holding you back.

Woohoo, test videos! Test videos are optional, but are a useful route to take if you want some feedback on your technical production setup. The Udemy Review Team will work with you after you've uploaded your test video to make sure you're fine-tuning your setup for the highest level of production quality.

We'll also go over how to actually upload your test video, and share it to the Udemy Studio (Optional).

In the supplemental resources section of the lecture you'll find some common issues that the Review Team sees with videos, so you can troubleshoot your own.

In this PDF lecture (which you can also download onto your desktop!) you'll find information on the following production-related topics:

• Common video and audio issues you may encounter while shooting your course lectures
• Equipment advice
• Link to our Udemy Mentors series of articles (it will take you to our Support site)
• Link to our article on how to upload a test video (it will take you to our support site)
• A personal production checklist (where you can check off what you've done!)
• Link to the Udemy bulk uploader tool (to make your course assembly a breeze)

Want help with editing your course? Check out our Udemy's partnership with Videopixie, where we subsidize a 40% discount on editing (we made this course with Videopixie's editors!): https://www.videopixie.com/udemy

Make sure to check out the External Resources associated with this lecture as well (tips and tricks for filming and editing your videos, as well as a 50% off discount promo code for Camtasia)

In this lecture, we'll put it all together. After filming your videos, you'll upload them to your course, associate them with your lectures in your outline, and then write up some great lecture descriptions (like this one!) and upload some awesome supplemental material (like we've included throughout the course!).

We'll go over all the key points from Section 4: Producing your Course. We'll highlight some key takeaways to make sure that you remember what's what!

This section will cover items involving course navigation and updating. We'll cover what information employees will be looking for, and where they'll find it. That includes everything from your course title and subtitle, to your course description and learning objectives. It will also cover course images and promo videos.

This lecture will walkthrough the back end of the course management navigation screen covering things like course basics, descriptions, managing instructors, and analytics.

This lecture will review how edits on the back end of the course management page translate into the front end of the course landing page.

Having a powerful course image and promotional video can mean a lot when it comes to getting the attention of your employees. You want to come up with something that will get them excited to take your course.

Don't have any ideas for a great course image? Click on the link below to have the experts on Udemy's internal Design team create your course image specially for you. This is one of the many value added services you receive as a Udemy for Business client.

This section will cover tips and tricks on things to do once you publish your course, including internal promotion of the course inside your company and how to engage your employees once the coruse gets going.

How is anyone going to know you made a course? This lecture will cover some ideas for which to help promote your course internally and build some buzz around launch time.

The course creation process may be done, but the course experience is just beginning. Once your course goes live there are many ways in which you can keep engaged with your employees and keep your content fresh and relevant.

In the below resources are multiple examples of tools that can be used to engage with employees with live sessions in addition to the course taking experience.

We'll go over all the key points from Section 5: Publish & Promote. We'll highlight some key takeaways to make sure that you remember what's what!

In this section you will find a series of screencasts that will highlight specific FAQs in the course creation process. If you are lost in a specific area of the course creation process, let us know and we can upload a new video!

Screencast on how to swap out old content for newer fresher content.

Screencast on how to manage adding/removing instructors and controlling their settings.

Screencast on editing privacy settings of your course internally.

Discusses permissions around creating courses and how to approve courses created by employees who are not administrators of the UFB learning portal.

Screencast depicting how to go about adding closed captioning to your lectures.

Thank you for sticking with us all the way through the course! We are hope you are excited to be an online instructor for your company, and we can't wait to hear how you engage with your students. If you have any questions, post in the discussion area of the course, in the Studio, send in a Support ticket, or upload a test video -- we're here to help. Congratulations again, and welcome to the global instructor community!

We've also gone ahead and included the most useful resources in the course again in this final lecture. If you missed one, or just want all the worksheets in one place, we've got you covered!

In this Bonus lecture you'll see the latest and greatest research from Udemy's Learning Science Team on what makes an amazing course. Make sure to check out the links at the bottom of the article to make sure you don't miss the helpful infographic.