Behind The Scenes – Making a Course

Welcome to my first ever vlog style documentary where I’m bringing you behind the scenes during the making of a course! This video contains footage condensed over 10 days where I planned, structured, wrote, recorded, built and launched my Divi/WordPress Beginners Course.

From structuring and writing the posts, recording the video, building out the course in LearnDash, to following me to my favorite local coffee shops, my networking group and even walking the dog, everything in my course creation process is covered! You’ll get an in-depth look how I went about creating the course and how I market it once it’s live.

This post is broken down into 3 sections:

1. My Course Creation Process
2. The Gear/Set Up & Tools I Use
3. Video Outline (if you want to come back to it or skip around)

If you’re interested in creating courses, I hope this gives you a good process to model after or at least some inspiration as to what’s worked for me and if you’re just interested in getting a peak behind the curtain, I hope this gives you some good insight on the amount work that goes into creating a course!

1) My Course Creation Process:

Phase 1:

• Identify who the course is for
• Layout the initial module structure
• Adjust course product page initial designs
• Create course featured image
• Revise course structure in Google Docs
• Write out all course posts in Google Docs
• Send note to all who pre-ordered via MailChimp (and via social media) that the course is coming soon

Phase 2:

• Create course post structure (in LearnDash)
• Create course intro page content & video
• Drop in and format all written post content for first module
• Record videos for first module
• Create course project in Vimeo
• Edit videos, export and upload to Vimeo
• Transfer remaining written content for all modules and format posts
• Record remaining videos then edit, export and upload to Vimeo

Phase 3:

• Embed all videos in course posts
• Add links, resources, course reference guide
• Edit and revise all written content
• Create course teaser video
• Launch course
• Email enrolled students that course is live and ready to access
• Email students of other courses with special discount before course is promoted publicly
• Promote course via main email list and Facebook

There are of course little specifics not mentioned here but this is the in depth, step by step guide I follow for all my courses. And again, while this process may look simple, the complexities of video editing, recording, writing, etc are all factored in here. And if a course is in the ballpark of 30, 40 or 50 + videos, this process can take several weeks depending on how much time I can devote to creating all the course content.

2) My Current Gear/Setup Shown in Video:

As I mention in the video, my setup is fairly amateur compared to more established course creators and I’ll soon be upgrading my main computer and revamping my home office/studio…but for now, it works! And the cool thing is, if you’re interested in doing courses or creating video content, you can get started with a very limited budget. 

Gear:

• Standing Desk
• Procaster Mic/Boom Arm Bundle 
• Ring Light
• Logitech c920 Web Cam
• Audio Interface
• Computer Monitor Stand

I also highly recommend checking this Elegant Themes Episode/Post with more options to choose from.

Tools:

• I use ScreenFlow for Mac for recording. For windows, you can use Camtasia.
• I also still frequently use my Blue Yeti Microphone which is a more affordable, yet still quality mic option.
• I use LearnDash (Plus Package) for creating my courses as shown in video.

3) Video Outline:

Side note: if you go to the description in YouTube you can link directly to the times in the video 😉

0:00 – Intro

Day 1: (2/18/19)

4:24 – Heading to local coffee shop to revise course structure
8:33 – Overview of revised structure and start writing course posts
11:30 – Initial announcement of course live date for FB and people who pre-ordered
14:19 – Ending day one – walk’n the dog

Day 2: (2/19/19)

15:02 – Drive up to favorite coffee shop to write all posts
16:05 – Writing out remainder of course
20:18 – Saying hey to my girls and overview of written course content
21:41 – Ending day 2 – walk’n the dog (again)

Day 3: (2/20/19)

22:22 – Building course posts & recording intro video
23:30 – A look at building the course in LearnDash
30:19 – A look at my gear
33:20 – Recording intro video
37:43 – A look at how I create video thumbnails
39:30 – Uploading first video to Vimeo
42:44 – Embedding video in post

Day 4: (2/21/19)

45:21 – Recording course videos
47:27 – Building the first module posts out
48:52 – A look at recording video content
52:25 – A look at video editing with ScreenFlow
1:01:11 – Wrapping up Day 4 exporting videos with my little helper

Day 5: (2/22/19)

1:02:20 – Recording more videos & adding content to posts
1:02:24 – A look at my networking group
1:03:49 – Preparing record more videos
1:04:31 – Exporting videos (time for another walk with the pup)
1:05:59 – Actual course recording footage
1:06:19 – A look at advanced video editing

Day 6: (2/23/19)

1:08:16 – Recording more videos
1:08:55 – A look at videos in Vimeo

Day 7: (2/25/19)

1:10:04 – Finish Recording remaining videos
1:11:11 – More actual course recording footage
1:12:06 – Wrapping up day 7 (another walk)

Day 8: (2/26/19)

1:12:42 – Finalizing and editing all course content
1:13:19 – Finally got my window spot

Day 9: (2/27/19)

1:13:23 – Launching the course!
1:16:27 – A loot at my email templates in MailChimp
1:18:24 – Wrapping up day 9

Day 10: (2/28/19)

1:18:53 – Post launch & course promotion/marketing
1:19:35 – A look at my MailChimp sales email
1:22:26 – A look at my course Facebook sales ad
1:24:29 – Recap of course creation process
1:26:29 – Ending thoughts
1:27:12 – A quick “thanks for watching” from me and my family 🙂

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed getting a behind the scenes look at what it takes to create a course! At least on of my courses 🙂 If you’re interested in creating courses yourself or if you build sites for course creators, you’re welcome to model after any of my processes or gear I use. Or if you’re just curious about what’s going on behind the scenes, I hope this has been at least a little entertaining!

Oh and finally, if you’re interesting in learning the basics of Divi and WordPress, I’m sure you’ll have a much bigger appreciation for the course after seeing what goes into it!