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Instructors' Knowledge Base
Whether you already have your course content ready or you need help creating your first Open Cert course, we are here to help you reach your potential.
We’ll help you share your expertise and knowledge with the world where you have the potential to reach millions of students across the globe. Together let’s make a difference. Below is an overview of the basic steps to becoming a published Open Cert instructor.
Plan your course
After you have registered with us to become an Open Cert instructor, we will begin with getting your course ready for publication on our platform. Having a course format and content layout is important before you start creating your first course. This will ensure that you can plan the content flow and context of you course. This is important so that you can target your presentation to your audience in a way that they can follow and understand. At the same time, you should know exactly who your audience is.
Decide on your topic. You can choose to teach about anything you want, except some specific areas and subjects that are in our list of restricted topics. These topics can be viewed here. If you want us to, we can help you identify the topics that are in-demand and guide you on creating relevant courses and identify your target student group.
Identifying your target student group. This is important. To know who your course is for, is to know how you will deliver it. Also, it will help you to identify specific learning objectives for your course, therefor you can know how to deliver and pace your course for a specific audience.
Decide on your learning objectives and course structure. Setting the course learning objectives is critical to creating a smooth course flow and easily understood content delivery. A well-structured course will show in a way that can be seen in the content delivery which is relevant to your target student and focused.
Start by creating your script and practice it until you are comfortable with your presentation and flow. Students can see when you are passionate about your topic and will be eager to learn with interesting instructors, who keep them engaged. you will need to create your script and practice it to be prepared to keep them engrossed to your course.
More information on how to develop your lessons here.
Producing your course video
An engaging video presentation is as important the content delivery and the content itself. You should plan carefully the steps required to make sure your video achieves your objective. We encourage you to use already available equipment rather than going out and buying some new expensive stuff – you can do that later as you progress and your courses have reached a certain milestone.
Selecting your equipment and setting up your studio. No big deal if it’s your first time using audio/video equipment. We’ll be with you every step of the way if you need us to help you set up your home studio to optimize your students’ learning experience. You should also learn how to set up your audio/video equipment and check a list of recommended audio and video equipment..
Fine-tuning your course. At this stage you’ll need to add the finishing touches to your course before publishing it. You’ll complete tasks like adding your course summary, creating your course image, completing your instructor profile, setting your price and re-checking your course before your final submission. Learn more about creating and submitting your first Open Cert course here.
Uploading your content as per our recommended steps after you have completed your course is easy. You will also need to upload your final course videos along with any additional learning materials, including tests if any as per your preference. Just let us know when you are ready and we will take from there.
Publishing your course. Submit your course for review. We will need to review your course before publishing. Our review process helps us maintain a consistent course quality across our platform and will help you improve your production quality. All course videos, existing and new, has to go through our quality review process before it is launched on our platform.
Revise, Update and Publish your course. The Open Cert Review team will evaluate your final course content and provide feedback if necessary. You’ll make the necessary changes to your course and publish it on our platform.
You can learn more about course video production here.
Your Course Format
Your course has to be structured based on your course goals in order for you to have a successful, effective and engaging course. Your course must have a smooth flow of content delivery throughout each section and lesson plan.
Generally speaking, each section should be dedicated to one specific topic or skill set that you’re teaching. The format of the whole course has to be consistent throughout for each lecture. This is something that you will need to plan for while mapping your outline. The format should also include how your delivery will be, as this is one of the areas that will determine students’ attention span to your lectures.
The steps below show how to set up the foundation for your course.
Build your template
Your course should have 3 parts—an introduction, a middle, and a conclusion. There are different approaches and best practices for each of them.
Introduction
This is the first 10 minutes or so of your course. The objective here is to motivate and hook your students. Start your course with the following:Introduction: It should not be more than 2–5 minutes.
Introduce yourself in sufficient detail and make sure you explain why you are the best person to be teaching this course. Set the right mood and expectations, tell the students what they can expect to learn from your course and what they’ll be able to do with it by the end of your course.
Don’t forget to tell your student what they need to have in order to follow your lectures, i.e. notepads, calculators in necessary. Quick reward: Provide value right away by providing a “quick reward” within the first 3 lessons of your course. This could be an exercise, quiz or reflection activity for students to prepare for the course or practice what they’ve learned and dive straight into the material. Instructional lessons: Introduce the topic in these first 1–-2 lectures.
Middle
This part is the centerpiece part of your course, where you’ll impart to the students the subject matter and train them on the skills that they join your course for. This is the most important part and must include sections, consisting of lessons, practice activities, quizzes and reference materials: Sections: Focus on one new and relevant skill per section. Each section should cover separate topics or skills. Taken together all the sections add up to deliver on all the skills or knowledge that your course promises in your course goals.
Lessons: Each section should ideally contain 3–5 lessons. Stick to 1 topic per lesson and allow the students to make progress every few lessons. Typically, a video should not be more than 20–30 minutes long., choosing the appropriate lesson delivery format, based on the type of content you want to present will make your videos more effective.
Practice activity: it’s a best practice to include at least 1 practice activity per section, to allow students the opportunity to practice the skill/learning outcome of the section. As you plan your course outline, consider different ideas, quizzes and exercises you can integrate to help students practice and build on the concepts they’ve learned.
Reference materials: make a note of any resources you want to include in each section, like pdf notes, worksheets, visual aids, templates, checklists and other links, as necessary.
Conclusion
End your course with impact and a strong finish that leaves students with a feeling of achievement and reward. Students who feel rewarded and getting value for money are more satisfied with the course and generally will leave more positive reviews. If you wish to make an impactful end to your course, you can add a bonus lesson at the end:
Final lesson: At the very minimum include a thank you and congratulations lecture at the end. However, there are many other creative ideas for final lectures that will capture students’ imagination and leave them with a sense of accomplishment.
Bonus lesson: A bonus lesson is the last lesson of the course, typically after the last lecture. This is where you can market other courses or products that you have. Just make sure you stay within our rules and guidelines for bonus lectures.
If you need more information on course creation, go here.
How To Create an Amazing Course
As an instructor, it’s very important that you engage your students, and you can do that with a well-thought out, structured and rewarding course experience for your students. Another important reason is that your students have to know that they can actually benefit from your course.
The most successful instructors actually spend time planning their course so that their students will benefit from it to achieve their goals.
Follow the steps below to create power courses.
Step 1: Choose your course subject.
Carefully choose a topic that you’re experienced in and genuinely excited about. Open Cert has a few useful tools that might be able to help you understand the evaluate the demand and competition for your chosen topic.
Step 2: Define your target audience and course objectives.
Before you even begin to create content for your course, it’s important to determine who are your target students and what you want your students to achieve by the end of your course. These worksheets and questions are designed to help guide your thinking.
Step 3: Decide how you want your students to practice what they have learned.
Open Cert students love getting into their learning experience: they want to practice what they’ve learned through tests, exercises, case studies and more! There are lots of different types of tools available on our platform that you can include, so you’ll want to choose what’s best for your topic.
Step 4: Create your course outline wisely.
The outline of your course is the foundation for your success as an instructor – this is where you decide what your course structure will be and to visualize your content. It is also now that you decide on your course format and delivery style.
Step 5: Make sure to have a script for your course.
After deciding how your course will be structured, the next step is to prepare your lessons. It is common knowledge that having a script (or writing notes) for each lecture helps to reduce filming time and increases the smoothness of their delivery, hence resulting in a professionally produced video lesson.
More information to help you create power courses here.
Getting Ready For ‘Lights, Camera, Action’
Setting up your studio
For students to have a good learning experiences with your courses, you need to set up your filming studio correctly so that students will be able to see and hear you without distractions like buzzes, pops, or a shaky camera. The good news is that you don’t need to be a professional videographer to create your course. This article will show you how to set up your recording studio at home.
Starting Up
Remember that you’ll have different setups for different types of courses. For screencast videos of coding, you will record your computer screen. For videos of teaching, you can record yourself as a “talking head” or performing a task (exercising, drawing, etc.). You can use an editing software after you film to combine screencasts and footage of you talking if need be.
Selecting your equipment
Camera and microphone: Start with what you have in your computer, but avoid using the built-in microphone. You should invest in a good-quality, hands-free microphone that is small enough to be invisible, yet stable and reduces background noise.
Screencast softwares such as Quicktime Player, Camstudio, or Jing are examples of software tools that are easy to work with if you are creating a screencast video.
Lighting equipment: Initially, try out natural light in your room. If it isn’t enough, you can add lamps and lights that you have at home. If it’s still not enough, then we recommend a tree-point lighting kit.
Other instructors in the instructor community have wide experience across a wide range of equipment. Feel free to check with them and get their advice.
Setting up
Speak in a clear, loud voice directly into the microphone. Do not speak too close or too far away from the microphone. Recommended distance is 6–12 inches (about 15–30 cm) from the microphone. Video aspect ratio: The proportion of width and height of your video needs to be either 4:3 or 16:9. Video resolution: The quality of the video resolution must be 720p or higher. A high definition (HD) video has a resolution of 720p or higher.
Studio room set-up. Dampen your recording room to help absorb any echo. You should add soundproofing acoustic panels to the room or use simple remedies like blankets, cushions, and couches to avoid any echo in your recordings.
Background for screencasting. Have a clean background to avoid distraction from the actual course content on the screen. Make sure your desktop is clean and free of non-course related content.
Frame your shots. Imagine you are speaking face-to-face with your students. Your camera has to be steady. It’s better to use a tripod or put your camera on a steady surface than holding the camera yourself.
More details on video production can be viewed here.
Uploading Your Course
Continue reading when you have recorded your course and ready to upload your course.
We do not host your video files on our server, the video files can either be hosted on Youtube or Vimeo and a link to the video is placed in your course details. The preferred host is Vimeo since your students will not be shown all the advertisements as on Youtube.
You would first need to open a free Youtube or Vimeo account. You can also register for the premium account if you prefer or you have a lot of videos to upload. The links are here;
https://www.youtube.com/
https://vimeo.com/
Once you have uploaded you videos to Vimeo or Youtube, log in to your account on Open Certificate.com and start creating your course. Almost all of the prompts and fields are self-explanatory but if you need any assistance please reach out to us. You can also watch the video here.
Once you are ready you can submit your course and our course facilitators will first review your course and if everything is good your course will be live on the platform and you cn start promoting your course and start earning money.
From your control panel, you should always be able to monitor sign-up and other reports about your course.
