My Experience of creating a Skillshare class
In the Autumn of 2021 Skillshare caught my attention and their teaching challenge to create an online class within a month with someone at hand advising you and keeping you to weekly deadlines.
I decided to take up the teach challenge and make my first online class about how to paint a seascape. In hindsight I should have considered when it would be best work-wise to do this but I just had the idea to do it and ran with it. This caused more than a little stress as I wasn’t an expert at using the editing program Premier Pro in fact I was a beginner so as well as creating the class, filming my painting etc I had to contend with learning the program. This was a lot to deal with in a short space of time but I am still glad that I persevered.
There was a lot of information to take in at the beginning which I found a tad overwhelming but after repeated attempts to focus I plowed through it and it eventually made sense. The main thing to get right which I didn’t at first is what aspect to film your videos in. It is ever so slightly annoying when you do multiple takes of a talking shot only to realise that there are two black borders on the side because you haven’t adjusted your camera aspect to 16:9 . Also the slides that you put into your video to add variety should be 1280 x 720 (16:9 ratio). One thing I would say if you are a person who hates reading instruction manuals …. definitely read the video info before starting, to understand the frame rate and export settings it will save you a lot of time in the long run.. take it from someone who just wants to have a bash rather than reading boring instructions :)
Concerning Adobe Premier Pro I actually found it easier than Adobe Rush for some reason it just seemed to work better. It was hard at first but as with any program its like wading through treacle at first but then the light bulb just seems to come on.
Another thing to consider is the average attention span nowadays, people get bored quickly do keep the class under an hour, I will attempt this next time, it ended up over an hour for this one. I would also plan my marketing better as its much better to launch it with a big bang after all your efforts. It is a lot of work but also good training ground for any future courses you may do.
I found my Skillshare mentor very helpful and he would let me get away with things easily if the video could be improved. It has a couple of things that I would do differently next time but overall I was pleased with it and have had some very positive feedback.
I personally enjoy videos that change the scenery within them so I may include some outside shots in the next class, variety is the spice of life. Think of ways you can keep people engaged. Once you have done a class you appreciate how much time and effort goes in to these things, it also makes you look at other peoples videos with fresh eyes and you begin to notice things you like and don’t like. I personally am always looking to improve as an artist and creative business owner and have a great love of learning and watching online classes. I have done numerous e-courses, what a time we live in when you can learn what you like without travelling half way up the country.
If you would like to check out my class you can get a free month on skillshare via this link. You can find my class by searching via my name. Hope you enjoy it :) You can speed it up if you have a short attention span :)))
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