Hints on lecture structure

I've noticed that for some of my lecture sequences I use the following:

• Talk
• slide based/theory
• Do/demonstrate
• screencam, principles in action
• Explain exercises
• video explaining the exercises to do, with possible hints
• Debrief answers
• video explaining my answers to the exercises with why I picked the solution
• Summary
• overview of the theory and practice

What kit (hardware, software) do you use to create courses? July 2016 edition

I record the screen using Camtasia.

I sometimes edit and process the audio using Audacity.

When I script or make notes I just use text files. I generally write using Markdown so that I can process the text files as a 'document' e.g. using pandoc or dillinger.io

Cameras; 

• I started with a Microsoft Lifecam HD-5000, 
• I now use a logitech C920, 
• I also have a Toshiba Camileo S20 which I'm starting to use. 
• I also use my phone (Samsung Note II)

For Camera stands I have:

• Joby GripTight XL GorillaPod Stand Magnetic Mount and Tripod for Larger Smartphones
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01A8ZKN08
• Camlink TP330 Tripod - Tabletop
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000TCNBUA

Microphone

The mic is the most important equipment. I started with a microsoft headset but I could never get it in the right place I tried a Blue Yeti, which was good, but kept picking up outside noise.

Now I use an irig which is excellent and very directional so picks up very little background noise.

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/IK-Multimedia-iRig-Handheld-Microphone/dp/B00KM3YWS6

Microphone Accessories

I have a cheap pop filter and a cheap desk swing boom stand

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WO6MTAW
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanway-MU-7-Microphone-Swivel-Filter/dp/B008AOH1O6

I had to replace the microphone holder for the desk swing boom stand because the screw thread was plastic and broke. So I bought this instead:

• Proel APM20 Professional Microphone Mic Clip Holder
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proel-APM20-Rubber-Microphone-holder/dp/B000MJ62MO

I also have a floor mic stand as well if I need it.

• Konig & Meyer 27105.300.55 Microphone Stand
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Konig-Meyer-27105-300-55-Microphone-Stand/dp/B000NTZK12

I avoided mic stands sitting on the desk because a lot of my videos require me to type and then the thumping can be heard through the mic stand.

Lessons learned after moving course hosting sites.

I've moved course hosting sites several times and there are the lessons I've learned as a result:

• use the minimum features on that course host as you can
• avoid customising site
• avoid domain hosting
• use your site as the landing page and push through to their site for the checkout
• use a url shortner that you control
• create meta data course outline

Use the minimum features on that course host as you can

You want the flexibility to move course hosts if you need to.

They might go bankrupt

They might change terms and conditions

They might have technical issues

etc.

It is all out of your control. You need flexibility of movement. If you rely on any 'unique' vendor feature then you can't move.

Avoid customising site

This comes down to flexibility to aid movement.

But what it also means is, don't change the GUI to match your site. The course vendor is 'hosting' and 'selling' the course. Don't make it seem like you are. Treat the hosting site like Amazon, you sell through it.

That also means you don't use their:

• blog hosting
• page creation
• webinar facilities
• etc.

Or if you do use them, don't rely on them.

Avoid domain/subdomain hosting

The worst thing I did with a hosting vendor was use a sub domain to point to the course e.g.

http://courses.mycompany.com

When I had to move provider this cause me no end of problems.

All my marketing was based around courses.mycompany.com so I couldn't leave it pointing at the hosting service I was moving.

The existing students used courses.mycompany.com to access the courses therefore if I move it they can't access the course.

I had to move the subdomain, and it now points to my main site.

But:

• I had to send out a lot of email to the existing students
• I still have to deal with queries of 'why can't I login' etc.

If you do use a subdomain then create a different subdomain for each vendor, but I'd avoid it.

Use your site as the landing page

What tends to happen is that you spend a lot of time marketing yoru course - this is good, and you have to do this.

But if you market direct to the hosting companies site then you're not building your business and your brand.

You need to have your own site, and your own landing pages for your courses.

And always, in all literature, always, link to them.

Only at the point of sale do you click through to the hosting site. 

This unfortunately creates a disconnect during the sales process because it isn't a shopping cart integration its usually a landing page to landing page flow.

This is bad. But, it is better than having to change all the links on all the sites and all the marketing if you have to move hosts.

It also allows you to sell on multiple hosting sites, and possibly A/B test different processes.

Use a URLshortner that you control

If you do want to link directly to the hosting company site then do it through a url shortner/redirector that you control ie. you can amend where the URL points to after you move.

That way you can use a single URL for your marketing, but change it if you have to move later.

Create meta data course outline

I see a lot of messages on hosting vendor forums about:

• how can I download my videos

Dont' do that.

• Always keep a backup of each video
• Always know which video you uploaded to each lecture
• Always write the description offline and have a backup - copy paste into the hosting site, don't ever edit on their site

I have a text file for each course which lists

• section : name, description
• lecture, title, description, upload files, source files etc.

When I have to upload to a new host I simple use my metadata text file to find all the information to upload.

This also allows me to review content offline and see where I cover what topics etc.

Basically - use the host as a 'host' for material, never the source.

Summary

All of the above is about flexibility and control.

When we use a hosting service (even if we use a set of wordpress plugins) - and we will have to. We give away flexibility and control.

We want to minimise the impact of changes by having all we need outside the control of the course hosting service.

I hop you never need these lessons. But I've had to use these, and I now have a discipline around course setup, marketing and maintenance that takes these into account.

I record my Mac on my Windows machine with AirServer and Camtasia

I have Camtasia for both Mac and Windows, but I much prefer the Windows version.

And I don't think it is just because I work with Windows on a giant monitor.

But I still have to create course content that covers Mac software.

In the past, I have used Camtasia on the Mac to record it, then edit the exported MP4 on my Windows Camtasia.

But now, I use AirServer, which runs on my Windows box and I AirPlay my Mac screen to the window screen. There seems to be no lag, so works much better for me than running through VNC.

Since the screen comes through software, it means I can use Camtasia on the Windows box to capture the screen, and therefore get the best of both worlds. Running direct on the Mac, but recording and editing on the Windows Camtasia.

Recommended. And incredibly cheap. Only £13.99 for a commercial license.

Some Lessons Learned from presenting Live Webinars over Google Hangouts

I recently conducted a live Webinar to over 250 people using WebinarJam Studio.

WebinarJam Studio is an online software that makes it easier to conduct webinars via Google Hangouts. It means you get all the scalability and flexibility of Google Hangouts, without all the hassle.

• Easy to gather emails to register for the webinar
• Automated reminders to people joining the webinar
• Easy to use chat system

WebinarJam is great, I've been using it for over a year now, and I try not to use Google Hangouts without it.

For this webinar, I was going to be broadcasting  to a lot of people direct to their office and computer so the normal WebinarJam registration process would handle that.

But I was also going to be broadcasting live to 4 different conference rooms in four different cities. i.e. a user group, spread over 4 different cities. Where each room would have 50+ people in it and watching and interacting with me live on a big screen.

To do this, I made one person in each room an admin on the WebinarJam webinar. That person then connected to the webinar as an admin so their webcam was pointing at the room full of people.

Lesson Learned: Have a trial run of any webinar with new admins.

I've done a few webinars now, and I always make sure that I have a test webinar a few days before the actual webinar with the admins of the webinar.

Even if we have done it before, it helps make sure that all our browsers are up to date, our webcams and microphones are working, etc. etc. Because computers change. Browser versions change. And you don't want any unexpected nonsense on the day of the Webinar.

Lesson Learned: During Q&A Just Nod

Normally with Google Hangout webinars, the admins don't experience any lag. There is usually a delay for anyone watching at home, because the webinar is streaming over youtube.

But I learned, during the Q&A session, that when someone is asking a question I have to do a slightly unnatural interaction and keep completely quiet. If I "um" or "yes" or "uhhu" as the person is asking their question then it breaks the flow of the webinar audio. 

So now, when someone is asking a question, I nod, smile and offer visual feedback that I can hear them. But no audio during the asking of the question.

Lesson Learned: Gaps are OK

I had a slight cold when I was presenting and needed to drink water during the webinar. I noticed on the recording that I rushed the drinking and started to speak too quickly after drinking so I hadn't fully processed the drink.

I only noticed this on the recording, so I wasn't able to change my behavior live.

The gap, was not too long on the webinar. I could have taken more time.

For the replay recording I edited out these gaps anyway, so for longer term playback it doesn't matter. So remember to take the time you need.

Mailchimp Lists And Groups Hints and Tips - Combine

I've known for some time that Mailchimp has Groups, so I can create multiple groups under a list. Meaning that I can partition the people who join my mailing lists, but still send out to large groups without duplication.

Since Mailchimp only lets you send to a list, and not to avoid duplication between lists, this means that people don't receive the same email twice.
But some forms that link in to Mailchimp don't let you subscribe to a group, they let you subscribe to a list.

I had to sort this out so that I could easily partition people on sending, but still have easy sign up.

What I've done:

• Have a 'master' list which multiple groups
• Have people 'sign up' to individual lists
• When it comes time to mailshot, I "Combine Lists"
• Combine the 'sign up' list to the 'master' list, and add people to a group in that list

This:

• keeps my sign up situation nice and simple
• still allows people to unsubscribe easily if they need to
• avoids people receiving duplicate emails
• allows me to target more people with some mailshots than others

I have found Mailchimp to be the best service I've used for managing my mailing lists. And since I'm fairly low frequency with my lists, I use the "Pay As You Go" service, where I block buy a bunch of credits, and use them over the year, rather than worrying about maximising the value of a monthly subscription.

Lessons learned building courses

Because I have experiment with many online course hosting platforms now, and had to keep multiple platforms in sync at the same time. I'm going to summarise some lessons learned about building your courses to help.

But let me tell you my old approach, my 'don't do this' approach:

• Plan your course on the course hosting platform - build the course outline, and add descriptions, and build your course around the features of that platform
• Organise your videos on disk in an adhoc, topic based hierarchy, and map it on to the course platform.
• Exported videos take space, so rely on the hosting platform as your video backup, rather than keep a local copy, after all, you've uploaded it now. Job done.
• If you do move to another platform, rely on their 'automated migration' to do the job for you.

The above is what you do, when you are learning. You are focused on pumping the course out there, and you are building the course dynamically as you go.

I don't do this any more.

This is what I do now.

Organise your disk better

I use the following folder structures

• \camtasia
• course_name
• 010_section_name
• 010_lecture_name
• 020_lecture_name
• 020_section_name
• etc.
• \archive
• video_exports
• course_name
• etc.

Numbering in 010 allows up to 99 sections, or lecture, but also allows me to add new sections or courses in the middle if I want to insert new sections or lectures without having to renumber anything.

At some point I may do away altogether with the numbers and rely on a meta data system, but I don't do that yet, and this is simple.

I create and edit in the \camtasia hierarchy, and export the videos that I upload to the \archive

Create a meta data file

I now have a course_name_meta_data_file.txt for each course.

e.g.

# Course - Course Name

The course description and blurb

## Section - Section Name

A section description

### Lecture - Lecture Name

description of lecture and other details

This lists the sections, in order, and the lectures in order. The description has 

• The location of the source file for the lecture (i.e the camtasia file) and the export location.
• The text description to copy and paste into the online hosting system
• Details of any attachment files and their location

The meta data file, is essentially my course.

I don't rely on the hosting vendor to 'manage' and 'plan' my course. I do it using the meta data file.

And if you are worried that a text file like that would become unreadable, then it is written in markdown, and you can 'pretty print' it other tools. I use the free online tool dillinger.io

Paste the above markdown into dillinger.io and see what you get.

Organisation takes effort

All of this takes additional effort, but since you are doing it as you go along, it doesn't seem as bad.

Trust me, retrofitting this process on to a 150 lecture course, is hard work.

But when you start, you don't know to do this. You just crack on and do the work.

This has the benefit that:

• When I want to migrate to a new platform, I just work through the file, creating the sections and lectures and uploading and attaching the correct files.
• When I add new lectures, I can add them to the meta data file first, and write the copy and plan that I want for the lecture.
• I can version control the meta data file and see what changes I made when.
• I can re-organise the course without impacting the file system if I want to.

Anyway - that's what I do, at the moment. I'm sure I'll learn new approaches going forward.

And for the technically minded among you, you could:

• convert your meta data file into a leanpub book and sell it as an ebook or give it to students
• convert the lecture descriptions into blog posts using dillinger.io
• generate the meta data file from a mindmap, or track it all in a mind map if you wanted
• do many more things that no hosting company is designed to do