Creating online teaching videos?

September 8, 2012 5:52 PM

Creating online training curriculum- I am trying to find a way to create curriculum that is video-based that teaches students how to use various online software applications. Are there companies you know of that create online training videos? What is the cost of creating such a video? I work for a non-profit in San Francisco. Thanks for your help!
posted by tessalations999 to Education (3 answers total)

Camista is awesome software for this. As for writing/doing, can contact your local stc.org group to find a local contractor.
posted by tilde at 8:05 PM on September 8, 2012

Best answer: Some questions:

• What kind of quality are you looking at: do these need to be slick, high-touch pieces, or can they be a little janky so long as they get the job done?
• What kind of software applications are you talking about? Are they very specialized, or would they be for common web apps like Google Docs?
• Do they need voiceover?
• How long do you see these videos being, each? How many per app? How many total in the series?
• How much direction would your nonprofit be providing? Would they each be storyboarded out with clear instructional goals per video, voiceover written, etc, or would you be relying on the company to figure this out?
• How are these videos going to be distributed? Will they be hosted online by a third party service like YouTube or Vimeo, or would your org be hosting them on their servers? Or would they be included in some sort of physical media?

I'm an instructional designer who's done some screen casting tutorials (also for a nonprofit), generally in the 3-6 minute range. From soup-to-nuts (planning the lesson structure, writing the voiceover, recording the screen movements, recording the voiceover, editing all together, adding in title cards and transitions), I'd say each took me maybe... 10-25 hours each? So price that out against someone's hourly rate.

I'd first suggest that unless these tutorials are for a brand-new software application, to Google around and link to other people's tutorials. Unless you have a lot of budget, that is. I don't know any companies off hand (although I'm sure they're out there), but I do have colleagues who do this sort of contract work that I'd be happy to put you in touch with.
posted by smirkette at 8:08 PM on September 8, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks! To answer your questions:
-They can be pretty basic videos, nothing super fancy
-pretty common web apps, like social media sites for example.
-Videos would need voice over, and maybe 5 minutes for 5 different videos
-We would probably provide storyboards and sketches, with voiceover written
-They could be hosted by Youtube or Vimeo

Do you know what a typical hourly rate would be for these contractors? That sounds like the way to go...

Thanks again for your help! I would love to connect with them, depending on the potential hourly rate.

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posted by tessalations999 at 8:54 PM on September 8, 2012