What I Learned from Making a Skillshare Class
Recently, the learning platform Skillshare ran a challenge to create and publish your own class, for a chance to win premium membership or some enticing incentive like that (I forget exactly, I’m pretty sure I missed the deadline).
The challenge of it all, as undoubtedly intended, got me and many, many others to each publish a class on Skillshare’s platform. Mine is “Rapidly Learn Any CMS or Website Builder” (such a beautiful title…), and the effort and roadblocks involved in bringing it from concept to completion was as much a lesson as any of those I recorded for my class.
You see, while patently obvious, it’s easy to forget that having an idea is not at all the same thing as knowing how to execute it, as many failed startups can attest. Likewise while it’s often just a moment’s pause to compose an idea for a great class, something you’d enjoy teaching and that many would undoubtedly like to learn, it’s distinctly time- and energy-consuming to sort out how, exactly, you will turn that idea into videos, tutorials, explanations, and the like.
Skillshare provides a decent guide for breaking down your class into lessons and so forth, but that can only go so far. The end result depends on your own ability to think about your own knowledge in a new way, one that is comprehensible via a linear path such as that offered by video classes.
My initial class concept seemed to be panning out, the idea and title received a modest but appreciable number of “likes” on Skillshare, but I felt like a bit more of a fraud for every one of those as I wrestled with putting together even the first of my video lessons.
Well, I’m on the other side of that now, and hopefully a bit wiser. I could probably elaborate for thousands of words on what I learned, but here are the essentials in a more digestible format:
- Get as much done as you can in one shot. If the mood strikes you or you have some time available and you start recording your lessons, don’t stop until you have to or your brain runs dry. Milk that stream of consciousness for all it’s worth, that’s your teaching self trying to get out — let it!
- Be as targeted as realistically possible. A generalist like me often struggles to stay confined to one topic or theme. But when teaching, it’s critical to keep focus or you’ll lose your audience. No student like to feel their attention being abused.
- Take inspiration from everywhere. Other people, other classes, and certainly all the experiences of your life are desirable sources of input. Everything you’ve done in your life in some way or other has contributed to how you think and work — let that come across as your own unique idiom when you teach. People appreciate it.
- Editing > recording. I’m no video genius, but even I know it can take many times as long to edit a video than to record it. Clipping out the “um”s and “ah”s and “er”s, adding transitions between sections, cutting down 25 minutes of blabbering into 6 minutes of sharp, informative lecture — these are all crucial steps in developing a video will want to watch, but it takes time, and lots of it. Plan for that time!
- Play the field with learning styles. While proclivity to certain learning methods can be exaggerated, it’s true that different people absorb information differently. A concrete example will hammer a lesson into place for one student, while a more abstracted explanation of the concepts will capture another. Similarly, mixing explanations, demonstrations, and practice projects will practically guarantee you have something for everyone.
- Be animated. No one hates that cloying, overly jubilant video persona more than myself, but no one like to learn from a cold fish. Put a spring in your step, a smile on your face, and the occasional lilt in your voice. If you can’t do those things, consider wearing a party hat.
- Engage! Passion is crucial in teaching. If you don’t care about the information you’re passing on, your students usually won’t either. Teach for the love of it, and that enthusiasm will grip those who listen. If you can’t be passionate about teaching, be passionate about the content, like being a sales rep for your own brand of knowledge.
Teaching and writing share one interesting beauty— they both help clarify thoughts, taking you from vagueness to precision. Just by writing this, I’ve come to better understand my own experiences. Hopefully this elucidation can help you, too, on whatever teaching journey you may find yourself in!
