Internet Video Production: Sticking to your Objectives and Goals

I recently had a question from one of my private coaching clients that I’d like to share.  He has a series of videos on, what could be considered, a fairly technical subject that he wishes to make simple for the everyday business person. As he got a little deeper into his video creation he emailed me with this question about the level of detail to go into and whether some might feel that his videos are over their heads.

Michelle,

I have just been reviewing the final six video drafts of my Finance Training course. These videos are more technical than the previous videos that I have done and I am worried that although an Accountant could follow them, it may be too complicated for the average Manager. 

Have you come across this issue before with other technical videos? Thanks for any insights.

Concerned Screencaster

Do you ever wonder the same thing?  Just how much detail should you go into in your video training course?

When trying to decide how much is too much detail to include into in an individual video or for the entire training course you need to go back to your goals and objectives for the training and your analysis of your audience.

When you are thinking about the ideal student for the course you need to decide what level of knowledge you are creating your course for (beginner, middle or advanced) then be sure to mention what prerequisites or knowledge the students should have before they purchase.

Next, when you are outlining your course you’ll be taking the time to write down all the topics you want to cover and the objective for each Lesson.  If a piece of content does not directly support the objective of that Lesson than it is considered “nice to know” and can be either left out or added in an FAQ section, bonus materials or additional documentation that can be “linked to ” from various areas of the course.

Once you have decided on the topics, have included the list of what the student will learn on the salespage and priced the course accordingly then don’t try to stuff any more details into your course. It just leads to overwhelm.

Remember, when your course, geared for the average consumer, does include a lot of technical information it is always helpful to

• Provide lots of examples, analogies and case studies
• Define all the terms and concepts either in earlier in the course or at the beginning of the technical video section.  You can also add hot links in the video so people can look up definitions or places where there are more detailed explanations of terms.
• Add pop ups (Callouts in Camtasia) that reinforce what you are saying with titles such as “Important Note” or “FYI” with text that elaborates on what you are narrating.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share on how you make technical content more friendly for your audience?