We get asked this question an awful lot. The first thing to say is that making your own content is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing if it’s focused in the right areas. In our experience, organisations who compliment their own bespoke learning with off-the-shelf libraries do the best job. In other words, an off-the-shelf library gives you all the standard content you need. You know, the sort of stuff that isn’t unique to your business. The sorts of content that every business needs. IT Skills, health and safety etc. This leaves you room to focus on the materials that really are unique to what you do.
Oh and before you ask, whilst we all do love to feel unique, make sure you think long and hard before building content that actually isn’t really bespoke. Sometimes, an off-the-shelf course coupled with some proper engagement and a good policy, is all you need.
However, if you’ve made it past that hurdle and you still feel it’s right, then there are some really easy things to think about. We call it PowerPoint to Pixar (we cannot wait for Toy Story 4 – okay, shameless movie plug over). Here are some easy tips: –
- How fancy does your course need to be? Often a set of PowerPoint slides can be just as effective as a fancy, and costly, animated course with all the bells and whistles
- Make sure you know what your key messages are – having the support of subject matter experts will also make the job a lot easier. If you can storyboard out what you want to say and how, then building the course becomes a lot easier
- Do you have the skill-set in-house? These days, there are some fantastic tools out there from the likes of Camtasia to Articulate 360 (and lots more besides) that actually make it quite easy to build a course. Doing fancy animation and polishing it up to Pixar standard is, of course, a whole different matter
- A good external solution does not have to cost a fortune – just be clear on your requirements, the type of quality you need and provide as much detail as you can. If you leave everything to the supplier, it will cost more. Work on the basis that 5-10 minutes of content will probably cost you somewhere between £2 – £5k (but it is a bit like how long is a piece of string)
- Don’t underestimate the importance of a great voice-over. Sometimes the best content has very little happening on screen, but just engages you through well written materials and a dynamic voice-over
Best of luck – making your own content won’t be without its challenges but it can be super rewarding.
How can Mi Crow help?
We’ve been making video content for a long time now. That means we’ve learnt a lot of lessons. It also means sometimes we’ve got it right and sometimes we’ve got it wrong. Hey, we’ve even made some mind-numbing e-learning videos. On the plus side, this wealth of experience and knowledge is something that helps us every day. Every time we make a new course we ask ourselves: “Does this blow us away?” If we don’t answer yes, then we don’t release that video out into the wild.
We’re happy to share that knowledge independently. We want the world to be full of exciting and great e-learning video content. We’ll always be happy to offer hints and tips to our customers. And, if you want to take it further you can always engage us on our bespoke video consultancy, where we’ll help you scope out and produce that great content you’ve always craved!
