Video-based learning has gained significant popularity in recent years due to the level of engagement and the ability of video content to convey complex information effectively compared to other types of media. Videos can appeal to different learning styles, offering customized experiences for diverse target groups.
Now, learners can watch educational and training content anytime, making it a highly flexible solution for both the audience and the educators as well.
In today’s article, we’ll look at the main steps of video course production and show you how to create video-based courses that perform as expected, engage learners, and retain their attention effectively 🚀
Summary
- Planning your video course
- Key considerations for video-based course development
- 5 steps to making engaging online course videos
- Expert advice on making videos for online courses
- How Blue Carrot can help your business
- Conclusion
Planning your video course
Every project starts with a clearly defined vision, and video course production is no exception. As simple as it may sound, the question “why we’re doing this e-learning course?” is just as important as “how to find a professional production team” or “how to make it all work within the budget that we have“.
Defining who you are doing this course for and why allows you to correctly set the learning objectives and understand what outcomes you want your course to produce. Plus, a clear vision of learning objectives guides the course structure, pacing, style, and messaging, making it easier for course designers and learners to maintain focus and consistency once the course is complete.
Key considerations for video-based course development
Now that we have the learning objectives sorted out, let’s check out the next steps for the online course video creation.
👉 Analyze target audience and their needs
On par with identifying learning objectives of your learning course, this is one of the most important steps of the development process. The analysis of your target audience may include several parameters such as demographics, professional backgrounds, learning preferences, and technological comfort levels. Knowing the audience’s age range, familiarity with the subject, etc., will help tailor content around them.
A good example of producing educational content with the target audience in mind is the White Glove project developed by our team. Since the audience could only watch the course in the evenings, we designed the visuals to be simple, straightforward, and calming.
👉 Design course structure
At this point, you need to establish a clear structure for your course, including the production of the learning materials: text copies, quizzes, assignments, tests, etc. This step is also known as the Instructional Design stage, part of the pre-production process.
Here, you need to put together a curriculum (course outline), plan the lesson order, and establish evaluation instruments of the educational content. To carry out this stage properly, it’s better to collaborate with the Subject Matter Experts who can validate the ready material, video lesson plans, etc. before the project moves to the production phase.
👉 Produce media assets
At this stage, production kicks off, and the team proceeds to create all visual assets used in the video course. This includes illustrations, backgrounds, objects, characters, and more. At Blue Carrot, for example, we can work on a broad spectrum of media, from basic illustrations and interactive elements to 2D/3D animation, live videos enhanced with overlays, synthetic AI videos, etc.
When working on the video projects, we also produce a style frame, which is a finished shot with all the visuals. It serves as the reference and guides the look of the final product. By doing so, we visualize the final video before producing it and avoid costly edits during the later production stages.
👉 Carry out QA
Quality Assurance (QA) ensures the final product meets functionality and educational media effectiveness standards. QA helps identify and correct issues such as errors in content, lesson inconsistencies, and any technical problems that may spoil the learning experience.
QA also helps course designers minimize distractions, ensure the content fully aligns with the instructional goals, and safeguard the course’s credibility. At our agency — and it’s standard practice for all professional teams — we conduct QA sessions at each production stage, helping to address potential issues early on and prevent complications as the project nears completion.
👉 Deliver finalized content
Delivering finalized content means ensuring that all assets meet the project’s standards and are compatible with the requirements of the learning platforms to which the course will be uploaded. So, a team has to provide the completed videos, interactive elements, supplementary materials, and assessments in the formats specified by the project (or client) or as required by the Learning Management System (LMS).
Whether the LMS needs SCORM-compliant files, interactive HTML elements, or specific video resolutions, meeting these requirements is the main point of this final stage. Furthermore, this step may also include testing the interactive content within the LMS environment to confirm smooth performance and full accessibility (with standards like WCAG or ADA) for the learners.
5 steps to making engaging online course videos
Having gone through the main stages of the course production, let’s dig a little deeper and see how to produce the course’s core component — video.
1. Prepare for the production stage
As mentioned earlier, the pre-production stage lays the foundation for the entire project, and how well it’s carried out will significantly influence the course’s overall success. With video production, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions: What will your audience gain from watching this video? Are they going to get specific knowledge or be able to improve their skills? Or gain new insights?
Answering these questions will help video designers shape the narrative and effectively address problem areas via visuals, voiceover, animation, etc.
2. Decide on the visual style
The style of the video is basically a set of rules that define how elements appear or move in the scene, what shape they will have, what the lighting will be, and so on. The learning objectives should define the style as it will influence the viewing experience that users will get.
It is important to note that there’s also a particular distinction between the type and the style of the video, as the type refers to the techniques used to create a video for an online course — motion graphics, cutout animation, 2D/3D, and so on. More information on this subject can be found in this article.
3. Create a storyboard
In video production, a storyboard is a blueprint used to organize each scene before filming it. It comes in the form of sketches or illustrations laid out in particular order, accompanied by notes on main actions, dialogues, camera angles, etc.
Storyboarding your video is essential as it serves as a reference, helps to ensure consistency, and minimizes the time spent on reshoots or animation redos. It keeps the project on track from start to finish.
4. Animate or record video live
When it comes to the production of the video itself, you have plenty of options. For the online course, you can record video live using one or several cameras and professional filming equipment at the studio or on the filming set at your organization’s office. Here, it all depends on the budget — the latter option will be more affordable. However, professional studios often offer additional services, which may help to speed up the production process.
Another option is to go with animation, producing custom sequences or using templated animation and toolkits that offer ready-made assets, libraries, templates, and sound galleries. Video producers often use a combination of two techniques — live video and animation to make the content more relatable while keeping it looking professional. The learning objectives should also guide the choice of particular options here. For more on different video production techniques, read our Educational and Training Video Production Guide.
5. Sound design & QA
The last stage is the sound design, which may also include recording a voice-over with a professional artist and adding a soundtrack and other sound effects to enhance the viewing experience and increase the effectiveness of the video.
At Blue Carrot, we have a large pool of talented voice-over artists experienced in the production of e-learning video content. We can work with the clients to select native speakers of different ages, genders, and nationalities, ensuring the project gets the right vocal tone and style match.
When it comes to the QA process, it’s essentially the same: the team must review all content for accuracy, clarity, and consistency, making final video editing and polishing.
Expert advice on making videos for online courses
📌 Don’t skip the learning design stage
Often, to save budgets, companies spend less time on the learning design stage, which, aside from the target audience analysis, includes setting learning objectives, building course outlines, and collaborating with SMEs.
This stage sets the foundation for all the subsequent steps and thus shouldn’t be disregarded as unnecessary. For more about learning design, read here.
📌 Manage cognitive load effectively
In short, the cognitive load is the amount of information our brain can process at a given time without overloading. It’s necessary to manage cognitive load in learning to prevent overwhelming the learner’s working memory.
For online courses, it means simplifying complex concepts, breaking down large blocks of information into smaller, manageable chunks, minimizing unnecessary distractions, and so on. By balancing the cognitive load correctly, course designers help learners stay focused on core material, making it easier to absorb knowledge and skills and achieve learning objectives.
📌 Work with professionals
However basic this advice may be, it still gets overlooked. Working with a fully assembled team with proven expertise saves time and money but also avoids the majority of mistakes that would otherwise affect the success of your final product (e.g. online course).
Expert course designers bring specialized skills to the table, from scriptwriting and instructional design to cinematography and animation. They ensure content stays clear, visually appealing, and aligned with the educational goals. They understand how to create an online training video course that makes complex concepts easier to comprehend and engages learners with the right pacing.
How Blue Carrot can help your business
🔹 Unity
Unity, a leading RT3D content platform, partnered with our team to produce 40 educational courses for Coursera, covering coding, 3D art, gameplay programming, and XR development for global certifications in Unity’s tools. The project, led by the UK and Europe, involved coordinating production across Mexico, San Francisco, Detroit, and Chicago, demanding adherence to clear audio-visual standards. We ensured professional, cohesive content by implementing standardized workflows, synchronized filming, and integrated post-production graphics. This international collaboration enabled Unity to enhance its Coursera presence, providing valuable certifications and showcasing the professionalism of our team managing global production projects.
🔹 U.S. University
The goal for our team with this project was to enrich live-shoot footage with animated overlays, aiming to meet a tight, one-month timeline for production — which also meant daily output of about 10 minutes of content. This required an expanded team of illustrators and animators to meet the production requirements.
To maintain quality across the larger team, we appointed an art director and a dedicated production manager to streamline client communication. Additionally, we used professional software to simplify revision processes, making it user-friendly for the SMEs overseeing the course. This approach enabled us to deliver a high-quality, visually coherent video course that fully met the client’s expectations and supported students’ learning.
Conclusion
Making videos for online courses is a multi-step process requiring careful planning and execution. While companies can develop basic educational content using internal resources, producing a polished, professional course often requires professional expertise, especially in courses meant for broader distribution and multilingual localization.
At Blue Carrot, our expertise in crafting educational videos and online courses tailored for various markets helps clients achieve their learning goals efficiently.
For any questions about video-based course development or to schedule a free consultation, contact our team! 🥕
