How To Record Your Online Course (Using Canva For FREE)

So you finally found the perfect course idea, and want to learn how to record your online course for maximum engagement and sales without breaking the bank.

Well, you’re in the right place because, in this guide, I’m going to show you exactly how you could use a free tool to do just that.

While recording your online course is as easy as sitting in front of a camera and hitting the record button, so many talented experts aren’t that confident on camera.

This is why I’m going to share this tutorial to show how to record yours online with or without showing your face.

Guess what? This method is totally free and you don’t have to spend a dime.

A brief overview of how to record your online course for free
The steps outlined in this guide are as follows

1. Plan and Script out your course
2. Sign up for a free account on Canva
3. Create Engaging Slidedecks or Presentations
4. Record your screen while you talk over the slides
5. Edit and Tweak the video recording with special effects on Canva

Without further ado, let’s hop right into today’s tutorial.

How To Record your online Course

1. Plan and Script out your course

The first and most important step to creating an engaging course is planning, outlining, and scripting it all out.

Once you have an idea you think might work, you should really consider scripting your course.

While this might seem like a lot of work, it really makes the whole difference.

It is so easy to set up your screen recording software or camera, sit in front of your setup, and talk on in your module only to end up with a video session no one even wants to watch.

Think about it, when people buy your online course, they expect a certain result.

But how in the world are they supposed to get these results if they don’t even watch your course modules till the end?

In the long run when your students fail to go through your only course modules, and subsequently get a bad ROI on your course, you will end up attracting bad reviews and testimonials which will impact your sales and revenue adversely.

So in a nutshell, While scripting might take an extra chunk of your time, it is still a good practice to prioritize.

When I say scripting, I don’t mean writing out your videos word for word.

I simply mean outlining the purpose and objective of your modules, as well as important sections that should be included, this way you are better equipped to stay in track and deliver value.

So how do you script your online course?
it’s simple, once you have your basic course curriculum, you’re going to need to list out a couple of lessons you would want your students to take out of that class.

With these lessons in hand, you can even go further by highlighting the main points to be conveyed in each lesson.

This step will in turn help you stay in line with the goal of your course module and deliver value without any form of digression.

2. Sign up for a free account on Canva

Canva is the design and software tool we will be using in this tutorial how to record your online course.

You’ve most probably heard about this insane software and for this tutorial, we’ll be using Canva to record your online course.

Their service is completely free and trusts me you’re going to love what they offer.

While Canva can be used to design a variety of quality graphics for your online course, We will be solely focusing on creating engaging presentations and leveraging their free screen recording tools.

Without Canva, you would have had to design your slides separately using a tool like Google slides or Powerpoint and then download a screen recordings software like OBS Studio and Camtasia which takes a whole lot of time and extra work.

With Canva, you can create, design, and export your entire course for free without any watermark.

They take the hassle in creating engaging online courses away and as you will see in a moment, they have all the tools you need to create a highly intuitive online course that bags consistent sales.

Gosh, I almost forgot, Canva offers a 30-day free trial which I highly recommend you try out.

While you don’t need this trial to follow along with this tutorial, their template, graphics, and elements library is a powerful resource to have in your arsenal.

You will also unlock some special features
Trust me, I also want the best for your students😉.

So give Canva’s 30 Day Free trial a try and get ready for a burst of creativity.

3. Create Engaging Slide decks or Presentations

Once you are on your Canva dashboard, it’s time to start designing your slides.

If you’ve ever attended a webinar or bought a course online, you most likely have an idea of what a good course slide should look like.

It should:

• Contain bullet points and context sentences
• Include graphics and elements that convey the information you are trying to share.
• It should match the look and feel of your brand

With Canva’s huge template library, you don’t need to start designing your slide on a blank canvas, simply head over to Canva’s homepage and search their template library and choose a slide design that catches your eye.

You can search for your desired templates by using the search bar on the homepage and scrolling until you’ve found the best design for your specific course.

Most slide template designs on Canva come in series.

So if you are selecting one design, you most likely be presented with complimentary slide decks to edit and use as you deem fit.

Once you found the perfect slide design, click over and start editing.

The editing phase is going to be very easy because we have everything already scripted out.

All that’s left to do is to go through the key points of your course modules and add them onto a slide design.

You will also need to tweak the design’s colors and elements to suit your brand style and aesthetic.

Feel free to play around in the Canva studio until you come up with the perfect design.

We created an entire tutorial that walks you through the whole process of designing a slide deck on Canva, so if this process gets too complicated, you can always read the complete guide here.

4. Record your screen while you talk over the slides

This is where the main work starts.
Using Canva’s screen recording tool, you’re going to need to sit in front of your screen and start talking.

This should be easy because now you have your bullet points on your slide decks and your entire script in hand.

While you shouldn’t read Word from your script, it helps you stay on track with delivering the value of your course.

There’s not too much to do here asides from just recording yourself teaching with a slide.

How to Setup Canva’s screen recording tool

To do this, you will need:

• A Good webcam if you choose to show your face
• A good microphone that does the job

To set up the screen recorder, create a new design on Canva, and on the UPLOAD tab in desktop mode, click RECORD YOURSELF.

You will then be prompted to the Canva Recording studio, where you can set your microphone and recording defaults.

5. Edit and Tweak the video recording with special effects on Canva

Once you’re done delivering value and achieving the objective of that course module, click to stop button

At this point, Canva will start to render your recording. This process could take minutes depending on how long your video is.

Once the rendering process is completed, your recording will be automatically uploaded onto your Canva library

From this point there are two ways to go about editing your videos

1. Download the screen recording and edit it on video editing software like a final cut pro
2. Edit your video right on Canva and download the final result when you are done.

The editing process can take a long time depending on how well you’ve recorded your video, nevertheless, you shouldn’t neglect this phase.

Just like with the benefit of writing a script for your online course, editing your recording will allow you to make it a lot more engaging for the bulk of your students.

To edit your videos, you might need to learn some basic video editing skills on YouTube.

Here are some beginner tips to get you started with good video editing.

• Cut out awkward pauses
• Add Captions and subtitles if you can
• Add pop-ups and overlays to keep your viewers engaged
• Add sound effects wherever you can.

Were these tips helpful? Then you need to read this post on how to create your first online coaching course where everything from how to find the perfect course idea to ways you can start getting sales.

Don’t forget to sign up for your free trial on Canva to start recording your online course.

FAQs on How To Record Your Online Course.