One of the benefits that the Internet brings to the world is free access to information. There is a large amount of content created to educate, including video tutorials. This type of video covers a wide range of topics and is very useful to the public, and for that reason today I will tell you how to make tutorial videos.
Video tutorials: a different way of teaching
Video tutorials are audiovisual resources created specifically for the viewer’s learning on a specific topic. The video tutorials are a guide for the user to visualize step-by-step how to do something. Even though there are topics that require much longer video tutorials to 10 minutes. Most of them you will find in short formats to retain the attention of the user.
The first thing you should plan before making this digital resource is to determine the steps to follow during the explanatory process. A good start is giving a short introduction in the form of a talk about the topic you will be dealing with and the goal that the viewer will reach by watching your video tutorial.
The next you need to think about is the creation process. You can create video tutorials through 2 different techniques. The first one is the screencast or screen capture, that is to say, you record the activity on your computer screen and afterward show step by step each one of the phases of a process, and probably add explanatory audio to back the images. The second is to record yourself. If you like you can show yourself in the video tutorial and explain, in your own words, everything your audience needs to know. After all, the educator’s bodily expression carries a great deal of weight within the process of learning any subject.
Tutorial videos are becoming more and more popular on the Internet, either as a complement to a written tutorial that can be embedded in the same website or blog or as an independent video in a YouTube or Vimeo channel.
Creating a video tutorial from scratch
To be effective, tutorials must have minimum quality standards. They should not be too long (usually 5 or 10 minutes is enough), must have a well-defined structure, and be direct and clear on both audio and video.
Then there is the script creation. Having a script will set guidelines to be able to follow a specific order during recording.
In the script you must have several clear concepts:
- Create a good introduction that determines what you are going to talk about.
- Be straightforward and concise.
- Explain all the concepts in a simple way.
- Avoid leaving anything to alternate interpretations, and eliminate ambiguity in every instruction you give.
- Close the video with a conclusion and a farewell.
Some tips when it comes to making tutorial videos
- Choose content that is useful and of value to your audience. Investigate the most frequent doubts among your audience and offer them the answer to their questions with a video.
- Create a script about the narration you are going to have in the course of the audiovisual material.
- Learn the script. It is not enough to have written it, you must learn it and rehearse it to avoid mistakes and have to record the whole video again, or make multiple editions.
- Long videos are boring. Avoid having your material last longer than 10 minutes or more. If you think that your video will not be able to be made within that period of time, you can manage it in parts or chapters.
- Don’t use background music. Background music may distract the user. The only sound you should pay full attention to is your voice.
- Use clear language and easy to digest. People watching your video tutorial probably don’t have advanced knowledge and find it difficult to understand some concepts of the procedure you are explaining.
- Share it on all social networks. This is one of the resources you can get the most out of. In addition to posting it on your blog, you can post it on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and watch the response they generate.
- Only if you’re an expert on the subject, improvise. A video tutorial should always be planned, from the screenshots you’ll show to the script you’ll follow. But if you consider you are good enough to develop the subject with confidence, without hesitation, go ahead! You can create your video without much planning.
- Take care of the presentation of your video. It is not only the narration of the procedure that you must take care of, but you must also have in order your images or the screenshots that you present in the course.
- Check the lighting of your environment. If instead of screen recordings you have to record yourself or some device to explain the steps of some procedure, find yourself a nice place with the surrounding light.
What do I need to make tutorial videos?
Once the script phase is complete, it’s time to move on to recording. You are going to need a program capable of recording what you do on screen, on your webcam, and editing those videos along with those from external cameras. Movavi Screen Recorder Studio is the best example I can think of. That program can easily take care of all those 3 tasks so you can create your video tutorials quickly and easily.
How can I use Movavi to make tutorial videos?
I’ll show you how to make your video with Movavi:
- Prepare your audiovisual content: Whether you need to use the screen recorder, the webcam, or your already recorded videos, you need to start there.
- If you are going to use the recorder, you can configure it to record all or part of the screen, making it easier to record a particular window.
- If you are going to record from the webcam, prepare your space and configure the recording parameters. Movavi is quite simple and you don’t need much experience to achieve professional results.
- To add audio to your video, you can choose to record it or add it later during editing. To record it, you need to select a source, which can be a microphone, webcam, or even computer sound.
- Edit your video: the next step is editing the video. Once the recording is finished, if you have passed to Movavi the videos recorded in another camera, you can start editing. This program allows using all the essential actions you can find in a video editor, such as cutting, moving, adding images, audio, and everything. The editor is powerful and easy to use.
- Save and export: Once the editing process is finished, it is necessary to save and export your video tutorial. Movavi offers different output formats, including popular formats for social networks, Youtube, or any platform.
And that’s it. This is how you outperform the making of a video tutorial. If you develop your tutorial idea at its most, create the script, follow the steps I gave you and use the Movavi editor, you will have a good pack of professional-looking video tutorials soon.
If you would like to learn about Movavi software check our article about Movavi Screen Recorder.
