Mastering Breakout Sessions by Cameron Goble

Cameron Goble tells us how was his experience creating his course on Mastering Breakout Sessions after taking Grumo’s How to Create an Awesome Online Course on Udemy.

Why did you decide to create an online course?
I want the whole world to get excited about being great at sharing and learning new skills! Whatever you call it–professional development, instructional design, training, education–you and I know that teaching is the best. Everyone wants to teach what they know. If you ask someone “who really made a difference in your life,” 9 times out of 10 they’ll tell you about a teacher. Everyone loves teaching, everyone can teach, and I want the world to be filled with brilliant teachers. I know how to teach people to teach. I can’t reach everyone in person, so online was the way to go.

How did you choose the topic of the course?
My course celebrates creativity, discovery, and real learning. How could I not choose it?

What is the purpose of this course?
I focus on helping professional trainers solve the twin death knells of boredom and information overload in their orientations. (Though teachers, coordinators, and trainers of all kinds can easily adapt my class to lots of situations.) New hires go through orientations once–which is way more than enough–but trainers get stuck in a quagmire of the same old, same old. That can get better for everyone once you know how.

My course is a shot of creativity and performance, right in the arm. It’s about creating training plans that empower people to do more than they thought they could

How did you find time to produce it?
I don’t think we can find time. We have to make it. This course was important enough for me to make that I had to put other things aside for a while. It was a moral imperative. Working for home helped, but mostly it’s about conviction. Is it important enough? Then go do it.

How long did it take you to put together?
Months. Lots of trial and error, experimentations, iterations, and refinements. Also, lots of being flexible around my one year old daughter. 🙂

What was the hardest thing to do?
Training myself to be brief on camera. I built this course to be fast and precise. In person, I’m much more verbose.

What was the simplest thing to do?
It was easy for me to stand in front of the camera and say what I had to say. I have a lot of experience with public speaking and video production, so it was easy to put together.

How did you determine the price of the course?
I compared it to seminars, professional book packages, and other competitors’ offerings, then measured the value of what I could offer with my class with less time invested, more convenience, and lifetime access through Udemy. Trainers and other educators have given me great feedback on the price and the value of what they leraned, so I think I hit a sweet spot.

What is your marketing strategy to promote it?
I’m using a Lean Startup model to determine my best marketing strategy, actually. What works for someone else’s course won’t work for mine, because we’re aiming for different markets, but Lean Startup is great for figuring out exactly what will work. I’m sharing that process in a series of blog posts on my web page, though. Come read it and figure out your own strategy along with me!

What software did you use?
Keynote for slides and animations. Audacity for audio cleanup and editing. My video editor is Kdenlive. My blog is powered by WordPress. Those last three are free, open source, and incredibly powerful. We live in a wonderfully creative and productive age.

What hardware did you use? (camera, microphone, lights, etc.)
My camera is a Canon rebel Ti3 DSLR. Voice recorded by a Zoom H4N and a combination of mics: a Behringer XM8500 for voiceover and a borrowed wireless lav mic for the video. The lights were a pair of ePhoto VL9026s boxes that came in a nice kit.

What was the part the Grumo course help you the most with?
The Grumo course gave me a great bird’s-eye view of every step I would need to take to go from idea to uploaded Udemy course. It was great to see the whole plan laid out in front of me. The structure of each lesson let me zoom in where I needed to, so I could fill in cracks without getting bogged down. Plus, Miguel’s high energy and enthusiasm lifted my spirits when I needed it. 🙂

What other resources have you used to make your course?
Guile, expertise, and natural charm.

Most of all, the course happened because of my family, especially my wife and partner Linda, without whom I would be a shuddering pile of goo at this point. She contributed a lot behind the scenes. I’m proud that we worked together on this. Linda also stepped up to the mic (literally) to narrate a video case study that trainers and teachers of all stripes will find particularly useful: how to float in a workshop.

If you are interested on taking Cameron’s course he made available a special 44% discount coupon link for our readers. Here it is: https://www.udemy.com/plan-awesome-policy-procedure-workshops/?couponCode=MIGUELRULES*

(*Note most Udemy coupons are bound to a quantity limit or expiry date so they may not work by the time you read this article. If they don’t let me know and I always can ask the instructor to extend it or create a new one for you!)