How to Create Amazing Instructional Training Videos & Tutorials

Producing short, instructional training videos and tutorials that can be used in online courses, in the classroom, or in organization settings is a task that has quickly gained significant popularity thanks largely in part to the rise of the internet and the increase in technology that is more affordable than ever. Learning how to create amazing instructional training videos and tutorials that you can incorporate into your digital courses and training programs is all about planning!

Step 1: Plan the Topic

The first step to producing amazing instructional training videos is to plan the topic that you’re going to provide instruction on. This could be virtually anything that applies to your organization, students, or audience of learners. Most importantly, as you’re planning the topic for your instructional video, you should be thinking about:

• Who your target audience is.
• How your topic aligns with your audiences’ needs.
• How you can use the narration to speak to your audience.
• What visuals are going to be complementary for your audience.

It doesn’t matter what topic you choose, as long as you make sure that the topic is going to resonate with your audience and that you plan your content so that it delivers key insight that your audience can use, you’ll be in a good spot.

Step 2:  Carefully Analyze Your Audience

Knowing your target audience is vital to the success of instructional training videos and tutorials. If you don’t know your audience, with deep understanding, you run the risk of creating a video that doesn’t speak to your target and therefore isn’t very useful or effective. As you carefully analyze your audience, you should be considering:

• What struggles your audience may have.
• How you might be able to help with those struggles.
• What kind of instructions will resonate with your audience most deeply.
• How you can coordinate your content in a way that’s going to be most effective for your audience.

Do your research. Make sure you know who your audience is, what they like and don’t like, how they act, what will make them react and how they are most likely to engage with your video.

Step 3:  Write a Script & Create a Storyboard

The next major step is to prepare your script. This is the outline of exactly what you intend to say and do for your instructional training videos. Your script should include the crucial words and key points that will be the focus of your video. Think of it as a lesson plan that you’ve fully written out for your student audience. 

In order to keep your audience engaged, you need a script that resonates with them. You should not overdo the content, though, as you want your video to show first, then tell. Write a script that uses language your audience is going to understand and resonate with.  Try to plan out the visuals alongside your script so that you know what will be happening on the camera as well as what the narrator should be saying as the voiceover.

Your script should be:

• Short and to the point.
• Written in a conversational tone.
• Focused on the instructions that you’re providing.
• Written in a way that tells a story.

When creating the storyboard, this is an outline of each of the scenes and important shots that will occur as part of the instructional training videos you create. The storyboard should outline camera movements, angles, and transitions as well as any key actions occurring on the screen for each of your scenes.

Step 4:  Shoot Footage & Record Voiceover

Once you’ve got your script and your storyboard, it’s time to get started on production. This is your chance to shoot the footage required for the instructional training videos that you’ve planned as well as to produce b-roll footage that goes along with your content. Once you’ve captured all of the necessary footage for your video, you’ll shift to audio capture.

Audio is incredibly important to the success of instructional training videos and tutorials. It’s vital for you to record top quality audio that can be used to complement your footage as narration or voiceover. In recording your voiceover, make sure that you have a very clear voice to record and that you’re using a quality microphone. It’s also important to be sure that there is no outside audio interfering. Something as simple as the air conditioner coming on could ruin the audio for your video!

Step 5:  Editing the Video to Produce the Final Cut

With your footage filmed and voiceover recorded, it’s time to edit your work to produce the final cut. Amazing instructional training videos and tutorials can come together in a wide variety of different ways, but regardless of how each comes together, editing is the final step that really pulls the weight and makes your raw footage and voice something impeccable and amazing!

Keep in mind that editing your video is likely to take significantly longer than any of the other steps previously listed. Producing instructional training videos and tutorials requires extensive planning, and the editing is the icing on the cake! With editing, your voice over is aligned with the footage that was filmed, and any music, transitions and special effects can be added in to finalize the video.

Producing instructional training videos is a multi-step process that can be achieved by an amateur, or you can hire a pro to ensure any video you have produced reflects professionally on your organization. If you’re interested in hiring a professional crew to assist with the creation of amazing instructional training videos for your audience, give Beverly Boy Productions a call today!