Content Creation is hard. For new creators, the number and complexity of necessary software can be overwhelming and expensive. Often these new creators get stuck in the initial processes Fortunately Open Broadcast Software (OBS) is a powerful, free, and easy-to-use solution. Many of the features included with OBS can enhance a creator's product and are relatively easy to implement, but often these options are lost within menus and new terminology. Through my experience, I have also identified several common pitfalls that are often unexplained by other video tutorials This eLearning course is targeted at intrinsically motivated new creators who need specific tech guidance and aims to give a segmented tutorial to give new creators a jump-start in understanding the basics of OBS Studio and preparing their scenes and sources to be ready to record or stream.

I aimed to create a training that breaks down the most necessary elements of OBS studio, with the goal of having the audience be able to start recording or streaming immediately after the course. The market already has numerous video tutorials for OBS, but often it is hard to find sections that your need without watching the entire tutorial, and video may not be accessible for those who want to learn about OBS on the go or in environments where audio is not possible. For this reason, I chose to marry both text and video elements* though an Articulate Rise course. I also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to use interactive elements and graphics to differentiate the ways content is presented to the learner. Time restraints necessitated a more simplified design, which is the reason I chose Rise over more sophisticated publishing tools such as Storyline or Captivate. 

To develop this course, I started with identifying the main topics that learners would need to know to start a recording or stream. These main topics became the modules for me course. I then broke down those modules into lesson segments that could be covered in a handful of slides/blocks. The goal would be to have the learner be able to choose which lessons are most applicable to their learning needs, so balancing the length and depth of each lesson was critical. I also wanted to use as many visuals as possible, so learners could match the lesson with what they see on their computer. Even still, I ended up with a very text-heavy course due to the technical vocabulary and aiming to be as descriptive as possible. Including the video tutorial* option is important for supplementing the large amount of text. WIth this in mind I carefully story-boarded the lessons and built the course

*Video Elements are still in progress of scripting and recording

Results are still being compiled, but the initial response from learners is promising. I will include a report from those who have successfully used OBS from my training once that information becomes available. In particular, a feedback survey for the end of the course is in development to measure the success of the course.

The Course is still a work-in-progress. Since I am using the SAM model of development, I am still gathering and implementing feedback to improve the course.  Additionally, there are a few tools I have discovered within Rise that may be incorporated into future iterations.