Becoming a MicroCourse Mentor 

Within Virtuosa Society’s membership offerings is a library of MicroCourses, which consists of “bite-sized” (less than one hour in total length) courses lead by a variety of Virtuosas with extensive experience in their creative field of focus (vocational or avocational). We encourage Mentors to hone in on a topic that they have no less than 3 years of concentrated experience in. Competence = Confidence, and we want Mentors to create courses with confidence stemming from the kind of experience and knowledge that is grounded that one can only get from putting in the work and seeing the results. 

Katie’s course, “Find Your Voice: Vocal Techniques to Cultivate Authentic Self-Expression in Any Area” (or just “Find Your Voice” for short) is an example of the format of a MicroCourse:

• An introduction, summarizing the topic and letting the member know a bit more about you and why you are addressing this topic.
• 3-5 lessons, breaking down the specific learning points. As you’ll see in Katie’s lessons, she broke them up into 2 parts each (the technique and the application). You are free to break up the lessons into smaller sections or maintain one block of material for each lesson. It is completely up to your topic, content and creativity!
• A closing summary to wrap up the important points and offer words of encouragement.

 Click on this link to view Katie's "Find Your Voice" MicroCourse.

The point of MicroCourses is to remove the barriers of needing a professional team or thousands of dollars in production equipment to film or even professional hair/makeup/wardrobe to share vital information in a video. You do not need any of those things to film your MicroCourse!

There are two great ways to film your course, based on whether you want to be on camera or not. We break down the specifics for each option (*see "ON CAMERA SETUP" & "SLIDES + VOICEOVER SETUP" below), but here is what you will need first before pursuing a particular setup:

• A clear and concise outline of your topic. Draw from what you know so well that you could shout it easily from the rooftops. It’s that kind of knowledge that you can clarify in such a way that it can become those “bite-sized” chunks of material.

• A clear sense of timing. All of your material needs to be no less than 30-min in length and no more than 1-hour when spoken aloud. For example, if you divide up an hour-long MicroCourse into the 5 primary sections aforementioned (into, 3 lessons, closing summary), it times out to be around 12 minutes per section. If you add more lessons, the amount of time for each lesson will just have to be reduced… and so on. The same math can be applied for the total length of time you desire. Simply divide the total time you hope to stay within by the number of sections your material needs. (Pro tip: the shorter your total length, the fewer lesson sections you should have - no less than 3 and no more than 6. 
• For those who want more than an outline: write a script! Pro tip: run your outline through ChatGPT and ask it to help you craft your outline into an “online course video script that is less than one hour in length” – it can be enormously helpful in synthesizing your materials and helping you craft a way to say it on camera that resonates with the member watching.

Here’s what you’d need for an on-camera setup:

• A camera. Your cell phone will absolutely do the job! Be sure to film horizontally rather than vertically – and make sure you’re looking at the correct lens when you film. Here is a good tutorial on where to look when you’re filming horizontally on a cell phone. If you're filming on a laptop, make sure to look at the center camera "dot" at the top of your screen. Easy, whew! Not so much with the cell, oof.

• A teleprompter app. Yes! Such a great tool – and most are free. Simply upload your script and away you go. Some apps will film you and run the teleprompter at the same time. Magic! But if you're filming with a camera separate from your teleprompter (i.e.: your cell is filming while your laptop is running the teleprompter) remember to take note of where you’re looking when reading your script. Apps like VEED will actually do eye contact correction for you – as you’re filming! – if you’re having a hard time both reading the script/teleprompter and self-filming. BUT if you’re not using a script, you can simply tape your outline below the lens to remind you where to look when filming!

• A tripod or something to prop your camera up to a height where we can see the however much of your body is necessary for communicating your material. If you’re demonstrating a dance technique or a painting technique, make sure that the camera can see enough of what you’re doing clearly. In that case, it’s enormously helpful to ask someone to help film for you (a friend or partner, or someone who’ll work for chocolate, etc) so they can capture the angles that showcase you and what you’re teaching well.

• A quiet, well-lit space to film. The objective is for you to feel comfortable while filming. Feel free to use a ring or cube light if you need more lighting in a darker space, or film with you face/body looking toward a natural light-source, such as a window. Make sure that if you’re facing a window though, the camera will need to be facing at you (not at the window).

Gentle reminder: it's the quality of your material and your what you're expressing as a Mentor that matters most, NOT the production quality of your video. There is no need to stress about whether it does or doesn't look "professionally filmed" - we're all about information sharing > judgement!! If your dog, cat, 5 year old child, 90 yr old mum, or friendly neighbor wonders thru the background, oh well! Embrace the beauty of where you are and release into sharing openly.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• If you love a good PowerPoint or digital graphics presentation, this is your jam!

• Prepare your materials into the digital presentation of your choice and then screen-record as you talk through/deliver your presentation. This will capture your voice and the screen, rather than you on-camera.

• A quiet space to record, so your audio doesn’t get muffled.

Terrific! We encourage you to present and capture your MicroCourse in any way that is most authentic to YOU, your creativity and your material. We are always craving to learn new, beautiful ways to connect with others via a digital platform.

Once you’ve completed your filming, please do some simple editing (very simple, nothing too fancy) to ensure you’re uploading just the materials you want Virtuosa Society to use. (i.e.: Make sure there isn’t five extra minutes of you adjusting the camera still attached to the footage, for example.) You can easily trim video footage in your camera settings or with an app like CapCut.

Don’t worry about trimming the video into smaller sections though, we’ll do that for you! And our MicroCourse video editor will make sure it all looks terrific when it’s loaded into the MicroCourse Library. Chef's kiss!

Just upload your full video into Dropbox or Google Drive and share the link with us via a form that you’ll receive when you’re done creating your MicroCourse. Upon submitting your sign-up, you'll receive an email automatically with the download form. Save the email so you can return back to it when you're ready to submit materials.

We recommend not procrastinating when making your video. When the inspiration to sign-up as a Mentor strikes and and you push "Submit" below, make a plan based on your best availability to write your outline, film and download it back to us within three weeks. From personal experience, waiting for a longer period of time just perpetuates overthink, and overthink is a close cousin of perfectionism, and perfectionism is the enemy of productivity. Eek!

You have the knowledge. You have the skills. You possess everything you need to help someone else with that knowledge and those skills!