Teachable can support almost any type of content you can imagine, from PDFs to screencasts to video to quizzes and beyond. Unfortunately, this abundance of choice can be paralyzing for new course creators. You may feel unsure about choosing which content types make the most sense for each of your lessons, and you may also be confused about how to create your content once you have a plan.

In this lesson, you're going to get guidelines for choosing the perfect content type for every lesson before you start creating them. After you have a deep understanding of your options when it comes to content types and you know exactly how to use them best, you'll be ready to dive deeper on each content type and learn how to create them yourself. There are five basic content types we want to cover: text & photo, PDFs & downloadables, slide decks, screencasts, and video. You'll also learn about a few bonus content types you can use to spice things up.

Text & photo lessons are the easiest to create, since they take no advanced skills and can be built entirely in Teachable. A text & photo lesson is exactly what it sounds like. You use a combination of text and photos or graphics to walk students through a particular concept. If you think about any informative blog posts you've read, a lot of these are very similar to Text & photo lessons. These are best used for simple concepts, or lessons that can be demonstrated with a photo or visual. In Karla's course, a great example of a Text & photo lesson is her section about Prepping your kitchen. Karla took a few photos of her kitchen supplies and then used text to describe all of the tools, and even provide links to purchase the necessary supplies. Text & photo content is a great place to start, but a lot of us don't necessarily learn best by reading. If your lesson has more than one step, or if you have a lot of content to share at once, you may be better off with another content type.

Next up, let's talk about PDFs and other downloads. Downloadables—like PDFs, spreadsheets, and other documents—are great. If your course has a workbook, a cheat sheet, or resource material that you want students to easily reference, you may want to make it available for download. In our Teachable courses, we often use PDFs as complementary material to video or screencast lectures to remind students of key points or takeaways. The course workbook for ACAD3 - COURSE NAME is a great example of a downloadable. In Karla's Cookies, Karla includes a few PDF recipes that she shares with students. PDFs can stand alone from your course as valuable pieces of content, and, in fact, you may end up using some of these downloadables in multiple ways, such as including them in marketing materials. Although downloadables are great for workbooks or resource guides, they aren't necessarily the best content type for complex subjects, where students need a step-by-step walkthrough, or the how and why of a particular topic.

So what can you use when students need a little more guidance? Slides are a great tool you can use to walk students through your material one step at a time. They can visually emphasize key points, and are a great way to support your presentation. We've had some instructors use slide decks as downloadable content, but we've found that these are hard for students to process without instruction. If you're looking for something students can download, we typically recommend a PDF or other document, while slides are a better fit as visual support for a presentation, which could include either a screencast or a video.

That brings us to a dynamic duo of online course creation: screencasting and video. These are our favorite content types here at Teachable, and I'm going to walk you through each to compare and contrast your options. First up, let's talk about screencasting. Screencasting, or screen recording, means that you're recording whatever you see on your own computer screen. Often, when screencasting, you'll also include an audio voiceover, which you can record at the same time or after you have the video recorded. You can use screencasting to record yourself speaking alongside a slide deck presentation, or you can also record yourself doing a demo of something on your computer, like teaching someone how to use InDesign while watching you use InDesign. There are some major benefits to screencasting. Not only are screencasts easy to record using free software, but these simple videos are a great way for you to directly teach your students without being on camera yourself, something that we know can be intimidating. Although screencasting is a great way to educate students on a concept or a tool, it's not ideal for demonstrating anything physical, like crafting or building, and it isn't quite as personal as teaching directly to the camera, where you can make virtual eye contact and students can see you gesturing and, well, being human.

This is where recorded video comes in, and although we love screencasting, video is our #1 favorite content type for course creators. Video lets you speak directly to your customers, and as extremely visual creatures, it's been proven that humans retain information best when it's been presented visually. Think about how many hours we spend watching TV and video compared to reading blogs or articles. We're captivated by moving pictures, and as course creators, we want to make sure our content is as engaging as possible. Video is a great content choice, but there are times when Text & photo might be better, like when there is too much information to recite on video. Sometimes PDF is a better fit if you want students to have easy reference material or their own worksheet. There are also times where you'll want to demo something on your computer, and in those cases, slide decks or screencasts might be a better choice.

There are additional bonus content types, like quizzes, comments, and a few others like audio, surveys, and even communities. There's no such thing as a perfect content type for every case, but this set of tools should cover almost every lesson you and your students will need.

Before you dive into creating your amazing content, you first need to do a little planning. Look through your course outline and see which content types would be a best fit for each lesson. Some lessons may need just one content type, like a screencast, but others may need two, like a video with a companion PDF workbook. I encourage you to use video or screencasting whenever possible, but if there are specific lessons that don't need more than text & photo, it's a great idea to simplify!