Building Educational Videos for YouTube That Work

Everyone has something valuable to teach. The world needs more people sharing what they know. So don't wait until you feel experienced enough or have enough figured out. Just start.

You will learn along the way. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. Today we're traveling around the world a little bit. We're going over to Oslo, Norway, to talk to Time Dawood, who is going to be here today to talk to us a little bit about the growth that he's had in his channel, the.

The things that he's doing as a creator on YouTube. And we'll share some of the experiences that we had at Tres, the Tromso Educational Film Festival that I was just at. So with that said, we got an exciting show today. Welcome to.

Glad that you're here. Glad that you're listening. I'd like to welcome Time Dawood to the Visual Lounge. Hey, Time.

Hello. Thank you for having me and I. And let's just clear the air. I know there's Time, you get time, you get tame, you get all sorts of names, but I heard in Time is Norwegian enough, so we'll go with it.

Absolutely. All the versions are perfectly fine as well. Well, we're. I'm so glad that you're here and it was so wonderful to.

To actually get to meet you in person because, you know, I talk to a lot of people on the show and some of them I know in person, but you and I are in very different parts of the world and it was just an awesome experience to get to. To see you, but also to hear you get to present your. One of your videos at the Tromso Educational Film Festival. Absolutely.

It was like, I haven't been in that city either, in Tromso. Beautiful city, beautiful mountains as well. It was nice seeing you as well. I presented my video about sepsis in that educational film festival and of course hosted.

You presented me as well to the scene. Yeah. Well, let's. Before we get too far into it, let's remind people of a little bit of your journey because you've got a unique journey and you're doing, I think, unique topic for a YouTube creator because we often think about people doing entertainment or maybe they're doing a podcast technology, but tell us a little bit about your background and introduction to becoming a creator.

So I did talk a little bit about, like the last time we had a podcast, but my journey into content creation and education was very like, it was very coincidential, if I can say, like that I started medicine in the first Semester. I, I do have a slight dyslexia. So I had a hard time like studying different subjects in the first semester of medical school. So what I did was I tried to find like different ways of studying and one way led to another.

Like I ended up like trying making simple presentations on PowerPoint and just like recording my voice. Didn't have any equipments or anything so. And you know the easiest way to re listen to those re recorded lessons is through just uploading it to YouTube and just like listen to it when you're in the bus or train or something. I would do that before the class and I just like would listen to the video a couple of times before the class so that I'm ready for the class.

And I just continued this way. So one topic after another. I just started making those lectures and people started commenting and saying that these lectures were helpful. So I just started like uploading it to YouTube and people started commenting saying how helpful they were.

And yeah, so I just continued throughout medical school. I thought it was like a nice hobby and I genuinely felt nice doing like helping people if it makes sense. So yeah, I just like continued throughout medical school and I was in 12th semester, graduated medicine and got started with working as a medical doctor at the hospital. And funny enough, I thought about quitting YouTube and just focusing on medicine, just focusing on the clinical aspect of medicine, just specializing in and forgetting about YouTube, you know, because it was always like just a hobby.

And then, you know, faith has a weird way of just showing up in your life in some way or another. But I got burned out and I was forced to take a break from medicine and which led me just to focus. I thought let me just see where this can go. Let me just grow YouTube.

Grow the educational. What? I started anatomy and I just pushed that part. I just tried to finish the whole all the topics in anatomy.

I just tried to see what more can I do. Maybe I can like make written notes of those videos. And I just did that and the YouTube just grew from there and now it's my full time job and I'm happy I can help people learn or get through their exams and pass their exams with ease. I love this story because I think this speaks to that natural power that video has.

I think a lot of people know that there's a lot of things that video can do. It's good for a lot of things. It's not good for everything. But I love your story because you were someone who was trying to figure this out for yourself.

You're trying to learn. That was your goal. Just you wanted to learn. And it was.

Video became the kind of the mechanism to help you to do that. Even though it wasn't about watching the video, it was about making the video. You know, often we learn a lot when we have to teach something. So I just.

I love your story because it is just such a great example. And then to see that you've gone from, you know, like, just kind of random uploads to where are we at now? Are we almost 400,000 subscribers on your channel? Almost 400, yeah.

Okay, so we need a few more people to go out and subscribe, and we'll get that. So in this process, what do you think have been some of the biggest lessons for you to be, you know, being a medical doctor is impressive enough, but to become a creator, like, what. What lessons have you learned that you think, gosh, if I'd only known towards the beginning, it would have maybe made your life a little easier. You would have been maybe able to make better videos out of the, you know, earlier, earlier on.

You make great videos. Your septus video is a great example of really good work. But what advice would you give? Well, I've learned a lot of things.

It was like, it's a journey that never. That always, like, feeds you with knowledge, kind of. And when I started, I didn't have, like, any knowledge on video editing or making lectures or anything, right? Or even medicine.

Like, I was a medical student the first semester. So one thing that I learned was how to make presentations, how to animate. Then I learned how to video record, how to record, like, myself and the camera and then a little bit how to edit, and just, like, kept growing in that knowledge. And you just, like, try to find different ways of presenting, find different ways of making your, like, your process easier as well.

One thing I learned, like, like through the journey is I wish that I had outsourced video editing quite early, because video editing, don't get me wrong, it's quite fun. And using the video editing program Camtasia is quite like. It makes your life easier as well, because it has a lot of, like, it's structured in a way that's very easy for people like me who have never, like, edited before. But I am not a video editor.

I am. My profession is like, it's in. Within the medical field. And so I enjoy the most when I make the presentations, when I do the research behind every video, when I, like, do the medical aspect of the videos.

But then when I start, like, video editing and stuff, I Noticed that the process becomes slower. So if I had outsourced the video editing quite early, I pretty sure I would finish quite a lot of videos, like to the States. So that's like one thing I would change had I could do anything differently. It was a.

Would be outsourcing the video editing. But yeah, doing everything yourself is also a journey because you learn a lot. Yeah. My guess is you learn kind of what you like, your style, so that you can then communicate.

But I'm curious for you as you look at, like, I mean, you know, I think when I talk to you, I get the impression that you're kind of surprised at what's happened. Right. That, you know, almost 400,000 people. Yeah.

Have subscribed to your channel. They're. They're really the comments you said, you mentioned. You get comments from all over the world, which is amazing.

What do you think resonates about your videos with people that maybe is different than what else is out there? Because it does seem like there's always a variety of people who do content, but, like, is it just the topics that you're covering or is there something else about what you think? And I know this is probably a very. You're a very humble person, and this is a question that's asking you to pull yourselves out of that humility a little bit.

But I am curious about what you think really connect, why your videos connect so well with your audience. Well, also, that's one thing I had to like, think about. Why did my channel, out of like all. All the other channels that do medicine, to teach medicine as well?

Why. Why did my channel, like, reach a lot of people? And I think one thing that I came to figure out was that the way I teach, like, the visual aspect of teaching resonates with the majority of people studying medicine. Especially, like, the subject is anatomy.

And anatomy is like, it's meant to be taught visually. It's meant to be taught like hands on. On a cadaver visually. It's not meant to like, only be teach like just reading text.

So I think that's one thing that helped the channel as well grow because there's a lot of like, visuals. I only show like, organs and different in different views. And like this is the liver from behind, this is from below, this is from in front. So it's as if you are holding the organ yourself and kind of studying it.

That's one thing. The other thing I think, like, you have to find a unique style and keep consistent with that style. So one of the lectures I have Like, I started with, like, black background and just showing the figures, and I just kept. Kept that style throughout all my videos.

Of course, you do try to upgrade. You do try to learn better ways to present, but you just keep that, that same style consistent throughout your videos. And that makes the viewer like they already. They can foresee what type of quality or what type of lecture they will be receiving when they click on your videos.

And that's also one thing that I think helped the channel grow as well, that people recognize already how your lectures are. So that's. That's two things I think were the main reason why my channel kind of grew the way it did. But, yeah, of course, it may be like a lot of other reasons as well.

Of course, we don't know what's behind all the reasons. People will choose one thing over another. But I'm curious, because a lot of people who listen to this podcast are not YouTube creators. They're creating content for their university or their organization, maybe for their customers even.

And I'm curious because you're teaching a subject, like I said, one. It's very. Anatomy is very visual, but it's also incredibly complex. It's.

You know, I've never taken an anatomy class, but I'm. I, I've looked a little bit, and I know it is. There's a lot going on with any system that you might be presenting, and there's a lot of nuance and there's obviously a lot of vocabulary. So we're talking about things that are fairly complex here.

But when I've looked at your videos, and particularly the sepsis and septic shock video that we screened at the Tromso Educational Film Fest was. You do have a way of breaking it down in kind of a. To a very. I don't, I don't want to say simple because I don't want to downplay what you're doing, but you make it feel like this is a very approachable topic.

What advice can you give us about how you do that? And it sounds like you said something earlier that I'm kind of keying in on is that you're not really a video guy. You're the guy that's like, I want to research and understand and learn everything, and then you want to share it. So that might.

Seems like maybe it's part of the answer, but what would you say about. Again, how do you go to break about breaking down and approaching things so it could be simple? And is there lessons for the rest of us mere mortals? Well, I.

One thing That I always, like, noticed when I was sitting in the lecture and I had a problem with at universities was that when I listened to a lecture, I always sat there like, but why does this happen? Or why is this structure relevant? And then the lecturer would just go on and talk about the next one, and this is how the disease is, and this is how the disease is treated, and the next one. And then while he's continuing the lecture, I would go back and still, like, have these questions in my mind.

Why do you use this medicine? Or why do you would. Like, those are the things that I feel are the gaps that I feel are missing within lectures. So, for example, you watched the sepsis video, which was presented.

And, And I tried to. I, first off, I tried to make like a proper outline. Like, what is the most logical way to start? Well, that is what is sepsis?

Right. And what is the definition of sepsis? Like, the international definition of sepsis? What causes sepsis?

What are the symptoms? Those are the things that I think is very important to know in the beginning. And then as a medical student or as a doctor, like, how in depth would you want the symptoms to be presented? Like, one of the symptoms of sepsis are hypotension, like low blood pressure.

Why does sepsis cause low blood pressure? Show it like, you know, show it like what happens in the body. Like, show all the steps that happens from the beginning to end so that you don't. You fill those gaps and then keep that consistent.

Keep that consistent. And before going on to the next section of the. Of teaching, for example, treatments, try to, like, lead one topic into the next one by saying, like saying all the symptoms and then saying, okay, so these are the symptoms. Let us see how we treat each of those symptoms.

And you do that by doing this. So you kind of lead into the next topic. And I think that way of teaching is like, you give those. I don't know if they say it in English, but there's something called red thread.

Is this something you say in English? Yeah, consistent, kind of. You tie everything together. So, like, I'm not saying, like, it's just the way I wish someone had taught me when I was in medical school, when I was studying biomedical science and medicine and also before that in high school.

And so I just. This, that's the thing I try to keep consistent also throughout my videos is just fill those gaps. Yeah, Well, I appreciate. One thing you said that I think resonated with me was particularly the show.

Right. It sounds like you want to make sure that It's a video. Being a visual medium, you want to show the impact. You want to show the outcome.

You want to show the thing, not just say the thing. And I'm sure there's some amount of. You. You just got to say things.

You can't always show every little thing. But that seems like that's a really powerful piece of what you're able to do, particularly in a complex subject topic like anatomy or just medicine in general. The next question I have for you is, like, I feel like the other challenge I see inside of people making videos is they want to include everything. And it sounds like you are kind of catering to that idea, like, hey, let's fill all the gaps that we can.

But is there a point where there's too much information? Do you ever run up against that? Absolutely. Absolutely.

And I had this problem recently, actually, because when I was a student, I tried to stick only to that topic. But then after I graduated, I started like, you know, I'm not saying that I'm like, I just. I have been through every subject in medicine, and so you see things in a little more holistic way. So what is the.

What is the relevance of this structure? So I was talking, for example, about the. The ear, the inner ear, or the. Let's say, for example, the tongue, the gustation, the sense of taste, because the gustatory organ is an anatomical organ, right.

But at the same time, it's more physiological. So that's when I thought, okay, should I make the video, like, seven, eight minutes long and just talk about the tongue? Or should I talk about. Or should I fill in the gaps and talk about everything related to this?

And so I started, like, okay, I started scripting, okay, this is how the tongue is anatomically. This is how the tongue works. And then I started thinking, okay, but why does it work like that? And then I started going into a rabbit hole of textbooks to research articles because there's been so much new information about the taste and taste perception and cells that I just started, like, going into this rabbit hole and just, like, it started including all the new research, everything.

And the video actually went from being eight, eight minutes long to, I think, 29 or 28 minutes long. And I noticed this was too much. And so. So, yeah, that's.

That's one thing that I. That I learned quickly after that video, when I started re. Watching it, was that I really need to dial down the. The.

The other, like, the extra stuff kind of. Well, it's a time. Time and place thing, right? Like, you got to.

Right Time, right place, right. Right topic. It does. The other thing I'm hearing you say that I think is really interesting and fascinating to me is you said why a lot.

Like, why is this? Why is that? And I know, like, they're in, in business, there's, you know, kind of the process of asking five whys or whatever, but. But it feels like that becomes a key piece of how you're determining and thinking about your, your subject matter.

Is like, why is something like this? Why is it this way? Why? And.

But that's. Is that. Is that something you would say is a key piece of good video creation for you? I think, yeah, it is.

Especially when you're teaching. It depends on what type of style you're doing, kind of. But if you animate a lot, if you try to show the process as my videos are doing, asking why just fills those. It helps you with the next animation if it makes sense because you're able to animate the whole thing correctly by just asking why and going into details.

So I would say, yeah, asking why. Also it makes it easier to learn kind of the topic. Yeah, absolutely. So at Tref, you were given an award.

Congratulations. The Open Education Award, which I think is well deserved. But this is an award that's given to someone who makes their content available for, for free to view. And obviously there's, you know, YouTube in of itself as a creator.

There's a whole business side of it too. But for you, why has it been so important to be able to make sure those videos that you're making are freely available to people and not just, you know, maybe, maybe behind. Just you could put them behind a paywall or Patreon, and maybe you do some of that too. But I'm curious about, like, why.

What's the impetus for that in terms of beyond just. I know you started how you started. You told us how you started. But is there a reason why you continue to kind of just keep publishing freely?

It is, yeah. And I think most business, business people is going to look down at this idea, but I am very, I'm very for that. Education should be free learning. If, if you want to learn something, that process should be free.

It shouldn't be behind the paywall. Everyone should have access to learning and learning medicine as well. I think that aspect is very important. So when I started, I never went into creating those lectures with the mindset of earning money from them.

I always wanted to make this free kind of, and I just continued that way. I just, like, I want every, every lecture to remain Free so that everyone kind of is accessible for everyone. So, yeah, it's now, recently, while I'm recently, now that I'm doing this full time, there is kind of a little like, for example, like extra stuff that is behind a paywall. For example, the written parts of those videos or extra quizzes or exams, of course.

But the main parts of the, of what I do will always remain free forever and ever. Yeah, well, I love that. And look, we're not going to slight you for trying to eat and have an income. But I love that thinking though, that education is so valuable and you're putting it out for everybody to have an opportunity to learn.

Let me ask you this because we are getting close to time where we'll want to wrap up here. But I'm curious. You got to sit through watching. I think we screened 25 different presentations.

And I know, you know, like you don't see all of them because, you know, different conversations, things that happen at those events. But from you, as you watch these, these educational videos, people who are doing things very differently from you. Was there anything that you took away from the film festival that you thought, oh, that was super helpful for you as a creator? I think for the one, like one thing, when I listened to the name educational Film festival, I thought it was going to be like a lot of lectures.

And then I started watching these short, like these filmmakers present their movie and they have all have their own way of delivering a message. And I think that's what teaching is. It's delivering a message, whatever it is. And I quickly realized that there's so many different ways to do this and people, there's so many like talented people out there and everyone have their own, of their own way of sharing their knowledge.

And this was so beautiful to see. That's why I think like more people, everyone should like explore at least. How do I. What is my way of teaching?

Because I think your way of teaching maybe resonates with somebody else and so on. So, yeah, that's. I was really impressed by all the people that share the knowledge through those movies. You know, I, I will echo what you said.

I was so impressed by some, like, some of them were like moving like, oh my gosh, kind of touched really just pulled at your heart. Others were so informative. So yeah, it was all different styles. So I'll echo what you said.

I think that was, that was an impressive thing for that organization to pull together to, you know, to bring for us so. Well, time as we, as we get ready to wrap up here Is there any last pieces of wisdom or advice? So if someone's out there saying, you know, I've got this subject matter and expertise and I would love more people to know about whatever topic it is, you know, I think we were joking around at the beginning show. You know, if you're an economics professor, maybe you're an instructional designer and you're teaching people a methodology or whatever, is there advice you'd give to someone who's like on the fence about trying this or doing this?

It is. If there's one piece of advice I would give is this. Everyone has something valuable to teach. The world needs more people sharing what they know.

So one valuable tips I could give is don't wait until you feel experienced enough or have enough figured out. Just start. You will learn along the way. And honestly, I would especially encourage people in the medical field to do the same.

There's still so much space in online medication education for different teaching styles, perspective and ways of explaining things. So yeah, that's the advice I would give at least. I love it and I think it's well earned and well given advice. Well, time as we wrap up.

You've obviously got some projects you've been working on. We were talking about. If people want to learn from you, they want to connect with you, you want to share something with them that you think would be valuable, where can they find that? Well, I do read every comment that is applied that is commented on YouTube, so definitely check out the YouTube channel, write some comments.

I do read every comment even though I'm not able to respond to every comment otherwise. I'm always available on Instagram if you feel free to, to leave a message there or also on the website, if you go into the website and then contact. And then I do read that email as well. So yeah, well, and you're being humble again.

But you are working on a book. Can we talk about that? Of course. So give it, give us a, give us the 22nd pitch.

What's your book that you're working on and how do we pre order if we can? Well, taking all my experience, I would say 10 years of experience now in teaching medicine, I collected all that knowledge and I'm now compiling a visual textbook that is made to make anatomy very, very easy to understand. And so I'm working on this textbook and it will be available on my websites and I will put some information out there on how to pre order and how to order it as well when it's done.

So hopefully this, this textbook will help a lot of people that it will be focusing on teaching everything detailed and also visual. Yeah, I. Well, I love that and I think it's worth noting because this is, you know, I think it speaks to who you are as a person. Again about willing to share that knowledge and, and everybody who's listening to this.

It's not just a 30 pager or 100 pager. It's going to be a tome. It's going to be a textbook book. It's going to be awesome textbook, 900,000 pages.

Not sure yet, but around there. We can't wait to see it. I'm also confident that it's going to be a beautifully done so. Well, Tim, as we like to wrap up every show, we always ask our guests for a final take and you kind of given us one, but is there maybe there's another one you'd like to give?

So time. What is your final take? Well, there's. I did say it in the beginning.

I think I will repeat it because it's so important is that everyone has something valuable to teach. The world needs more people sharing what they know. So don't wait until you feel experienced enough or have enough figured out. Just start and you know you will learn along the way.

Yeah. And do try to teach online. Try to put those lectures out for free. Trust me, you'll get so much back when you do that.

I love it. Well, time, thank you for joining me in the visual Lounge. Thank you so much, Matt. Appreciate that.

All right, everybody, we've got all the links below. We're going to put the sepsis video, we're going to put links to Time's website and all that stuff so you can go out and watch his great work. I love what he's talking about here is that everyone has something to teach. And if you're working inside an organization, you're trying to help your customers, trying to help your staff, that's things that you can help them to learn and grow on.

And his message about asking the why and showing are really powerful methodologies that you can use when you're making those Camtasia videos or whatever videos that you're making. And I'd encourage you that as you're learning, get out there and try it, try some things out, experiment. Because as you do that, you're going to learn more and more about what works and what doesn't work. And don't worry about the what doesn't work too much because we all have stuff that we try that doesn't work.

And it's okay. You can you can try again the next time, and it's gonna get better and better every single time. With that said, we like to end the show the same way every single time. We want you to get better at what you're doing.

We want you to get better at using video, images, media to help encourage others to learn the things that you're teaching about. And we hope you take a little time to level up every single day. Thanks, everybody.