How to Edit Course Videos Using DaVinci Resolve (Free)

Go to blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve and download the free version (not DaVinci Resolve Studio, which costs $295). The installer is large — around 2–3 GB depending on your platform — so give it time. During installation on Windows, it'll offer to install several components; accept the defaults. On macOS, it's a standard drag-to-Applications install. When you first launch Resolve, it'll ask you to create a project database. Accept the default local database and create a new project.

When Resolve opens, you'll see a row of page icons at the bottom: Media, Cut, Edit, Fusion, Color, Fairlight, and Deliver. Click Cut. This is critical.

The Cut page was introduced in Resolve 16 specifically for fast, straightforward editing. It shows a simplified timeline, a source viewer, and a media pool — everything you need to trim clips, reorder them, and add basic transitions. The Edit page offers a full multi-track timeline with layers, keyframes, and advanced trimming modes. You don't need any of that for course videos. The Cut page handles the vast majority of what you want to do, with far fewer controls to learn.

In the Cut page, find the Media Pool at the top left. You can drag video files directly from your file manager into the Media Pool, or right-click in the pool and select "Import Media." Resolve supports most common formats: MP4, MOV, MKV, and more. If you recorded with OBS, Loom, or your phone's camera, the files will import without conversion.

Create a folder (called a "bin" in Resolve) for each lesson if you're editing multiple videos in one session. Right-click in the Media Pool and select "New Bin." Name it after the lesson. This keeps your project organized, especially when you're batch-editing several recordings.

Drag a clip from the Media Pool onto the timeline at the bottom of the Cut page. The playhead (the vertical red line) shows your current position. Play through the clip and find the parts you want to keep.

To remove a section — a false start, a long pause, or a tangent — position the playhead where the bad section begins and press Ctrl+B (or Cmd+B on Mac) to split the clip. Move the playhead to where the bad section ends and split again. Click the unwanted segment and press Delete. The remaining clips snap together automatically. This "split and delete" method is the core of course video editing. You'll use it constantly.

For most course videos, a simple cut between clips is fine. Students are watching for your content, not your editing. If you do want a smooth transition between sections — for example, between your intro and the first topic — click on the join point between two clips in the timeline, then open the Transitions panel. Drag a cross-dissolve onto the join point.

Keep transitions short (0.5–1 second) and consistent. Using the same transition throughout a lesson looks intentional. Mixing five different transition styles looks like you just discovered the transitions panel.

Go to the Titles panel in the Cut page (the "T" icon). Drag a "Text" title onto the timeline above your video clip. Double-click the title to open the Inspector panel, where you can change the text content, font, size, position, and duration.

For course videos, titles serve two practical purposes: displaying the lesson title at the beginning, and showing key terms or steps during your explanation. A large, clean sans-serif font at 60–80pt works well for lesson titles. For on-screen labels during content, 36–48pt with a subtle drop shadow ensures readability over video. You don't need animated lower thirds or motion graphics — clear, static text communicates just as well.

Audio quality matters more than video quality for course content. If students struggle to hear you, they'll stop watching regardless of how good your visuals are.

In the Cut page, adjust audio directly on the timeline by clicking the audio waveform beneath your video clip and dragging the volume line up or down. Aim for your voice to peak around -6 dB to -3 dB on the audio meters. This leaves headroom so your audio is loud enough to hear clearly without clipping on students' speakers or headphones.

If you hear background noise and want to reduce it, the Fairlight page has dedicated noise reduction tools. But for basic course videos, adjusting overall volume on the Cut page timeline is usually sufficient.

Click the Deliver page (the rocket icon at the bottom). Under "Render Settings," select the YouTube preset — not because you're uploading to YouTube, but because this preset outputs a widely compatible H.264 MP4 file at a reasonable file size. Set the resolution to 1920x1080 (1080p).

Choose a destination folder, name your file with the lesson number and title (for example,03-setting-up-your-workspace.mp4), and click "Add to Render Queue." Then click "Render All." A 10-minute lesson at 1080p typically takes a few minutes to render, depending on your hardware.

Resolve's Edit page is tempting — it shows a more traditional multi-track timeline with finer control. Resist the pull unless you have a specific reason to be there. The Cut page handles trimming, transitions, titles, and basic audio. That covers 95% of course video editing. Every minute you spend learning the Edit page is a minute you're not recording or teaching.

After you edit your first lesson, save the project settings — resolution, frame rate, audio settings, export preset — as a template. In Resolve, you can duplicate a project from the Project Manager (right-click the project tile). For your next lesson, open the duplicate, clear the timeline, and import new footage. All your settings carry over. This eliminates the "how did I set this up last time?" problem when you sit down to edit lesson five.

If you recorded three or four lessons in a row, create bins in the Media Pool for each lesson and edit them sequentially in the same project. Use the Deliver page to queue all of them for export at once. Batch editing keeps you in the editing mindset instead of context-switching, and queued rendering means you can walk away while Resolve processes every file.

Even the Cut page — the simplified interface — takes time to learn if you've never used professional editing software. If you're creating your first course and want to focus your energy on content rather than tools, a simpler editor will serve you better in the short term.

Resolve wants a discrete GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and a modern processor. If your computer is older or lower-spec, you may experience sluggish playback or long export times. On the same hardware, lighter editors like iMovie or CapCut will run more smoothly.

Honestly, if you're trimming recordings, adding a title card, and adjusting audio, you're using perhaps 5% of what Resolve can do. That's fine — you're not paying for the other 95% — but it means you're navigating a complex interface to do simple things. If you find yourself spending more time learning the editor than editing your lessons, step back and consider whether a simpler tool would let you ship your course faster.