How to Record Course Lessons Using Tella

Open Tella in your browser or desktop app and click "New Video." You'll see a recorder interface with options for your camera, microphone, and what you want to capture. Grant camera and microphone permissions if this is your first time. Tella also has a Chrome extension if you prefer to record from a browser tab, though the desktop app gives you more layout flexibility.

Tella offers over a dozen layout presets that determine how your webcam and content appear together. The three most useful for course lessons:

• Slides + webcam — your slides fill most of the frame with your face in a smaller window. Best for concept-heavy lessons where the visuals carry the teaching.
• Screen + webcam — your screen recording is primary with your webcam overlaid or beside it. Best for software demos and walk-throughs.
• Webcam only — full-frame camera, no screen content. Best for introductions, reflections, or any lesson where you're speaking directly to students.

Because Tella captures each source as a separate stream, you can change layouts after recording. So don't spend too long deciding here — pick what feels right and adjust later.

If you're teaching from slides, you can import a PDF directly into Tella rather than screen-sharing a presentation app. This keeps your slides crisp and gives Tella full control over how they display. Click the "Slides" option in the recorder and upload your file. You'll advance slides manually during recording using arrow keys or the on-screen controls.

If your lesson involves demonstrating software, choose the screen share option instead. You can share your entire screen or a single browser tab. Sharing a single tab keeps notifications and other windows from appearing in your recording.

Press "Start recording." You'll get a three-second countdown. Then teach. Speak at your normal pace. If you stumble over a phrase, pause briefly and say it again — Tella's mistake detection can find the duplicate later. If you need to collect your thoughts, just pause. The silence removal tool will handle dead air in post-production.

You can also record in clips. Instead of one continuous take, record your introduction, pause, record the main explanation, pause, record the summary. Tella stitches these clips together in the editor. This approach works well if your lesson has distinct sections and you want a mental reset between them.

After you stop recording, Tella opens your video in its editor. Start with the AI cleanup tools. Silence removal offers three intensities:

• Natural — removes long pauses but keeps the rhythm conversational
• Fast — tightens gaps more aggressively, good for information-dense lessons
• Faster — removes nearly all dead space, useful for short tutorials

For most course lessons, Natural or Fast works well. Faster can make your delivery feel rushed if the lesson involves concepts students need time to absorb.

Next, run mistake detection. Tella analyzes your transcript and highlights repeated phrases — places where you said something, paused, and said it again. Review each suggestion and accept or dismiss it. You can also use the transcript editor to find and remove filler words like "um" and "uh" if they distract from your teaching.

Now refine the visual side. If you recorded a screen share and want to draw attention to a specific area — a settings panel, a form field, a menu — use Tella's crop and zoom tools to focus on that region for a few seconds, then zoom back out. This creates the effect of a professional screencast without needing to record at a higher zoom level.

You can also switch layouts at different points in your video. Start with webcam-only for your introduction, switch to slides + webcam for the core teaching, and return to webcam-only for your closing. This keeps the visual experience varied without requiring multiple recordings.

Between clips or layout changes, add simple transitions. Tella offers clean fades and cuts — nothing flashy, which is appropriate for educational content where transitions should be invisible. Review the full video from start to finish at this stage. Listen for audio consistency and watch for any visual jumps that feel jarring.

When you're satisfied, export the video. Tella supports up to 4K resolution on Pro and Premium plans (4K exports are limited to 5 minutes on Pro). For most course lessons, 1080p is the right choice — it looks sharp on any screen and keeps file sizes manageable for upload to your course platform. Download the file, then upload it to Ruzuku or wherever you host your course.

Before recording your actual curriculum, make a short throwaway video — 2 to 3 minutes on any topic. Run it through silence removal, try the crop tool, experiment with layout changes. This takes 15 minutes and saves you from learning the editor while working on real content. You'll also hear how your microphone sounds in Tella's recording, which sometimes differs from what you hear in other apps.

If your lesson runs longer than 10 minutes, recording in clips — intro, main sections, closing — reduces the pressure to deliver everything in one take. Each clip becomes a separate segment in the editor that you can trim and reorder independently. If you fumble the closing, you re-record just the closing, not the entire lesson.

If your subject involves reflection or practice — meditation, art instruction, movement — the Natural setting preserves breathing room that students need. If you're teaching a technical workflow where students will follow along step by step, the Fast setting keeps momentum without losing clarity. Listen to a 30-second sample at each setting before committing to the full video.

Tella is a newer tool with a smaller community than Loom, Camtasia, or OBS. If you run into an unusual issue, you're less likely to find a forum thread or YouTube tutorial with the answer. The company is responsive to support requests, but the ecosystem of community knowledge is still growing.

After the 7-day trial, the Pro plan costs $16/month (billed annually) or $19/month billed monthly. The Premium plan at $42/month adds custom branding and longer 4K exports. If you're recording only a handful of lessons for a single course and already own a video editor, a free tool like OBS plus your existing editor may be more cost-effective.

Silence removal, mistake detection, crop and zoom — they're intuitive once you understand the workflow, but your first session in the editor will take longer than you expect. Budget an extra 30 minutes for your first real lesson to explore the tools without time pressure.