Use the videos already on my YouTube or Vimeo
The videos are the hard part of a course, and you may already have them. If your teaching lives on YouTube or Vimeo, a paid course is mostly assembly: point each lesson at a video you already own.
How it works
- Set the video to unlisted (YouTube) or hide it from your public profile (Vimeo) — watchable by link, invisible in search.
- Paste the page link when you add the lesson (Add a lesson to my course). bernard works out the provider and embeds the right player.
- Approve. The lesson plays inside your course, gated to enrolled learners — except your one free taster (Let people watch one lesson free).
Keeping video on your own account is deliberate, and it's the same principle as the money going to your own Stripe: your teaching stays yours. If you ever leave bernard, your videos were never trapped here — they're sitting in your own YouTube or Vimeo, exactly where you put them.
One honest caveat: an unlisted link is a lock on the door, not a vault. Anyone a learner shares the link with could watch that one video. For most teaching that trade-off is fine; if it isn't, hand bernard the file to host and playback links expire minutes after they're issued.
The prompt
“Add a lesson to my [course name] course called [the lesson title] using this video: [paste the YouTube or Vimeo page link].”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Log in to bernard → your site → Edit with AI → copy your access prompt, paste that into your AI first, then ask the above.
Questions people ask
- Can I use unlisted YouTube videos in a paid course?
- Yes — unlisted is the usual choice: the video doesn't appear on your channel or in search, but plays inside your lesson pages. Paste the ordinary page link; bernard turns it into the embedded player.
- Do my learners leave my site to watch?
- No. The video plays inside your lesson page, in the provider's player. The page, the notes and the files around it are all yours — and lessons only unlock for enrolled learners once you've approved the course.
- Does bernard host my video?
- Only if you ask it to. The default is your own YouTube, Vimeo or Cloudflare Stream — your video stays on your account, under your control, at no extra serving cost. Handing bernard a video file to host is also possible.
- What about cookies and privacy?
- bernard embeds players in their privacy-friendly modes — YouTube's no-cookie player, Vimeo with do-not-track — so watching a lesson doesn't quietly set advertising cookies on your learners.