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The following are recommendations based on the experience of Bethel's instructional media designers

Video Summary

Identify the purpose of your media

Informal / Short-term / Section-specific Media:

Consider creating informal, low-production video or audio files for one-time use media. The benefit of these is that you can contextualize the content for a specific group of students, which can allow students to connect well with you and the course material. These are some examples of media that fit well into this category:

  • Introduce the course
  • Introduce yourself to students
  • Make and announcement
  • Preview the week ahead
  • Summarize the previous week
  • Summarize a forum discussion
  • Respond to student questions
  • Explain and assignment or activity
  • Connect with students
  • Build community

Formal / Long-term / Content-based Media: 

Create high quality media that will be used long-term, or that is content-based. For these types of media invest in pre-production planning and adhere to the suggestions below to extend the longevity of your media:

  • Explain a concept
  • Synthesize course content
  • Give an example
  • Demonstrate a skill or process
  • Interview an expert
  • Lecture on a topic not covered by other course materials

Suggestions for Formal / Long-term / Content-based Media: 

Tips to Increase Viewing

  • Select content that is integral to students' ability to succeed in their coursework
  • Create content that is unique and that does not repeat other required resources
  • Create content that is engaging, meaningful for learning, and well-organized
  • Ensure that the audio quality is good
  • Ensure that the video quality is good
  • Create slides that align with the audio
  • Chunk content into short, discreet segments or topics
  • Add a hook to set-up the presentation by telling students why the content is important, and what to look for
  • Reiterate your hook partway through the presentation, or adding a pause partway through the video to ask a question for students to consider
  • Limit your video length to 8 minutes or less
  • Speak at your normal pace. Do not artificially slow down your speed
  • Bring enthusiasm and energy to your presentation; avoid a monotone delivery

Sustainability

  • Avoid specific course-centric language
  • Avoid referencing time or location related events (e.g., weather, sports)
  • Avoid saying how many years ago something happened; reference the exact date or year instead
  • Avoid including assignment instructions in content-based videos
  • Use technologies that allow you to easily update your video (e.g., narrated slides, audio files)
  • Use strategies that allow you to easily update your content (e.g., well-organized, short segments of chunked content).

Planning

Preparation is the key to success. Pre-production = Planning = Effective Learning Objects
Ask yourself these questions:

  • Does the content support the learning outcomes?
  • Can existing content be used?
  • Is the best option to create a video?
  • What content is to be presented?
  • How long will it take to present the content?
  • How can my content be "chunked" into short segments?
  • What descriptive titles will I use for each segment?
  • What is the best media type for each video's content?

Media Type Examples

  • Lecture to camera
    • With or without slides
    • With or without a whiteboard or a lightboard
  • Demonstration
  • Interview
  • Documentary
  • Narrated slides
  • Screen capture

Preparation

  • Identify the location for the recording
  • Identify the set
  • Script or outline the presentation
  • Practice reading your script or presenting your outline out load several times before recording it
  • Create graphics or slides to accompany your presentation, as needed

Slide Design

  • Use a Bethel PowerPoint Template. This facilitates the use of:
    • a 16x9 widescreen format
    • a consistent font and font size
  • Use a font size of 32 point for headers and 24-28 point for slide content; if there is very little text on a slide make it 32 point
  • Create slides with a significant amount of white space (blank space); ideally 60% of your slide will be blank
  • Emphasize important words or phrases by making them a contrasting color, or a larger font size
  • Limit yourself to six bullets per slide (use more slides for more bullets)
  • Consider limiting yourself to six words per bullet
  • Avoid the use of underlining and italics
  • Use PowerPoint animations to ensure your narration and text on-screen match, by revealing text as you discuss it.
  • Do not use PowerPoint transitions between slides. These can create technical problems when converting a narrated PowerPoint file into a video format

Scheduling

  • Determine the timeline
  • Identify and schedule intermediate due dates
  • Schedule the recording session
  • Discuss the project with your videographer or producer (if you have one)
  • Schedule time for editing
  • Schedule time for approvals (if needed)

The content on this page was compiled by Molly Noble, Lead Media Designer, Bethel University's Academic Development Team.

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