Considerations for Course Videos
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, discrete 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 Plan Google Doc (rename and save to My Drive for your own use)
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)