Create video content that delivers all your learning outcomes while keeping your students interested and engaged.
Video in contemporary culture is both accessible and familiar. It has become an integral part of our day to day activity due to the increase in built-in video capabilities in our phones and other mobile device. Both capture and playback are literally at our fingertips so why not capitalise on this ease of use from both a production and learning perspective.
Build on what students are familiar with to engage, stimulate and enhance their learning experience. Help students to arrive prepared by making the content accessible anytime and anywhere’
Create a video to help students understand the critical points of a topic or aspects that they may struggle with. A five-minute, targeted video can help to clarify concepts and convey information that may take students hours to understand with traditional delivery methods.
To book a consult to discuss your multimedia options; including ideas for professional video recordings, or advice on how to make your video presentations more engaging, contact Charlotte Rose explaining what it is you're looking for in the consult.
Before recording, it is important to think about the desired outcome. The more thought and effort that you put into your slides, recording space, and audio quality, will greatly increase engagement and user satisfaction, and will make for a more professional video.
Webcam/Microphone
If you are planning on recording yourself at home, you need to consider how professional your setup is. The link below will show you the professional way to setup a recording.
Setting Up your Recording Space
The quality of your recording can also be diminished by interference such as background noise and even changes to your position in front of the camera while recording.
Before hitting record, make sure you are prepared to record without interference. If interference does occur, consider the starting the recording again as this may be easier than editing out problems later, depending on your video.
If you do need to edit something, this link will show you how to edit correctly in Panopto.
For more information on editing in Panopto, view this Panopto video playlist or send an email to Declan Wall to ask any questions or to book a consult.
Slides
If you are preparing slides for your presentation, it is highly recommended that you download the templates provided by UniSA. This is not only important for branding for the University, but it also makes your slides look consistent and professional throughout your content delivery.
Please use the link below to find a few UniSA template options that you can use, depending on the type of content you are producing.
UniSA CMK Branded PowerPoint Templates
Screen Capture/recording:
If you are planning on recording a screen capture or an annotated screen (ie drawing on a tablet or recording your mouse movements), then make sure you think about what programs you have running, what items may be visible on a desktop or taskbar, and if any sensitive information might be captured in your recording.
There are a few things to consider when creating online content. In face-to-face learning, you can immediately gauge responses from your audience, allowing you to easily change your content to be clearer and more engaging if need be. When delivering online content without this live response, you run the risk of being too verbose or obscure and your tone may be flat or robotic without you knowing.
To counteract this, when designing your content think about the engagement of your audience.
Think about creating your content in smaller ‘chunks’ or, if you have longer content, consider the best spots to cut it into smaller topic videos. Using R.E. Mayer's ‘Segmentation Principle’ of Multimedia Learning - People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in small user-paced segments.
Inserting varying content like quizzes, activities, or even interesting supporting video content, can both break the monotony of long content and provide further learning opportunities by requiring students to confirm or practice discussed concepts.
Check out Panopto to see a range of different tools to use to break up video content.
Inserting a Quiz into a Panopto Video
Inserting a YouTube Video into a Panopto Video (consider linking YouTube videos separately if appropriate)
Inserting a Webpage into a Panopto Video (consider linking webpages separately if appropriate)
Additionally, if you haven’t considered it before, booking in a consult with an Academic Developer or an Online Educational Designer is a great way to discuss your ideas, as well as receive feedback from those trained in creating online content.
If you are planning to use a variety of resources in your recording, like slides, animations, readings etc, then it is highly recommended that you practice before you record.
Read your presentation or script out loud at least once before recording. Focus on your articulation, clarity, flow, dynamics, and speed. Practicing out loud will also help you become familiar with your presentation, so when it comes time to record you will naturally come off more relaxed and conversational and thus more engaging.
When writing your scripts, consider preparing them based on how you speak, not how you would write. You want the performance to be as natural as possible, so consider your word choices, pauses, emphasis and sentence structure.
Once you have prepared for your presentation it is time to record. Understandably for most people, the recording and being on camera part can be quite daunting. Even if you are used to presenting face to face content, the fear of being on camera or recording your voice can cause even the most experienced teachers to worry and doubt their ability. The best way to overcome this is practice.
Being an excellent on camera presenter is a skill that needs practise to develop.
A good idea is to do some practice recordings and watch them back. You’ll be surprised at how much watching yourself back can help with developing your presentation skills. Always remember, you are your own worst critic, so try not to be too hard on yourself. It is also a good idea to get your peers to review your work so you can continue to improve upon your delivery.
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