Instructor presentation

One way to ensure good instructor presence in an online course and present your lecture is by incorporating short lecture videos or lecturettes into your online course materials.   You can also use course video for flipping some of your lecture material out of the classroom so you have more time to do in-class activities.   This Teaching Tip will provide some guidelines for best practices and getting started with recording lecture video.

Before You Get started

Plan to keep it short – your lectures should be limited to 5-10 minutes.

Your experiences and stories bring life to the lesson material and to illustrate what you think is most important for students.

Refrain from mentioning upcoming holidays or events specifically unless you plan to create new videos each semester!

Step 1 – Think Content

Think about what you want to cover in the lesson such as:

• your stories and professional experience
• events in the news
• points you really want students to understand

Step 2 – Storyboard

Create a storyboard by writing out what you want to cover in your video. Approach this in the same way you usually gather your lecture materials. You may want to write everything out in detail or simply create an outline of ideas.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/uafcde

Step 3 – Recording

Smile and show your enthusiasm for your subject.

Use eye contact with the camera as much as possible.– Shoot the video in a quiet room with plenty of light. Be aware of fan noise that may not be obvious.– Use a tripod if you have one and ensure that the video is steady and not crooked– If you shoot in sunlight, make sure that the sun doesn’t shine directly in your eyes or directly into the camera.– Make sure you are not too far away from the camera but far enough away so that part of you isn’t out of the screen. (Conduct a test video first.)– Before you start talking, take a deep breath, pause and smile – this not only will prepare you for recording but will provide a natural spot to trim off any excess video during editing.– Use hand gestures if you like, but not too wildly and try to keep your body relatively still.– Have someone (or something with a face like a stuffed animal) sit directly behind the camera so you have a face to address.

Step 4 – Technology

RECORD: You don’t need a fancy video camera to record lecturettes. If you have a relatively new smartphone, iPad or laptop with camera, these will usually be sufficient.

UPLOAD: your video to YouTube and edit there if needed.

EMBED: video into Blackboard or class website.