Video resources, whether you are looking to make a well-polished, sustainable resource or a quick and dirty video to deliver just-in-time content, can be made using centrally supported media tools and some ingenuity for low cost and high impact. Here are some tools you can use to make video resources and our best practices to get you started.
General Best Practices:
Keep it Short (5-15 minutes)
The shorter the video, the better the chances that your message has been honed to the essential bits and your students are tuning in the whole time. Added bonus: it takes less technical resources to host and deliver, so your students will have less issues accessing it. Remember: your students may not have access to as robust and reliable an internet network as they had when they were on campus and all the delivery tools will be running at high capacity. Approach connection issues with grace and preparedness.
Captions! but you need to check them
Every recorded media you put in your class will be more inclusive for all students if it has accurate captions. Some of our centrally supported tools offer an automatic captioning service but these services REQUIRE that you review the captions in order for them to be effective. Take a lesson from Erica: If you are giving a lesson on gravimetric properties of a material but your captions haven’t been checked your students who can’t use audio will think you are talking about “grab the magic” properties. Don’t let this miscommunication happen to you. Check your captions, it is worth the time and effort.
If you have students with accommodations, communicate early and often with your student and with the McBurney Center to make best efforts on providing accommodations.
Tools
Kaltura MediaSpace and Kaltura Capture: Screen capture, video hosting, light editing
Use Kaltura Capture to record your screen, audio, and webcam and then automatically upload to Kaltura MediaSpace video hosting which integrates directly with Canvas. It is a great resource for making short video resources with built in light editing and captioning. Rig up a webcam over your engineering notepad and you can record problem solving work and derivations.
PowerPoint: Voice over PowerPoint
Record your audio as you enjoy all the power of Powerpoint presentation into one file. It also allows you to delete the audio for an individual slide and re-record and export your presentation as a MP4 for updating lectures. To keep your presentations accessible, include a transcript of your audio for students who cannot use audio.
These tools don’t work for you? Stick with the free and familiar…
CoE Mediasite may be a familiar tool if you have recorded lectures in any of the CoE teaching spaces. It supports recording multiple screens, webcam, and audio with and then uploads to Mediasite, which is integrated with Canvas, but less seamlessly than Kaltura. You will need to connect with Engineering Media Services to get a Media Gallery started. It is a great resource for making video resources for College of Engineering audiences.
You may be familiar with Camtasia, a high powered video creation and editing tool popularly used in CoE. It’s lighter-weight sibling made for screencapture, SnagIt is available for free trial until June on TechSmith’s website.
Record what you present in a live web conference
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Cisco WebEx can facilitate a live web conference and record the session. The original intent was so that participants who missed the live session can watch the recording at a later time. It can be difficult to get the recording files out of these tools to share elsewhere, so beware.
Need help with equipment? Engineering Media Services may be able to help! Have questions about which tool might be right for you? Email CEETE at CEETE@engr.wisc.edu.
Take care and be well!
The CEETE Team
Read the full article at: https://kb.wisc.edu/90536