Digital Content

Day 2: Production tools and tips

Video in Teaching and Learning- Part 2

Written by Sherry Lo and Jill Lyall, ANU Online

Person using phone cameraIn Part 1 of this Coffee Course on using videos, we provided an overview of a range of tools that you can use to shoot and create your own video course materials.  We gave an outline of some ways to shoot video then edit and produce the footage.  Today we are going to provide more detailed, hands-on instructions on using some of these tools, and provide links to relevant help resources.

 

Capturing video footage

We will concentrate on how to use Echo360 Personal Capture, desktop webcam, Adobe Connect, mobile devices and One Button Studio at ANU, for taking video footage of yourself or others talking, or a screen on which you may be wanting to show a PowerPoint presentation, documents, images, or websites.  We will also look at converting PowerPoint presentations to movies.

Ways to record your own talk to your students

webcam iconSwitch on your mic and webcam on your desktop  and away you go. 

This is the most straight forward way to record yourself talking to your students.  It is suitable for very short introductions, such as simply greeting your students and welcoming them to the course.  You can edit this and add in slides and other materials if you wish, but a simple video recording of your greeting will be a welcome personal touch to your online course.  Save the recording as an mp4 file and it can be added to your course (we will be discussing ways of sharing video footage on Day’s 4 and 5 of this course).

Most laptops have webcams built in these days but if you are working on a PC or a laptop without a built in camera, you can purchase a webcam fairly cheaply and it is connected via USB port and is placed on the top of your screen.  How you get your webcam started and operate it will depend on what device and operating system you are using.

There are certain apps that will open your webcam for you, some of which are covered below.  But you can also simply record footage of yourself talking, from the desktop. Go here  to see  how I did this from a Windows PC using Windows 8.1 Enterprise System.

 

Echo360 iconEcho360 Personal Capture

This will provide you with more options than a simple webcam on your desk top, although you will still use the same equipment.  Echo360 Personal Capture allows you to capture your screen, as well as your “talking head.”  You may leave it as a simple “talking head” introduction, or you may use the clip and add in other clips, using a video editor,  that  switch between a slide show or an on-screen demonstration or website, and your talking head.  Go here to see a screen recording of how to use Echo360 Personal capture to record yourself.

 

Tablet iconUse your phone or tablet to record yourself and/or others. 

The simplest way of course is the hand-held phone or tablet with “facetime” camera on.  However it is also possible to set up your phone or camera with a simple tripod and film yourself sitting relaxed on a lounge chair, or a relaxed interview with others.  (More on this tomorrow!)  Some of this was covered in Day 4, “Screen and tablet recording”.

 

PPT iconCreating video footage from your PowerPoint presentations  

In Windows 10 and later, it is easy to create a video from your PowerPoint slides.  It is worth it, though, to consider, when you are designing your presentation, how it will look best as a video.  You will add your voice to each slide so lots of text should be unnecessary.  Use lots of visual elements and use your voice to put across key concepts.

Here is an example by Dr Tambri Housen in the Masters of Population Health: Introduction to Analysis of Survey Data

Try it yourself! Create some interesting, visually attractive PowerPoint presentations with a voice-over, and then save them as MP4 files which will run as videos in your course.  Go here for a step by step guide to making your PPT presentation into a video.

 

Adobe connect iconAdobe Connect

This is another way that you can record yourself giving a talk, and also include a slide show, visits to websites, notes and file attachments.  This is available in some higher education institutions for web conferencing, but it can also be used to self-record lectures with slides and screen-sharing. To learn more about Adobe Connect and its tools, go to the Adobe Connect Community site. Recording a session in an empty Adobe Connect virtual room, with PowerPoint presentations and drawings, screen share or web display, will provide you with a recorded lesson that displays on the Moodle page where your Adobe Connect session is linked.  Students can view the lesson by clicking on the link.  Unfortunately, there is no straight forward way of downloading the recording for further editing and uploading in a different format, and you would need to simply direct your students to access it on the Moodle page where the Adobe Connect room is linked.

 

video camera iconFully equipped video recording studio.  Yes, not many academics have ready access to such a thing or know how to operate it!  However many universities are now making available simple self-help recording rooms for lecturers to record videos.  At ANU we have recently been provided with a “One Button” studio that has all of the correct lighting, camera positioning and recording equipment set up to go at the press of a button.  So you can simply press the button and record yourself (or others if you wish to interview), then save the recording on to a USB drive to upload later to your course.  Here is a video we used in part one of this coffee course, by Dr. Katie Freund, about using One Button Studio.

Summary

As you can see from what we have outlined above and linked to for further detail, there are many tools readily available to you for personal video creation.  There is much to learn, but we are all learning when it comes to this technology!  Try any of these out, and practice using your favourite tools to build up confidence in using these forms of communication in your teaching.

Activity

Have you tried any of these tools to create videos that are screen recordings, or videos of yourself talking to your students?  What were the pro’s and cons of those you have tried?  If you have produced a video using any of these tool and can share a link with us to view, please feel free to do so!

It could be argued that  these tools are simply new forms of communication and information sharing, and as such we need to develop some skills to use at least some of them.  Do you agree with this argument, or do you think this type of technology should be left to multimedia experts?

Post your responses in the forum.

Join us for a face-to-face session

Friday, 8 September, 12-1pm, Chancelry Building #10, 10 East Road – meet in the Lobby

We invite you to a hands-on session where you can learn more about and practise presenting on camera in the SCAPA Professional Media Studio.  Jamie Kidston from SCAPA will also be on hand to share his tips. Please RSVP to: Karlene.dickens@anu.edu.au if you are able to attend. View the campus map for directions.

 

Resources

Other tips for Educational video 

How to use the camera app with your web cam in Windows 8

How to edit footage and images taken with camera in Windows 8

Echo360 Service page at ANU

Adobe Connect Community site.

One Button Studio

Making videos with your Android Smartphone or Tablet Using These 7 Great Apps

Make Videos with your iPhone or iPad like a Pro using these 8 IOS Apps

UTS: Shooting and uploading video to YouTube using a Smartphone or Tablet

Flinders University:  How to create a video – student guide

 

14 thoughts on “Day 2: Production tools and tips

  1. I have used a one button studio here at ANU and have found it very simple and easy to use. As you mentioned, it was as easy as going in, clicking a button and then filming…well the filming/recording part was. Of course, there was the need to plan, script and then deliver as well.

    I recorded this video a couple of weeks ago using the green screen and then overlaid some text using Camtasia software.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odFrt8yLOi0

    1. Hi David,
      Thank you for sharing your video, it’s encouraging, clear and very applicable to what we are learning here. Your presentation style and tips are things to emulate. I particularly appreciate the reminder to move around to dispel the nerves, and the suggestion to go for a quick win up front. Big smile 🙂
      Cheers,
      Imogen

  2. Have you tried any of these tools to create videos that are screen recordings, or videos of yourself talking to your students? What were the pro’s and cons of those you have tried?
    I haven’t used any of these tools yet. I’m mostly interested in using videos that others have made in order to better explain concepts to students. However, maybe in the future, I’ll give this a try 🙂

    It could be argued that these tools are simply new forms of communication and information sharing, and as such we need to develop some skills to use at least some of them. Do you agree with this argument, or do you think this type of technology should be left to multimedia experts?
    I agree with the argument. As students are starting to do more of their learning online, I think we need to keep up with them! We aren’t all magically excellent teachers on the day we start teaching – we need to continually practice and explore different ways of getting our message across, encompassing the diversity in our ‘classrooms’, whatever form they may take.

  3. I have recorded in the One Button Studio but begun with number of videos on a Mac Laptop and my iPhone. Both the laptop and iPhone produced a similar quality video and I was able to airdrop the video from my phone to the Mac for editing. (A much simpler process than uploading to Dropbox then downloading on my PC etc). A colleague did a quick and dirty edit of these videos for me in Final Cut Pro – editing is the step I’m yet to take, but I have access to Camtasia.

    My video for our Research Ready course can be viewed at https://youtu.be/rcK9_5Wn2LA

    I agree with the argument. So much of the way information is communicated and absorbed is via video; having some skill and understanding of the process is important in learning to convey our message (whatever it might be) or managing others who may be doing the creating and producing of video content. Given the proficiency high schoolers and younger have with this means of communication and information sharing, I see it as an essential digital/media literacy.

  4. David — I looked at your video — very nice. Can you tell me how you read from your script? Where do you put it and how? This is a problem I have not solved well, but you are looking straight at the camera, nicely. Were you just speaking without a script?

    I have used adobeconnect several times for live video tutorials. Mostly it was quite good and simple enough, but the whiteboard was a disaster — kept losing stuff, low resolution, had to run whiteboard on ipad and another session on desktop at the same time as features are different, and manging the two was a disaster… I am looking for a solution for pre-recording videos for hand-written tutorial worked examples. (has anyone tried https://explaineverything.com/ that was mentioned in part 1 of this course?). Ideally this could also work live, for on-line tutorials like I tried with adobe connect….Here’s a link to my worst disaster if anyone can see it: https://wattlecourses.anu.edu.au/mod/adobeconnect/joinrecording.php?id=1163053&recording=4609861&groupid=0&sesskey=f6KL4G5QMS

    I’ve made a booking to try the one-button studio today.

    I used Camtasia for recording and editing several times in a studio set up — but I struggled with file formats (Mp4 is not enough to ensure students can see on various devices over wattle, and I do not have enough time to test every possible option in advance, either) . I also struggled with file size — I tried lots of ways to reduce the file size and was not very happy with any of them. Handbrake was the best, but still had challenges with usability from all devices.

    Thanks for the advice on echo360 personal capture — being forced to wait an indefinte amount of time (e.g. a few hours) befire the video is available for any editing is a complete non-starter. Surely I am not the only one to think so?

    Does anyone have a good solution to turning off smothly enough that there is no need to edit out the last 30 seconds? Looks like the one-button studio will have this problem.

    > It could be argued that these tools are simply new forms of communication and information sharing, and as such we need to develop some skills to use at least some of them.

    Since I am doing a partly -on-line course I have little choice anyway. I don’t mind investing a little time in learning how to do it – it is not an unreasonable expectation of a teacher — but I am deeply unimpressed with the quality of easy-to-use tooling for beginners so far — not at all what I expected. But I am getting there…

    1. Hi Kerry,

      “I used Camtasia for recording and editing several times in a studio set up — but I struggled with file formats (Mp4 is not enough to ensure students can see on various devices over wattle, and I do not have enough time to test every possible option in advance, either) . I also struggled with file size — I tried lots of ways to reduce the file size and was not very happy with any of them. Handbrake was the best, but still had challenges with usability from all devices.”

      If you are referring to uploading the video files directly onto Wattle are run them from there, I would seriously discourage you from doing it. Wattle on itself, do not have a video streaming function and it does not handle video well. The best bet is to upload the video to a video hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo. Uploading to these sites will also eliminate your worry about formats and video sizes, as these sites are able to handle them and push video down to the viewers according to the internet connection speed.

  5. I’ve used echo360 personal capture to record lectures and I found that was good. The ad hoc capture facility is easy to access and I’ve used it to record material for my courses when I knew I would miss lectures (because of OS conferences, etc.). I used a tutorial room rather than my office computer though, just put a sign on the door and lectured away. I didn’t realise until the last coffee course, however, just how much editing was possible on echo360. The link posted above has also given me some new ideas as well, so thanks for that.

  6. Yes I agree “that these tools are simply new forms of communication and information sharing, and as such we need to develop some skills to use at least some of them”. Because they are the “new form” now we receive more requests handle recording our workshops 1.5hr or longer as Echo360 does not seem to be loaded in any PC teaching labs (https://services.anu.edu.au/information-technology/audio-visual/echo360 )
    As we have external PhD students located outside of Canberra that would like to participate in workshops run by the Library. Our current thinking is we can record the workshops (on QuickTime or iMovie on our MacBook) and upload through Cloudstor (https://cloudstor.aarnet.edu.au) for the participant to access. Would this work? Does anyone have any other suggestions that we can do ourselves? We also own sound recording – digital voice recorder to place in room.

    1. Candida, in 2015 I took part in a round-table discussion with library staff at Cambridge University (UK) about how they might apply on-line training to their graduate students. Danny Kingsley, who was previously at ANU), took notes (click on the link on my name for a copy of the notes).

      Reference

      Kingsley, D. (2015, July 23). Tips for preparing and presenting online learning, Unlocking Research [blog], University of Cambridge Office of Scholarly Communication.

  7. HI Kerry

    Thanks for your kind words. Totally understand the issue with looking at the screen yet sticking to a script. In the case of that video I did it without reading (and quite a few takes). I know you can use telepromters and I think in one of the previous online coffee courses they talked about teleprompter apps and how you can use them.

    In terms of smoothing out, I think the best way is to do a bit of editing. I know you can hold the button in your hand/pocket and press on it to finish the video but editing out is still probably the best way that I can think of

  8. Using the mic and webcam on my computer did not work well. The image was poor and audio poorer.

    Video from PowerPoint slides worked better. I found the YouTube editor useful for this. I don’t have Powerpoint or MS-Windows, so used LibreOffice to make the slides and then the YouTube editor to add audio commentary (recorded with a headset) and canned music from the collocation prodded by YouTube.

    For a TAFE certificate in making training videos I got to use a video recording studio. Being in the control room mixing the video feeds live and issuing instructions to the three amera operators was fun.

  9. Hi everyone, I’ve not used most of the recording tools discussed today and because I’m not teaching at present I do not have access to ECHO360. But I’ve just been playing around with Ppt to see what I could produce with it. The audio recording worked smoothly though it did pick up much more background noise than I had hoped! It was fun to discover and use these functions within Ppt, and I can see what an asset it could be in teaching.
    My old version of Microsoft Office [2010 version] does not have the MPEG_4Video option in the Ppt dropdown save menu. I used the Windows Medio Video saving option instead and it worked well. My old version of Ppt does not let me save videos from websites either [ahh… the frustrations of using old technology!] so I’ve not had much progress on that front. I’m transiting from my old computer/Microsoft to a new Mac very soon and looking forward to discovering the recording and editing functions with it.

  10. The only one of these tools that I’ve used is to generate video from Powerpoint slides. This is a fairly straightforward process although getting the timing right for the transitions can be a little fiddly. I haven’t tried adding audio to this, although it is something that I will attempt in the near future.
    Re these tools being new forms of communication, I think that we have some responsibility as educators to “speak the language” that we use to communicate. As living in our world is becoming a more technologically dense experience, communication also increasingly utilises electronic media. While it is clearly not possible to be expert in all of these technologies, a degree of awareness of how they work can only serve to improve our ability to engage with our students in a medium in which they are becoming increasingly comfortable.
    Also, the link on how to use Echo360 Personal Capture is broken I’m afraid.

  11. I have used Echo360 personal capture and one button studio. These took quite a few takes. It was difficult for me to use the one button studio without a script and the PPT prompts were too far away to see clearly. I would like to try the PPT recording option as a simple alternative and see how this goes, thank you.

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