Use a Checklist to Guide Your Multi-media Production.

- What should your students be able to know and do after watching your video?
- What course learning outcome does it support?
- Prepare your script (Don’t forget to write for the ear!)

Download the Lecture Planning Kit (pdf) and Video and Presentation Planning Tips (pdf)

What visuals support your script?

- If you’re recording video you may not need many visual aids but you do need some. How can you show your students what you mean without using blocks of text.
- If you’re recording a presentation you’ll likely have a slide deck. Review the Best Practices for Using PPT in Online Classes and revise or remove slides that contain text directly from your script. If that eliminates a majority of your slides you may want to consider making a presentation that includes video of you.
- Make sure your images aren’t distorted and in the proper height/width proportion.

Organize your script and visuals into a storyboard

- If you’re using PowerPoint (PPT), put your script for each slide in the notes area for that slide.
- Add a title slide to the beginning to identify the video and yourself.

Run through it and time yourself.

- If it’s more than 10-12 minutes look at what you can cut and give them in a text note by the video or think about breaking it into two videos.
- Don’t try to make it shorter by talking faster. Around 150-160 words per minute (a conversational pace) is appropriate for instructional video, any faster and there will begin to be comprehension issues.
- Remember to pause after anything that you think your students will need a moment to process.

If you’re recording on your own:

- Do you have microphone that records your voice clearly without any buzz or hiss?
- Do you have lights placed in front of you, not behind you?
- Is your webcam positioned high enough so that you’re not recording upwards?
- Are you wearing solid colors?
- Did you remove anything from yourself and your area that would clank, hum, whir, or squeak? (This includes large pieces of jewelry and pens or pencils if you like to tap them on the desk.)
- Did you check what is behind you? A cluttered background can be distracting so keep it as clear as possible.

If you’re recording in a studio:

- Are you wearing solid colors?
- Did you remove anything from yourself and your area that would clank, hum, whir, or squeak? (this includes large pieces of jewelry and pens or pencils if you like to tap them on the desk)
- Are you wearing comfortable shoes?
- Are you wearing something that the microphone pack can clip on to like a waistband, a pocket, or a belt?
- Did you bring your script or send it to the videographer in advance if you want to use a teleprompter?

Practice. Really. Very few people get a version they like on the first try and the longer your video is the more chances you may need to start over.

Record. Try to be as comfortable as possible and let your enthusiasm for your content shine through.

Watch your own video. This is important!

You may be doing distracting things or have a distracting vocal tendency that you never noticed. If the person in the video is continually tapping a pen or saying “so” or “well” at the end of every sentence or rocking back and forth, soon the student will focus so completely on the distraction that they won’t be able to fully concentrate on the content of the video. You’ll also
- Hear if you sound like you’re reading as opposed to talking to your students.
- See if you are looking at the camera or at anything else. Looking at the camera means you’re looking at your students while you are talking to them. If you engage with them they are more likely to engage with you.