Best Practices for Videos

Before You Record

  • Your background. An attractive background is much more appealing than a cluttered one, so remove or cover overly distracting objects. If the background is very dark, make sure you have adequate lighting.
  • Quality Sound. Every room has an inherent sound. Humans can learn sound patterns and "tune out" various noises, whereas many microphones cannot tune out noises. Appliance hum, open-window street noise, barking dogs – all of these (and more!) are categories of sounds that should be reduced when you are recording.
  • Lighting. Try to use the same lighting setup for all your videos regardless of the time of day you record. You may need to cover the windows and you may also want to set up some soft lighting for your face, coming from the direction of the camera. Harsh, single-point, direct light, from any angle, will cause hard shadows and look unattractive.
  • Be aware of your eye level. Avoid angling a camera too far up or down your face. Propping a camera to eye level achieves the best results.
  • Get a microphone. Your built-in computer mic isn’t horrible, but it’s too far away to adequately capture your voice. Instead, use a clip-on, tabletop, or headset microphone to improve sound quality. 
  • Practice, practice, practice. Make sure you practice what you are going to say before you start recording. Practicing will help you navigate the software comfortably, know the narrative of your lecture, and allow you to feel comfortable when recording.

Best format for your lectures

  • Chunk Information. Keep segments short—5–7 minutes. A 1-hour lecture does not need to be recorded as a 1-hour video recording. Consider instead, creating several shorter videos with one or more integrated activities.
  • Design presentations around learning objectives. Creating presentations that align with objectives lets students know that the information you cover, is the information that they should learn. 
  • Accommodate different learning styles. Vary your presentations by including a variety of formats and activities, and use well-designed pages or slides that integrate text, pictures, diagrams, or other media to clarify your content.  
  • Include assessments. Conclude each segment with a short assessment that helps determine if students are grasping the content.
  • Keep learners engaged. If you follow the four practices above, you’re well on your way to achieving this goal.

Effective use of PowerPoint/Keynote/Google Slides

  • Use a widescreen format. Make sure to use a 16:9 widescreen format for your presentations, so that widescreen media content can also be embedded within your slides.
  • Be consistent with the look and feel of your slides. Maintain consistency in the font size of the heading and body text throughout the PowerPoint lecture. Using a presentation template will help in this endeavor. The minimum font size for a standard 16:9 presentation should be at least 18pt, and for an HD video/1080p equivalent presentation, the font should be at least 48pt. Also, remember that fonts are computer-dependent, and some fonts won’t work on all computers.
  • Use quality images. Always try to use high-resolution images that are not pixelated, so that images don’t appear blurry to students. If you need to scale your images, do so proportionally so that images don’t become distorted.
  • Keep the flow of your presentation simple. Avoid unnecessary animations and transitions between slides and images.
  • Don’t pack lots of content onto a single slide. Consider splitting your content-heavy slides into multiple slides to make them less dense and easier for students to comprehend.
  • Pay attention to color. Be sure to have more than sufficient contrast between the foreground text and background color/design. Also, make sure that the background design for the presentation does not distract from the intended message of your text.

Be Yourself!

Lastly, remember that this is not a Hollywood production! One of the most important things to do in a video is to be yourself and act naturally. It is okay to stumble over a word or quickly correct yourself when you make a mistake. This allows students to truly see your personality and connect with what makes you unique as an instructor.

Tips for implementation: Record a test video, then go back and watch it (bonus points if you have someone else watch it too!). Evaluate what you do well and what needs improvement. Feel free to experiment with the environment and style until you feel that you are able to convey yourself in a way that is comfortable and genuine.