Speaker 1: Videos have been shown to increase student engagement and interest in learning materials when used effectively. In this video, we will look at the top 10 research-based tips for creating videos, discuss equipment you may need, and share some tips for quality video production. 1. Keep in mind that a good in-person or face-to-face lecture does not always translate into an effective online educational video. Think of ways to reconstruct or pull out certain parts of those great lectures into formats more fitting for your online course. This brings us to our next tip. 2. Keep them short to keep your students engaged. Aim to keep the length between 2 to 10 minutes. If you need more time to cover a particular topic, segment videos into chunks. Not only will this make it easier on you when it comes to recording and when you need to update information in the future, but it will also help students find specific information more quickly. 3. Bring yourself into your videos. Videos that include an instructor's talking head along with slides are much more engaging. Remember, for online videos, students like to see their instructor. Try to start out with some talking head videos to establish a greater connection with your students at the beginning of the course. 4. Keep it casual. If you stumble, brush it off and keep going. Add a bit of humor or personal stories to keep students engaged. Be upbeat and enthusiastic in your presentation. Videos where instructors speak with enthusiasm are more engaging. It shows their passion for the topic and holds student interest. Show your personality. If your cat or dog jumps into your lap while recording, so be it. 5. Consider the location. Try filming it in an informal setting, such as an office, a quiet space on campus, or even outdoors. You may also want to consider using a smartphone to record weekly updates for a casual approach. Be sure you're in a place that has good lighting, avoid being backlit, and where there is minimal background noise. 6. Keep it interesting. Videos or tutorials with dynamic screen changes, animations, and graphics are more engaging than narrated PowerPoint slides or simple screencasts. Avoid simply reading the bullet points on a PowerPoint slide. Expand upon points by interjecting your individual perspective or personal or professional experiences. This is the value add you bring to the course. 7. Keep reusability and sustainability in mind. Avoid referencing course names, numbers, or dates within the video. Use a meaningful title that relates to the topic instead of including the course number. This way, you minimize the need of having to re-record a video when you make updates to a course over time, or if you want to use it in additional courses. 8. Adapt your delivery to an online learning context. Even high-quality recorded classroom lectures are not as engaging when segmented for an online lecture video. For example, instead of recording yourself writing on a whiteboard, see if you can get a hold of equipment to record from a document camera or tablet. 9. Edit your videos. Whenever possible, remove instances of jumbled speech, long pauses, audible breaths, and filler words. Finally, 10. Students engage differently with lecture and tutorial videos. For informational videos, focus more on the first watch experience, which is designed to hold attention for the duration of the video. For tutorials, add support for re-watching and skimming by adding a table of contents or bookmarks throughout the video. This especially helps for longer videos. These 10 tips are modified from How Video Production Affects Student Engagement, an Empirical Study of MOOC Videos. Let's talk about accessibility and equipment. The first and most important thing to keep in mind is that all videos used in an online course must have captions to meet accessibility guidelines. Not only is this essential for students who have a disability, for example, someone with a hearing impairment, but captions can also be helpful for all of your students. For instance, a student who is in a public place and wants to watch your videos but forgot their headphones. Or the student whose first language is different than the one used in the video. You can find tools that mechanically caption videos, like YouTube, but you will likely need to edit those captions. The accuracy of machine captioning depends on the quality of the audio and the content of the video. Errors in captioning may occur due to the following. Poor audio quality, distance between the person speaking and the microphone, several speakers talking over each other, low volume audio, speakers' dialect and accent, loud background noise, and complex terminology or uncommon technical terms. In addition to these items, machine captions will not add sentence structure or follow grammar rules. Next, we'll move on to the topic of equipment. You can produce great videos without purchasing a lot of equipment. You can use a built-in webcam for video and audio. If your computer does not have a built-in webcam, the price of one is relatively reasonable. If possible, use headphones that include a microphone. This reduces the distance between you and the microphone, which will result in better audio. You can invest in these items, use built-in solutions, or check with your department or university to see if you can borrow equipment. Most computers and laptops have built-in software for recording audio and video. Even PowerPoint allows you to record audio for each slide and save it as a video file. Your university or department may have additional resources. For example, at LSU, Kaltura is used to stream or host videos and courses instead of uploading large videos into your course, but it also has a recording program that can be downloaded to your computer. This program allows users to record their screen, webcam, audio, or a combination of these. Finally, let's go over three practical tips to get started. Prepare for your video. A script is extremely useful and can be added to the course as a transcript file. Alternatively, you can create and use an outline. Having a guide or outline will help keep you on track. Test your equipment. Check the sound and video quality before you really dive into your video. You don't want to spend time recording only to discover your microphone was on mute the whole time. Relax. If you are new to recording audio and video, it may seem awkward and nerve-wracking. It will get easier the more you do it. Focus on translating your passion and knowledge of the topic instead of the technical aspects of the video. Remove the pressures of producing an Oscar-worthy video. Remember, students love hearing and seeing their instructors. They're in your course to hear from you. Good luck and make magic happen. This concludes our look at best practices in creating effective videos. For more information on the technologies covered in this video, visit grok.lsu.edu. If you have any Moodle or technology-related questions or would like assistance, please contact the Faculty Technology Center at 225-578-3375, Option 2, or ftc at lsu.edu.