Instructional Uses Of Video In Online Courses

LPC will begin using Canvas Studio to streamline video creation with Canvas courses. Information about Studio's availability and training opportunities will be forthcoming...hopefully as soon as Summer 2020. This page will be updated accordingly. Learn more about Studio. | View a video demo of Studio.

Online students at LPC consistently indicate that they appreciate instructor-made videos in their courses. These videos increase the instructor's presence in the online course, give students a more personal learning experience, and focus directly on course content. Thus, student engagement and comprehension increase.

Your videos don't have to be (and shouldn't be) very long. A length of 3-5 minutes is sufficient. In fact, some videos can be shorter. If you are concerned about a steep learning curve in order to use the tools to create videos, don't be; the tools are rather simple to use. Of the tools listed below, only Camtasia is advanced.

Video task	Purpose	Tools
Introduce yourself, and welcome students to the class	Students are able to see that you are an actual human being, and this is the first step in building rapport and a community of learners.	Mobile Devices, Screencast-O-Matic
Give the students an orientation of the course	Ensures that students know how to navigate the course, and helps them get off to a good start.	Camtasia, Screencast-O-Matic
Explain assignment instructions	Some parts of your assignments might need additional explanation. This helps students understand it better.	Camtasia, Screencast-O-Matic
Give individual feedback to assignments	Conveys the intended tone of your feedback. Students can see your facial expressions. Be positive, encouraging, and conversational. Provide constructive and positive reinforcement feedback. Perhaps ask students if they prefer written or video (or audio-only) feedback, then give them what they want.	Canvas
Provide whole-class feedback	If individual video feedback is not feasible or necessary, whole-class feedback can be summarized and presented as a debrief. Can use within Announcements to highlight big-picture opportunities for improvement.	Mobile Devices
Provide spontaneous teaching moments	These are instances that enhance learning. They can be thoughts that illustrate a concept or principle. They can be current events on issues you are covering. With your mobile device, you can record these from anywhere.	Mobile Devices
Narrate a PowerPoint presentation	When students see and hear a presentation, they are more likely to retain the information. Keep it short, though.	Camtasia, Screencast-O-Matic
Recording steps on the web or in a software program	Allows students to view a process at their own pace, giving them the ability to pause and rewind as often as necessary.	Camtasia, Screencast-O-Matic

Explanation of tools:

• 3C Media Solutions: This site is for faculty to upload their videos and request to get them captioned. You can then link or embed the captioned videos in Canvas. Better yet, use the 3C Media Solutions app in Canvas, which lets you do everything the web site does without having to go to the site. 
  • 3C Media Solutions app
  • Request live training
  • View videos and tutorials
• Camtasia: Camtasia lets you record screen movements on your computer and turns them into a digital video. More importantly, perhaps, you can use Camtasia to narrate a PowerPoint presentation, then publish the video to 3C Media Solutions or use the 3C Media app to upload directly into Canvas.
• Screencast-O-Matic: Screencast-O-Matic is a browser-based screen capture tool. Like Camtasia, you can record screen movements on your computer and turns them into a digital video, or you can narrate a PowerPoint presentation to turn into a video. You can then publish the video to 3C Media Solutions or use the 3C Media app to upload directly into Canvas.
• Mobile Devices: For videos that are more spontaneous, you can choose to use your phone or tablet to create the videos.

Overview of process:

1. Record your video. 
2. If recording from your phone, upload the video file to Google Drive or Dropbox, then download it to your computer. Alternatively, you can email it to yourself if the file isn't too big.
3. If recording from your laptop or computer, save the file on your laptop or computer.
4. Upload the video directly into Canvas using the 3C Media app. Alternatively, you can upload to the 3C Media Solutions site.
5. Request captioning for the video.
6. Link or embed the video within your Canvas course.

Important points:

• When recording video from smart phones and tablets using Landscape view. You might need either a Google or Dropbox account to store these videos. 
• When placing video into your course, you will want the dimensions to fit not only the screen on a computer or laptop, but also on mobile devices. Therefore, the ideal size is 400 pixels wide x 225 pixels high.
• When recording yourself, look directly into the camera, smile, show positive body language, use props if necessary, and use a bland background so students focus on you.
• You might want to purchase a decent USB microphone for your laptop or computer so the audio sounds good.
• All videos, with the possible exception of feedback to individual students, need to be close captioned. Obviously, if you have a visually impaired student, you will want to caption that student's feedback.
• If you want to add a bit of dazzle to your videos, you can use web-based services such as Animoto or Adobe Spark.

Using YouTube:

If you insist on using YouTube to post your videos, you will need to learn how to edit captions yourself. The best method is to allow the auto-captions to occur, then go in and edit the captions. View information on using YouTube, including the steps to edit auto captions.