Instructional Uses Of Video In Online Courses

Online students at LPC consistently indicate that they appreciate instructor-made videos in their asynchronous 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. 

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.	Canvas Studio, 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.	Canvas Studio, Screencast-O-Matic
Explain assignment instructions	Some parts of your assignments might need additional explanation. This helps students understand it better.	Canvas Studio,  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 SpeedGrader
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.	Canvas Studio, 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.	Canvas Studio, 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.	Canvas Studio,  Screencast-O-Matic
Record 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.	Canvas Studio, Screencast-O-Matic
Embed questions into a video	Questions can be added to a video as a no-stakes check for understanding or can be added for points that flow to the Gradebook.	Canvas Studio
Allow comments within a video	Instructors and students can engage in a conversation within a video.	Canvas Studio

Explanation of tools:

• Canvas Studio: Canvas Studio is an integrated video application to use within your Canvas courses. Instructors can use it for embedding videos into Pages, Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes. Videos and screen recordings can be created within courses, or you can upload your previously created videos and even add a video from YouTube. Captioning is done within Studio.
• 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
• Screencast-O-Matic: Screencast-O-Matic is a browser-based screen capture tool. 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. Keep in mind that if you use Canvas Studio for screeen recordings, Screencast-O-Matic is built right into Studio.
• Mobile Devices: For videos that are more spontaneous, you can choose to use your phone or tablet to create the videos.

Overview of process (outside of Canvas Studio):

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:

• Resist the urge of not showing yourself on video. The discomfort you might have about seeing yourself in a video is outweighed by the benefits that your image brings to the class. Students want the human presence of their instructor within the class and are more motivated than if you seem absent. 
  • When screen recording, take advantage of the picture-in-a-picture feature in Screencast-O-Matic so students can see you.
• 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.

You can also use Canvas Studio to caption YouTube videos, but again, you will have to edit the captions. Learn how to work with captions in Studio.