Recordings
Introduction
There are numerous ways and possibilities for adding recorded media to your courses at SSW.
Step 1: Recording
Our top 3 are: studio recording in the 4th floor SSW Media Center, desktop recording with Zoom, and slide-by-slide recording with Voicethread.
But also, here's the link to book time in the Library rehearsal space, which you can book online for your own self-recording in a quality studio environment.
And here is a recording of a short workshop about creating videos and locating images for your slides: Recording --- Slides/Links.
In addition, we also have faculty members who record their screens while talking using QuickTime and/or iMovie on Macs or Camtasia Studio to create and edit their own recordings. Other possibilities some faculty use include: Powtoon, Loom, and GoAnimate. While the actual use of these tools may not be supported, the IDEA Team can help you with planning image usage and strategy, and the Media Center can assist with post-production (editing and finalizing).
Tips for recording:
DATES: When recording, best not to date yourself too much. Minimize the amount of information that may change over time – so, for example, don’t put the dates in unless they are historical and really needed. Keep it general so that the video can be reused for as many years as possible.
IMAGES: use openly licensed images as much as possible. Here's a great resource for locating openly licensed images with Creative Commons licenses, etc.
LINKS: You can always put specifics (including email addresses, links, etc.) elsewhere in Blackboard. (In fact, you’ll want to do that so that students have somewhere to click on actual links - which they won’t be able to do from videos. Add links to the page where the video is embedded or the lesson page in Blackboard. This way, when links change, you can easily update only that page.
Another thing you can do with links is refer to their content in the video lecture but NOT actually include the URL link on the slide. Instead, in the video, tell students where to look for the link and what it’s called. So, for example, we could create a page in Blackboard to embed the video in and have all the links next to the video. Again, the reason is for updating: websites and URLs change over time. The less that needs to be updated over time, the better, as it gets difficult updating videos…
What you really need in the video is just a reference: I want to draw your attention to a website called “xxxx” – there will be a link to it on the Bb class session page… what’s important about that web page is “yyyyyyyyy” – and you should really look for “zzzzzz”… see what I mean? Tell them the important stuff, and leave the links to the web page.
CLOTHING: When recording in the studio, wear dark solid colors in the video if possible, and generally avoid green (if recording in front of a green screen).
Look directly in the camera! This can take more practice than you might think, but it's very important as this is the equivalent of making eye contact with other people in your audience. It might be a good idea to tape a picture of someone you imagine talking to around/just above the camera to help you keep looking there.
AUDIO: avoid jewelry that makes sounds (clingy bracelets, etc.) and make sure the microphones are positioned well to get high-quality audio.
SCRIPTS: it's a great idea to have a script, even if you don't entirely use it when speaking. For those who are new to recording or not entirely comfortable speaking without lots of um's or uh's, a script is highly recommended. You can type it into the comments area for each slide. Since most videos now need captions, having a script can also be a good start for a transcript for students.
FILES: whenever possible, if you don't mind your video being public, publish on YouTube! YouTube does a lot of work behind the scenes, making the video play on all kinds of devices and playing it well for people with different speed connections. It also does closed captioning, and even though it may need work, it's a great starting point, and you can easily edit the captions to fix errors later. It's also incredibly easy to embed a YouTube video into a website or Blackboard course, and it opens your content up to a potentially much larger audience.
DIRECTORS and EDITORS: whenever possible, work with directors and editors to help guide the process, do better takes, explain concepts more clearly, or brainstorm great ways to communicate information. Work with editors after the recording - sit with them, watch the footage, make choices, and provide input to make sure the final cuts and edits meet your expectations.
Step 2: Post-Production
Post-production assistance: editing audio/video is a service provided by the Media Center (sswmediacenter@ssw.umaryland.edu) or 410-706-7332.
Step 3: Posting for Student viewing
Posting completed videos into your Blackboard courses:
#1: YouTube. Unless you have a real issue with putting your work out there in a way that is at least somewhat publicly viewable, we recommend YouTube. YouTube videos are accessible on all different types of devices (unlike .MOV or .WMV files), stream all over the world (and are optimized according to internet connection speed), can have automated closed captioning (and you can edit the captions if they get something wrong), and they are super easy to insert into pages, discussion forums, quizzes, modules or anywhere in Blackboard (see how to do this using the HTML toolbar!) Detailed instructions for posting videos to YouTube
YouTube Help has detailed instructions for various devices, including iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.
The first step is to make sure you have a google account that you want to use for your YouTube videos. It could be be a gmail account, but you can start up an account using any email address, including your @ssw.umaryland.edu email, here: https://accounts.google.com/SignUpWithoutGmail
Via a Web Browser:
When you visit YouTube.com - you will see which account (if any) you are logged in within the upper right corner by clicking your image/icon:
You can choose when publishing your videos either "public" -meaning anyone can search for and find your video, or "Unlisted" - which means that only people who have the URL/link to your video can access it. Of course, this does mean that if someone shares the links with others, they, too, will have access. In terms of uploading, anyone with a google account can set up a YouTube channel and upload unlimited videos. If you want, the IDEA team can even upload them to our YouTube account and just give you the URL to post to your course, or we can help post them to your courses.
See detailed instructions for posting to YouTube below.
#2: Voicethread. You can upload videos into a thread (using Add Media) - and the videos are automatically captioned in Voicethread. You can also add a slide before videos to introduce students to various concepts and conceptual frameworks, or to prepare them for viewing the video as well as after videos to pose questions, activities or self-checks. When complete, be sure to check how to properly share your VoiceThread to ensure students can view it.
#3: OneDrive/Sharepoint: You can upload recordings to OneDrive or Sharepoint and get a link to share with students, faculty or staff. This protects your work behind a UMID login, which is required for all viewers (so this won't work for anyone outside UMB.) Also note: this will NOT include transcripts or captions from Zoom recordings. If you add downloaded Zoom recordings here, we highly recommend you also download the transcript file(s) from Zoom and include them. However, if you do not need to require a login or the videos are not sensitive in nature, we typically recommend options 1 and 2 above, which automatically generate closed captions.
#4: Zoom Cloud Recordings: review how to create zoom recordings and share them with your audience. Keep in mind that UMB Zoom policies mean your Zoom recordings will automatically be deleted after 1 year, so you will likely want to download them and then upload them to either YouTube or Voicethread.
From there, you can also switch accounts, sign out and back in with another account, visit your channel/create channel or go to the creator studio. If you are logged in, you can click the Upload icon (up arrow) to drag and drop your videos for uploading, even a whole folder at a time.
As videos upload, you can type in the name or other information, links and URLs in the description field, tags (such as course name/number), and add the video(s) to playlists. (Playlists can be helpful - by class, topic, week, semester, etc.) Also, importantly, choose optimally between Public and Unlisted. Public videos can be found via a search in YouTube, while Unlisted videos are not found by searching, can only be accessed by someone having the URL. The URL to your video will display on the left side, so that you can copy that for pasting into Blackboard, email, or other locations. The final step at this stage is to click Publish and copy the URL.
Pasting Into Blackboard
The final step is to paste your video URL into Blackboard. There are any number of ways and places to do this. Here's what we recommend:
Create a page in your course content/materials folders for your video. Include text, links, introductory formation about the video, questions for students to consider, instructions, and anything else you want students to do or know about.
Then, embed your video into the page by simply pasting in the link and hitting Return/Enter on your keyboard. Ultimately, though, you can embed the video into your course in announcements, paste the link into email, post in a discussion forum, in a quiz question or assignment, all over the place. Embedding the video in the page makes it easy for students to access and view, and allows you the ability to provide background information and links right with the video.