Video Creation

Video, audio, and images are important to include in an online course to provide alternative means of communication for students who may have reading difficulties or simply learn easier though visual and auditory channels. Media you create, especially videos where you are speaking directly to your students, also provides an important additional channel for teaching presence and reinforces that you are a human being and not just a name on a screen.

Please review the information below to learn how we effectively integrate video into your course.

Effective use of video

How should I use videos?

DocCam used in Video — *Courtesy MicroSoft Support*

It depends. It depends on your learning objectives, your content, your activities, and your students. If you want your students to be able to do something that someone can demonstrate, then video would be the best option. If your content involves specific places or cultures, video can help to make them real to your students in ways that pictures and words on a page cannot. If parts of your content are especially challenging to your students, walking through these rough points with diagrams or a virtual whiteboard can provide clarification. Seeing and hearing their instructor work through things like equations, circuit diagrams, and free-body diagrams with a white board or doc-cam or walking students through coding or software demonstrations on your computer screen are highly effective uses of video. If your students have difficulty engaging with the content, videos can offer a more approachable way in. Conversely, if you have nothing to show, demonstrate, visually tour, work through, etc., and it will just be your talking head, then consider alternative media.

Focus on one clear learning objective/topic per video

Each video should have a single, well-defined learning objective or topic. This clarity helps students understand the purpose of the video and what they should take away from it. It also makes it easier for you to structure the content.

Video length — Keep it short!

Research By The Numbers

Using videos in your course can be a great way to engage students. They also provide an alternative way of delivering course material. But beware! Students report that the length of the video impacts whether or not they will watch it. During Dr. Steven Crawford's presentation at the 2021 Research Online Conference, he shared the following:

1:30 to 3:00 minutes — preferred video time for in-person students in a flipped or blended classroom.
3:00 to 7:00 minutes — preferred length for online students
6:00 minutes — recommended max video time. If your topic can’t be discussed in 6:00 minutes, break it into subtopics.
Research shows 6:00 or less is best for students to maintain their attention.

While it may be tempting to simply record yourself lecturing for 50 minutes and post the videos for your online class, research clearly shows that this is not an effective strategy at all. Traditional-aged students do tend to engage with video more than adult students; however, studies show that shorter video is the key to getting any students to watch. One study found that less than 6 minutes is optimum for student engagement. The average YouTube video is around 4 minutes, and analytics show that viewing still drops off significantly around halfway through on these short segments.

The length is less important than focusing on a single topic. Shorter videos help maintain student attention and engagement. Breaking complex topics into bite-sized chunks makes the content easier for you to create without much postproduction and easier for the student to retain the most important information.

Include interactive elements or practice opportunities

Adding a Video Quiz to Yuja — *Courtesy Yuja Support*

Engagement is key to effective learning. Incorporate interactive elements like quiz questions, reflection prompts, or problem-solving exercises within or immediately after the video. The modules tool in Canvas will enable you to require students to take a quiz after your video before they can move on. Our new video solution, Yuja, provides a fantastic way to incorporate interactive elements into your videos. You can even add them to the gradebook if you want. This encourages active learning and helps students apply and reinforce the concepts they've just learned.

Ensure high-quality audio and lighting

Poor lighting — *Silhouette from poor lighting*

Technical quality significantly impacts the learning experience. Use a good microphone to ensure clear audio and pay attention to lighting. Typical positioning of laptops in offices poses problems with recording video. Use a separate microphone close to your mouth and have more light coming from in front of you instead of from behind. Poor audio or video quality can be distracting and may discourage students from engaging with the content.

Visual Design and Trust

Research shows that people make decisions about the credibility of a source based in large part on how the content looks. Whenever you take in information from any source, your brain evaluates that information based on the combination of a cognitive component (to assign meaning) and an affective component (to assign value). Research has consistently shown that human beings value things they perceive to be attractive and tend to evaluate them as more trustworthy, professional, and credible (Fogg, et al, 2003; Metzger, Flanagin, & Medders, 2010).

So take a couple of steps to keep your videos and yourself looking good. Being 'human' for your students is fine and perfection is not necessary, but poor lighting from behind causing you to look like a 'silhouette', poor audio quality, and unprofessional or distracting images and graphics will make you seem less credible to your audience - your students.

Use slide presentations carefully and effectively

Effective Slide Example Many faculty have PowerPoint presentations that guide students through a review of the key points in the written material. If you are considering taking those PowerPoint files as they are and recording audio over them, there are a few caveats regarding this strategy for online classes. If you are using audio presentations with slides, you can review the Guidelines and Best Practices for using PowerPoint in Online Classes from Indiana University for tips on best practices and what to avoid.

Use closed captions for accessibility

Closed captions make your videos accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing students, non-native speakers, and those watching in sound-sensitive environments. They also reinforce learning for all students by providing a visual representation of the spoken content. Yuja will automatically caption videos that are uploaded or recorded through the system. If your topic is technical or complex, it may struggle to provide accurate captions. You might want to go back and check the created transcript. This may seem unnecessary, but in addition to assisting students who need accessibility, many students will search the captions when studying in addition to watching videos with captions turned on. Thus, accurate transcripts are very important for all your students.

Create a descriptive title and thumbnail

UW Video Thumbnail images A clear, descriptive title and an informative thumbnail help students quickly identify the content of each video. This is particularly important when you have a large collection of videos, as it allows students to easily locate specific topics when reviewing or studying.

Accessing Yuja and Yuja Training

How to Access Yuja

The ECTL's Jeff Miller demonstrates how to access Yuja from both inside and outside of Canvas and how you can use it to access and insert your own recordings, create new ones, and how to upload and/or embed web videos using Yuja.

Yuja Faculty Training

This video provides a general faculty training session from a Yuja customer support team member. It includes accessing Yuja in general, but Jeff's How to Access Yuja video above is the best source for how to access it here at UW. Yuja's Faculty Training session also includes information on creating content, media management, uploading content, sharing and embedding your Yuja content, and more.

Yuja Advanced Faculty Training

This video provides a more advanced training session for faculty here at UW by a Yuja customer support team member. It includes information on how to create video quizzes, integrating them into your Canvas course and Canvas Gradebook, as well as usage and analytics, engagement reports, the Yuja Media Player, in-video comments, and more.

UW Video Platform

Use this link to log in and access your own workspace in UW's Yuja Enterprise Video Platform:

University of Wyoming Video Platform