Month: January 2023

Creating Engaging Stories with Video

At this week’s 4th Annual Pace Online Conference, I presented on the opportunities and challenges of storytelling in instructional videos. My talk was titled, “Creating Engaging Stories with Video.”

Stories – that is, stories that are only indirectly connected to the subject matter – have the potential to help students better connect with multimedia content. As David JP Phillips shares, stories can make your brain more receptive to learning. These could be personal stories or stories from your field that connect to the subject matter or lesson.

David JP Phillips presents on storytelling at a TedX event.
How storytelling changes brains.

But telling stories also requires students to spend more time with our media, and that can be a challenge. I shared the story of Quibi to reinforce how even 10-minutes videos fall awkwardly between short videos (that require less commitment) and long videos that rival media choices with higher production values and well-crafted stories (well, some of the time).

I depict the “Battle for Eyeballs.”

A Call to Action

What’s the best way forward? It’s up to each faculty member to wrestle with this issue, but I challenged everyone to try to bring a story into lectures that are longer than 10 minutes.

After sharing a personal example, I asked everyone to reflect on a time or experience in their life that led them on their academic journey. I thought it would be helpful to experience this work of identifying possible stories, even though it can be frustrating sifting through memories and making connections to subject matter! And further complicating the path ahead, a professor will need a handful of ready-to-use stories to call upon over the course of a semester.

Brian shares his experience as a young media maker working with comedian Josh Kornbluth on an instructional video.

For the final part of my presentation, I reviewed the resources and services of the OLC, and invited faculty to seek our help in bringing stories into their videos.

Ready to record a story? Book a consultation or production time in the OLC studios. We look forward to working with you!

 

How to edit any video like a Pro

Hello there,

I often waste my time scrolling my project timeline while editing my videos.

Let me share some quick tips and tricks for staying organized while video editing.

1. Choose the best software:

The first step toward enhancing your video editing process is to pick the best software for you and your work. They usually include everything you need to make standard video edits, but you may prefer one over another due to its usability, digital interface, and features. The key here is to select what works best for you and your editing style rather than the most advanced video editing program available.

2. Follow the 3-2-1 Rule:

Video editors using any program should obey the 3-2-1 rule. Keep three copies of everything you create in at least two different locations, one of which is physically separated from the others.

3. Edit for a story:

Go beyond the basics of removing unnecessary footage and rearranging clips to make your film aesthetically pleasing and dramatically compelling in order to generate the appropriate emotions and effectively convey your intended message. Instead of just adding a bunch of effects to impress your viewers, use your practical and technical knowledge to accomplish this.

4. Managing an efficient work flow:

Organizing your projects and files in folders that you can reuse is one way to improve your workflow. Make a home for your projects, footage, audio files, images, and graphics, and add more subsections and folders as needed.

5. Use keyboard shortcuts:

Speaking of buttons, keep in mind that most editing programs allow you to perform a variety of in-app editing functions using keyboard shortcuts.

6. Color correct your clip:

Most editors do two things: color correction (to ensure that your footage’s colors are consistent in each scene) and color grading (to give your film a different look). Both are required if you want the majority of your scenes to look as realistic as possible, or if you want to distinguish certain scenes from others, such as when using presets like sepia and monochrome on “flashback” scenes.

7. Add texts and graphics:

Adding text and graphics to a video can help to improve its overall appearance and draw attention to important information. Texts and graphics can help to convey a message, set the tone, or add context. They can also be used to emphasize critical things, introduce new topics, or provide useful visual aids. Text and graphics can also help to make a video more engaging and entertaining.

Year in Review

Media Production in 2022

With the Online Learning Center opening in late January 2022, faculty from across the University have developed video and related media for their courses and projects. In total, OLC staff have held 245 hours of consultations with faculty, and collaboratively produced 444 videos. With each video averaging about 8 minutes in length, this is over 62 hours of video. It was a great first year, and we’re looking forward to new and diverse projects in 2023! See OLC Monthly Updates for project highlights (and video examples). As always, please contact OLC staff with your questions, ideas, or production needs.

January Update

It’s a great time to plan for your spring courses. We hope you will contact OLC staff with question, ideas, or production needs!

Media Production in December

  • • 29 hours of consultations with faculty in Dyson, Education, CPH (Health), and Haub Law.
  • • 44 videos produced (461 minutes total) and 21 additional videos edited.

Updates and Highlights

  • • The OLC hosted its third HEASA Capstone event, where masters students present their original work and research in the field of Higher Education Administration.
  • • Video production continued for the Paralegal Certificate program with modules on legal writing.

  • HEASA students present their work to their colleagues. The event was streamed (via Zoom) and recorded for the Pace University Institutional Repository (maintained by the library).
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