Whether you’re teaching a course for the first time or the twentieth, it’s a great idea to create fresh videos that support your learning goals. And with the support of the Online Learning Center, it’s easy!
Short videos keep students engaged, both online and in person. Here are some common approaches to creating video for courses:
• Introducing topics
• Capturing multimedia presentations
• Live demonstrations (with a screen, whiteboard, or software)
• Editing existing videos
Professor Cohen introduces a chapter on international management for his Summer 2022 course.
An example of our work: OLC staff worked with Professor Marty Cohen to create 15 short videos (5-10 minutes each) for his asynchronous summer course. To accomplish this, Professor Cohen prepared by creating notes on each “chapter” module of his course, and spoke extemporaneously to introduce each chapter in an informal and engaging way. In total, recording these videos took 3 hours in the studio, and then the files were uploaded to his course.
Ready to plan your project? Book studio time or request a studio tour by emailing OLC staff at olc@pace.edu. Use our online calendar to check availability for upcoming dates.
• 27.5 hours of consultations with faculty in Dyson, Education, Health, and Pace Online.
• 55 videos (940 minutes total) produced and edited for courses (Accounting, Education, Management) and special events (Pace Online Graduation).
Updates and highlights
• The Higher Education Administration and Student Affairs (HEASA) Capstone event was hosted in the OLC with a live audience and live broadcast.
• Pace Online Graduation was produced by and broadcast from the OLC.
• Planning is underway to develop video series for the Fall ’22 semester, including courses in Accounting, Biology, Computer Science, Film Studies, Finance, and Health.
A screenshot from “Pace Online Graduation 2022” event produced at the OLC.Recording a professional collaboration for the College of Health Professions.
• 25 hours of consultations with faculty in Dyson, Seidenberg, Health, Law, and Pace Online.
• 19 videos (272 minutes total) produced for courses (Biology, Education, Finance), programs (Health), and special events (Pace Online Graduation).
Updates and Highlights
• Brian developed the AV design and specifications of a new “Selfshot” video production station. The goal is to test possibilities for future OLC studio spaces located on the Pleasantville campus.
• Professor Joanne Singleton and her team from the College of Health Professions (and beyond) were in the OLC all day shooting a series of interviews with a variety of healthcare professionals. They used the OLC teleprompter to stay on script, and relied on “Pawfessor Spirit” to maintain a serious-but-fun atmosphere.
On the calm-yet-energetic College of Health Professions set.Editing Suite C became a make-up studio.Editing Suite D became a hair studio.
OLC student assistants greet Pawfessor Spirit, assisting with video preproduction for Pace’s College of Health Professions.Drew and Lara working on developing graphics for Pace Online graduation livestreams.
I had the good fortune of virtually attending SXSW EDU events this week, including sessions on lessons learned from pandemic education, the hybrid university, the science of learning, and accessibility & inclusion. All of these areas touch on the value and possibility of instructional multimedia.
The online “channel.”
The Live Stream
One of the more interesting aspects of attending the conference online was seeing how they used their website(s) to organize, broadcast, and network content. And in what ways they failed.
The image above shows the web-based “channel” view of the conference, and I understand they also published live video and VOD (“videos on demand”) to TV apps (e.g. Amazon Fire, Roku, Apple TV, etc).
Online, they dedicated space on the right for “Chat” and “Q&A,” although in the 6 live sessions I attended, there was not much interaction. In fact, it was mostly used as a space to bring technical issues to the attention of the event staff (and I am certainly guilty of this!), such as:
– Looping ads and schedule issues (running late?)
– No or low audio.
Despite there being ample SXSW website presence, there was no other “channel” for solving these problems. Other attendees reported no response form the virtual Helpdesk.
Virtual Networking
Crickets. A total dud. For most of the week, the “Social Networking” link on any event brought you to a centralized networking website with a searchable A-Z directory. The plug-in that tied this app into the video platform was evidently broken until the last day of the conference. But it’s hard to know if it was used. Here’s an effort I made to say hi to a presenter:
No response.
The Schedule
Overall I found the web experience confusing, with an unclear relationship between the pre-event website and the paid/login-only “SXSW EDU SCHEDULE” platform. However, the web-based tool to create my own conference schedule by “favoriting” sessions was helpful, as it became my go-to starting point each day.
Each event was coded (see below), but it was not always clear how or when a session would be accessible via video (or not):
“Live” events are live-streamed, and also available as video-on-demand (“VOD”).
I still am not sure what “online” means, because nothing about a session with only that code was online except the description. And it was not clear when “VOD” sessions would be made available, or for how long.
Final Thoughts
While claims of “moonshots” and “radical transformations” abounded, the main takeaway from many sessions was that the COVID-19 pandemic caused educators to use increasingly mixed modalities to support student learning outcomes, and that this was a good thing. As a recent meta-analysis shows, adding video elements to any kind of course can enhance learning outcomes.
Pace Sophomore Lara Gedeon has come aboard the Online Learning Center team for the Spring 2022 semester. Get to know Lara in this video she produced with Open Broadcaster Software and Adobe Premiere on an iMac here in the OLC.
Explain Everything is a powerful (and subscription-based) application for creating multimedia video tutorials. Here’s an elevator pitch that caught my attention for our work here in the OLC:
A professor of mathematics at Pace brought her recent work with this app to my attention today. Over the past two years, she has recorded hundreds of “explainer” videos featuring math problems. Very cool!
Though it does not yet support adding live video to a workspace, it does record live audio, so you can talk while you work. Here’s what a blank canvas looks like:
When you see a canvas this blank, you know you have some production work ahead.
Once you’ve recorded a session, you can use the editing tools within the app to make changes. This is very handy, and a good opportunity to add details to your presentation. Here’s a quick overview by a co-founder of the company:
Visual elements like backgrounds and gifs can make recordings fun, and also help demarcate content sections for re-watching ease.
Here in the OLC, you can create similar content by using our Wacom One and Open Broadcaster Software.
Have ideas for creating media like this? Contact us to set up a consultation or book studio time!
Joe Seijo and I (Brian Hughes) just delivered a Zoom webinar for faculty called “Create Engaging Videos for Classes.” Here is the recording (which, for all of my emphasis on creating layered video, iconically doesn’t include my talking head overlay on my slides due to a heretofore unknown limitation in Zoom).
A screenshot from the Q&A sesh.
This session focused on strategies for creating videos as course content using Pace’s Online Learning Center. Whether the goal is a presentation, demonstration, or another format, we covered basic steps, creative options, and best practices for producing engaging videos. We provided an overview of the center’s technology and capacities, and also provided tips and best practices for those who record videos from home.
38 faculty members attended, and about again as many expressed interest in the recorded webinar to view at a later time.
When the subject of a video is poorly lit for the camera, resolution and color is lost. In general, more light is better (low lighting can be great, but the camera has to be up to the task!). We’re always working against the inverse square law of light, so keep this in mind when calculating the power and placement of your lighting.
Source: Unknown.
To better light our subjects and sets, we’ve acquired a new set of lights:
Our new GVM LED “Bi-Color Soft 1200D” studio lighting.
