Creating Effective Lecture Videos

Creating Effective Lecture Videos

Microlectures

Short videos, usually produced by the instructor, that explain a single key concept or a specific skill.

Click on a topic below or just advance to the next page.

• Resources for Learners

• Microlecture Purposes

• Planning Your Video

• Keep It Personal

• Keep It Brief

• Tips & Tricks

• Excellent Microlecture Example

• Focus on the Main Concepts

• Additional Resources

• What to Show on the Screen

• Including Interactive Elements

Purposes of Microlectures

Your microlecture should be 1 of the following:

Pre-work to prepare for an upcoming lesson.

Follow-up to improve retention and boost previous learning.

Standalone learning opportunity.

Keep It Personal

• Video lectures are an opportunity to build relationships, so be real and share something about yourself.
• Your words and demeanor should tell learners you respect and care about them.
• The personal touch helps to build connections and can be especially important to demonstrate valuing diversity in the learning community.

Keep It Brief

• Less than 10 minutes.
• Ideally, 5-6 minutes.
• Break longer videos into separate, shorter videos.

Why So Short?

• Research shows learners retain more information from shorter videos.
• "Chunking" content into narrow, separate topics improves understanding.
• It's easier for learners to find time to watch multiple short videos than 1 long video.

Focus on the Main Concepts, Ideas, Questions, and Themes

Talk about what learners should consider or understand deeply.

Reduce emphasis on covering lots of individual facts.

Weed out unnecessary information and distractions.

Get rid of any content, audio, or video "clutter."

Provide additional content in another video, handout, or synchronous meeting.

You can't cover EVERYTHING in 1 short video, so be strategic about your goals.

What to Show on Your Screen

The more of you that you show, the more personal the video. But if it's more than a few minutes long, you'll want to make the video more interesting and informative by adding other visual elements.

Visuals on the main screen with a small video of yourself speaking.

Desktop, slide deck, images, white board, and/or other visuals.

Yourself, speaking on camera.

Including Interactive Elements

You might incorporate active learning opportunities where students pause the video to do a task when instructed.

Task

Reflect

Hover over the examples for "pause point" ideas.

Write

Apply

Provide Resources for Learners

PDFs

Resources should be distributed as PDFs or other accessible format whenever possible.

Provide materials used in your video to learners so they can review slide decks, data, and other resources without having to re-watch the video. Subtitles are automatically generated in YouTube as a resource. These can display as the video is played and can also be downloaded from YouTube.

Subtitles

YouTube's automatic subtitles usually contain errors, which can impact learning for people with impaired hearing.Manually check and correct subtitles, particularly for videos that will be reused. Click the link for instructions.

Planning Your Video

Microlecture Planning Document (in Teams)

Helps to organize ideas about components such as:

• Topic
• Learning Objectives
• Content
• Interaction
• Format & Materials

Tips & Tricks

• If you are using images or video from the internet, be sure to give credit.
• Respect copyright laws when using images and other materials.
• Your video doesn't have to be perfect! Stumbling over a word, looking for the right slide, or your cat walking in front of the camera serve to highlight your humanity. So focus on good content rather than perfection.

• Have good lighting.
• The background should be reasonably professional and not too cluttered. It's okay to display personal items.
• An external microphone is preferable to the computer's built-in audio.
• Speak with more energy than you normally would! Video recordings "flatten" a presenter's affect, so you want to compensate for that.

Example of an Excellent Microlecture

Check out this great video, and notice these features:

• Short video (7.5 minutes) with a focused topic.
• Talking head and slideshow with clear, simple graphics.
• Pauses for interactive elements.

Additional Resources

Video:Work from Home Filming Setup

​​​​Video: ​​How to record GREAT Video Lectures (39 Tips)

Video: Make Super Simple Videos for Teaching Online

Article: Creating Effective Educational Videos

Video: How to Recorda PowerPoint Deckas a Video