Video Capturing Lectures

Creating video footage of materials for blended or flipped classroom environments can be time consuming for teachers. Often the teacher is already presenting the materials at some point and if the lecture was captured then this resource could be available for future classes or as supplemental materials for the class they are teaching.

One program that is growing in popularity is Screencast-O-Matic (https://screencast-o-matic.com/). This software allows capturing the screen from the teachers computer along with the audio. The program supports editing the video, and posting the content. There is a reduced pricing for available for education but it is not free.

Web conferencing programs like Webex and Zoom (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-Recording/) allow recording of a web presentation. The shared screen is captured along with an image of the active speaker and the room audio. The video files can be saved in mp4 format and then edited using industry standard programs like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. With these programs the audio can be adjusted and the video can be cut into topic based movies. Still images can be added to the movies where details of the lesson are desired.

Digital media capturing and editing are great resources for teachers and reduce the amount of time required to produce educational videos which can then be used in the teaching environment.

Most people today have grown up with television and are expecting media in a movie format. Guidelines are being thought through as to how to use video effectively in education (https://www.nyu.edu/faculty/teaching-and-learning-resources/strategies-for-teaching-with-tech/video-teaching-and-learning/guidelines-for-video.html). Research is being conducted to determine how valuable video information is in education (http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/).

In my experience when using web conferencing programs to capture my own teaching, I have found it takes a bit of time to get comfortable with being recorded and to just get back to paying attention to the students. A great feature of the digital world is it quick and easy to edit the video after.

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