Simple, Cheap, and Easy Video for You and Your Students

Screencasting for Pedagogy

Screencasting is ideal for creating repeatable, pausible Free up classtime.  Create repeatable mini-lessons that cover technical procedures or introduce features of software or web tools.  This frees up classtime for more important things.  (Parentheses indicate the tool used to create the tutorial.)  

Assessment: Basic Video

Production

In various courses, students can learn some Students learn basic digital creation and analysis skills for video media, by creating simple video documentary films.  In addition to content considerations, students .

• Public television-style documentary. 
  • Ken Burns, Frontline, etc.
  • Simple slide-shows.  Video clips.  Graphics.
• Mini-lessons. 
  • Explainers: procedures or concepts.  
  • Can become OERs for other students, classes, world.   

 Considerations

• Nature of Content, learning objectives determine type of video.
• Students must learn the procedures for using software and online hosting sites

• .
• Budget/factor in time, effort for this.
• Provide suggestions or requirements on tools: video production.  Delivery (YouTube?  LMS?).  Hardware (Camera? Definitely a microphone.)  
  

Instead of making tutorials, you can find videos that other people have made.  The above videos make no reference to a specific course, and may be used by instructors in multiple classes.  Many, such as this video for iMovie, are quite good,  but might not be ideal for your assignment.  Existing tutorials on the web (video or otherwise) may have more or less than your students need for your class.  As with any assignment, you'll need to consider whether existing resources are appropriate, or something more specific must be made.

If you regularly assign video assignments, anticipate discovering new tools students might use, and recording new tutorials for your class.  In the past, for Windows users Before you create your own screencasts

• Good videos already available on YouTube?  
  • For example, this one, for iMovie, is pretty good
  • Distracting advertising?  
  • Too long, or spends too much time on things not relevant to course project?
    
• Make non-course-specific videos useable across your courses?  Useable by colleagues?
• Collaboration with colleagues, Teaching & Learning, IT staff?
• Best: usable by anyone.

Anticipate replacing obsolete videos

• Awhile ago I recorded video how-tos for Movie Maker 2012, but have since concluded that it's clunky and troublesome, compared to simply using PowerPoint.

Sample Assignment

Content considerations  Video assignments may vary, but some common elements to consider:

• Learning objectives
  • documentary video requires rigorous--scholarly–content quality.  
  • quality work: stream-of-conciousness or hastily prepared video unacceptable.
• Script.  Students should draft content before recording.
  
  • Teacher feedback on draft?
  • Scholarly evidence: citations, bibliography.
• Image content requirements: What should appear on screen?
  • Property Rights
  • Timing, transitions, visual effects
  • Bibliography, citations, attributions?
• Instructions for sound
  • narrative delivery: Deliver with conviction.  Practice.  Expect to Edit.  
  • Music?  
    

Sample Assignment Script

This assignment is for a U.S. military history course populated primarily by non-history majors.

Here's a great discussion of creating a documentary video assignment (aimed at K-12 students, but certainly adaptable to higher ed.)

Cheap and Free Options for Screencasts and Video Slideshows

	Very quick and easy screencasting. Limited to five minutes. To share videos, practically requires upload to screencast.com, and use of flash for playback.
	Ideal for everyday screencast and webcam recording. Free version allows 15 minute videos with a minor watermark. Videos recorded can be sent directly to Screencast-O-Matic's hosting site or YouTube, and allows video file creation for hosting in Google Drive. Videos can record and include screencasts, webcams, or both. Paid version includes editing and scripting tools.
	Simple online slideshow video creator, that does not require a login (account.) Must record narrative audio with another tool, and upload to combine with slides.
	High-end video creation and editing suite, that contains an excellent toolset for screencast or webcam recording. Camtasia is very expensive, but offers discount for educators. (There's a 1-month free trial, but it installs an imposing watermark on videos.) If you anticipate doing lots of video work, it is worth purchasing. For example, Camtasia has a full-featured, simple to use pan-and-zoom tool not widely available in screencast or editing applications.
	An excellent whiteboarding tool for tablets that records all activity as a screencast. Ideal for discussing maps or images with annotations.
	Microsoft PowerPoint, particularly 2013 and 2016, can easily export slideshows with narrations and timings to .MP4 video files.
QuickTime & iMovie for Mac	Mac computers include excellent tools for webcam and screencast recording and editing.
Adobe Spark	A simple, free toolset that allows creation of meme graphics, simple but dynamic web pages, and slideshow videos. Works on Desktop (PC or Mac) and mobile apps (Tablets.)

Hosting Videos

	Common Standard. Includes simple editing tools. Included in Google Apps for Education.l Best if students are required to make their videos public.
Google Drive	Cloud Storage using YouTube player tech. Included in Google Apps for Education. Best if students are sharing video with instructor or classmates only.
	Alternative Excellent and popular alternative to Google products.