A practical guide to…chunking your lectures using existing lecture slides
With re-usability in mind
Most academics will start the process of converting their existing material to online content with a PowerPoint presentation typically designed for a 1-hour lecture delivered in a face-to-face setting. This is a short practical guide on how to chunk your existing PowerPoint slides to create short, asynchronous videos with re-usability in mind.
Preparing your PowerPoint to create short, asynchronous videos
- Organise your PowerPoint into chunks — you can use the Sections feature in PowerPoint to do this.
- Remove any activities / assessment / discussion points from your PowerPoint presentation — these wrap around the videos to create a chunk of learning.
- Align your video chunks to a learning outcome — if it doesn’t align then why are you creating a video? A learning outcome will help you define what a learner will be able to do after watching the video — and keep you more focused when you’re recording.
- Before you start recording, consider whether everything has to be recorded as a video? Could text convey the same information? Text is much easier to update than a video.
- How often will your video need updating? Is your video likely to change? If yes, keep it relatively informal, record in real-time, and keep editing to a minimum. Is your video unlikely to change? Invest more time into storyboarding and scripting.
- Remove the numbering and lecture title from your PowerPoint including any references to specific units and/or programmes — add this information in the text wrapper around the video. This will make life easier if you need to move the video into a different order or reuse it elsewhere.
- Keep your videos short! Try to keep the videos to 10 minutes or less — consider recording them in parts/series if the video is going to be overly long (e.g. part 1 of 3).
- When recording your video, don’t mention that this is video 3 of 10 — make sure each video is standalone. Add context into the text wrapper around the video. This also means that you can use the videos elsewhere in your teaching.
Here is an infographic on Preparing your PowerPoint to create short, asynchronous videos.
Recording your content
Voice-over PowerPoint
One of the easiest ways to record a video is simply to record a voice-over on your PowerPoint. This can be quickly and easily converted to a movie. Remember to make sure you have a good headset (ideally, a USB microphone, something like this) and always do a test first to make sure that you are happy with the quality of the audio. Here is a 1minuteCPD showing you how to do this:
Pros
- Quickest and easiest method of recording
- Use pre-existing material
- Minimal editing required
Cons
- Information can be quite static (but you can record your mouse movement if you need to point to specific parts of your slides)
Other methods to record your slides
PowerPoint isn’t the only way to record your slides. Other options include:
- Zoom / Blackboard Collaborate — great if you want more than one person in the video (licences provided via the University).
- Loom — great if you want to easily add a video of yourself to your video as a talking head as well as many other great features (get the pro account when you sign up with your manchester.ac.uk email address).
File management
Video files can be very large, especially if your video is long. Don’t store them on your C: drive or desktop as you will quickly run out of space on your computer. Store them on a network drive or on a file storage platform e.g. Dropbox / OneDrive. Dropbox / OneDrive is a good option as you can easily share links to your video with others.
Further resources
The FBMH e-learning team have put together a great resource on how to record and edit video, with some great practical tips too.
