1. Plan Content

Create a plan for your speaking, usually bullet points work best. Most people have trouble recalling scripts, and reading from notes is distracting for your viewers.

Rehearse to get comfortable with the content, and time yourself to develop a sense for how long it takes to convey information. Here are some links about video duration from TechSmith and Instructional Media.

Regardless of duration, try to make your content sharp and concise - your audience will appreciate efficient use of time, and you will regain the time investment by having less editing work to do.

2. Plan Recording

Identify the best location. Ideally somewhere with:

• Few distractions
• Minimal background sound
• Well lit subject (i.e. you)
• No light sources in the shot (i.e. bulbs, windows, and screens)
• Good internet connection

Prepare and test out your recording set up and software/app. This may just be your computer/phone/tablet with default software, but here are things you can try to raise quality:

Set the camera at eye level, to give a neutral and flattering perspective. This requires a stable support for the recording device, such as a stack of books or tripod.

A microphone that can be positioned close to your mouth will often sound much better and more direct than the built-in microphone found on recording devices. The quality of the mic may be a factor, but the key factor is how close the mic is to the sound source.

Optimize the lighting, so that you have a good amount of light on your face, but no light sources in shot – the aim is to avoid high contrast lighting. Sitting in front of a window can work well, and sometimes repositioning a desk lamp can help.

The key is to try things, make test recordings, and reflect on the approach that works best for you, in terms of quality and convenience.

Why improve video quality? Higher quality is more engaging and better understood.

3. Recording

Hopefully, your environment is set, have made some test recordings, and rehearsed! If you have a plan for content, then work through it.

Consider recording more than one take of each segment, so you have options to choose from. Leave at least a couple of seconds at the start and end of each recording for editing purposes, or there is a risk the sound is cut off abruptly.

It’s a good idea to verbally title each recording and keep written notes on which one seemed to go best – then during editing go straight to the best takes, review your work, and swap recordings if there is a need. This can save time compared to listening back to each take.

Earlier in a recording session you may wish to listen back to your recordings, in order to tweak presentation style or technical settings, and try again until optimized. As the session progresses you may feel more comfortable knowing how things will turn out, and record fewer versions/no longer listen back.

4. Post Production

Firstly, make sure your video files are adequately backed up e.g. on OneDrive or SharePoint.

Review your recordings ahead of publishing for quality control purposes. It’s probably worth removing any excess footage from the start and end, known as “trimming” the videos. This can often be undertaken with default video player apps like Photos on Windows (link to guide) and QuickTime on MacOS (link to guide).

If you want to take things further you can rearrange clips, add titles, and boost volume using video editing apps. Check out the further reading at the end of this guide for more information.

5. Publishing

To publish a video, upload it to a video sharing platform, such as Echo, MS Stream, or YouTube. The appropriateness of the platform depends on who the video is for and what it contains, and it’s advised to seek guidance on this. Most platforms can be embedded into Moodle.

If sharing a file directly, e.g. by sharing via OneDrive or uploading to Moodle, as opposed to publishing on a video platform, then make sure the format is widely usable (mp4 file type is the most widely compatible). Video conversion guidance is available via the Further Reading section below.

All disseminated videos need to be properly captioned, which is best achieved by generating automatic captions within the hosting platform, and then manually checking / correcting. Automatic captions alone will not suffice. Better quality audio will produce more accurate captions, and the checking / correcting can potentially be delegated (i.e. to student workers or 3rd party services). More detailed guidance can be found via the Further Reading section below.

List of Resources, Activities, and Links

How to record a webcam video (Microsoft)

How to look good on webcam (Wistia)

Tips for Recording Yourself on Video (New York University)

Beginner's Guide to Recording Video Tutorials (Flipped Normals)