This resource will provide timely advice to classroom teachers on using live and pre-recorded videos. It will be helpful for any teacher teaching at any year level. 

General Tips

Many humans don’t like being videoed, let alone watching themselves on video. It is a natural response and comes back to the camera capturing how we look and sound to everyone except ourselves. There is no magic trick about how we resolve this dilemma. The cold hard reality is what we see and hear on camera is us, and we need to accept it and move on in the knowledge that we are often our own harshest critics. 

The goal with video is to connect with our students and continue building the learning-focused relationships critical to the learning experience. The goal is not to be the next Oscar-nominated director, but to connect. The finished product, live or pre-recorded, should follow this principle: good is good enough.

Going live

There are many reasons you might be using live video in your learning design. It could be to carry out direct teaching, run a class hui, or check in with a small group of students. Not all of the following tips will apply to each context; select those you believe will make your teaching more effective and engaging. 

• Take note of your background. There is specific advice on background contained in the digital safety advice. Even though you’re going live, you can test the camera shot before going live.
• Considering that most of us dislike seeing and hearing ourselves on video, practice your live video performance. It means using the same setup you plan to use when live and recording the first two or three minutes. Watch it back, give yourself one thing to improve and then repeat.
• If you’re running a larger session with over 10 participants, having two teachers on the video is beneficial, with two distinct roles.
  • Role one: to carry out the teaching, the planned content, and the agenda. Keep things moving along to be directly engaged with the students.
  • Role two: to manage the technical elements of the session. It could involve assisting a student who might have connection issues, to manage the chat, and to monitor the hands-up feature.

Pre-recorded Videos 

There are endless hours of videos available online. In 2020, for example, about 500 hours of content were uploaded every minute . Therefore, a quick and reasonable assumption would be that there are endless hours of potential content for teachers to use in their learning design.

Bearing in mind the purpose is to enhance the social connection and learning-focused relationships, how can this content be used to achieve this? Create a short mash-up.

Record an introduction to the lesson, greet the students, and speak to the lesson purpose, learning intention, and success criteria. Then insert a link to the content you’ve sourced from the internet. Finally, record a short conclusion that asks the student to check back in with the success criteria.

Following this process gives students a connection to their teacher. Also, it saves the teacher significant time by utilizing the vast amounts of helpful video content that can be found online.

Using third-party content

When using a video that has been uploaded to the internet, it is strongly advised to follow a few steps.

• Watch the clip you plan to use in its entirety. Ask yourself:
  • Is it suitable for the age and stage of my class?
  • Does it speak to the learning intention?
  • Do I need to use the whole video? If not, what is the timestamp I am asking the students to focus on?

Pre-recording videos– When creating a video for use in your learning design, here are just a few things to keep in mind.

1. Prepare your background – remember the students will see everything the camera captures, not just you. See the Online Safety Help Sheet for details on this
2. Have equipment ready that you will need. It needs to be at your fingertips.
3. Check the camera level, ensuring it captures what you need and intend.
4. Systemize your post-recording workflow.
   1. Use a standardized file name system.
   2. Save to the same location.
   3. Be patient; video files can get large, and therefore uploading them can take some time. Allow for this.

Where might you start? 

1. Going live – Practice before actually going live: record yourself for a few minutes, watch it back, give yourself some feedback and practice again.
2. Create a mash-up video, introduce it and then insert third-party video from a site like YouTube.
3. When using third-party video, ensure it meets your learning intention and watch it all the way through.

Further Information 

There are many sources of pre-recorded video suitable for use in learning design. Some examples are YouTube, Khan Academy, Nearpod. 

Adding customised backgrounds to video calls:

• Google Meet 
• Zoom
• Microsoft Teams