10 Tips to Make Your Education Videos More Professional

Audience Level: 
All
Session Time Slot(s): 
Institutional Level: 
Higher Ed
Streamed: 
Streamed
Abstract: 

An experienced video producer will share 10 key ways to make your education videos look and sound professional. We will cover topics ranging from audio and framing to delivery and storytelling. You will analyze these tips and discover how they can be applied within your own context.

Extended Abstract: 

While video was not a major part of online education 25 years ago, today, educational videos are an essential part of elearning all over the globe. High-quality videos can increase teaching presence, capture (and keep) students’ attention, and help them learn and retain knowledge. It is and will continue to be important for many educators to develop media skills as the industry evolves over the next 25 years.

There are many free and low-cost tools available to record your own videos. But how do you present yourself and your message in a professional way? Have you used these tools in the past but found the end result disappointing? How can you take it to the next level?

In this presentation, a professional video producer (with 15 years of production experience both inside and outside of higher education) will show you how to make your videos look and sound more professional. We will outline 10 key tips for producing high quality videos. This will include both technical specs and overarching strategies for presenting information through video. We’ll also touch on important accessibility considerations for video and multimedia.

The 10 topics we will discuss are:

  1. How do you improve audio, the most important part of video?

  2. Beyond the obvious, why is captioning essential (and how do you make it easier to do)?

  3. What do you need to know about framing a shot?

  4. What are some important lighting considerations?

  5. How can you use visual communication to help with comprehension?

  6. How can you elevate graphic design?

  7. How can you (and why should you) achieve brevity?

  8. What should happen during pre-production?

  9. What type of delivery is most effective in a video?

  10. How can storytelling help with recall?

The structure of this session will be highly interactive. As we discuss these production tips, you will be presented with real-world examples. Through an interactive technology, you will apply this knowledge by determining how each example could be improved. You will be encouraged to ask questions and offer up additional real-world examples for the group to troubleshoot. Additional “pro tips” and examples will be provided online after the session to help you continue mastering these concepts.

Although this presentation will primarily be geared toward instructors and instructional designers/technologists working on educational videos, anyone looking to polish up their video production skills can benefit from this session.

Conference Session: 
Concurrent Session 4
Conference Track: 
Tools and Technologies
Session Type: 
Education Session
Intended Audience: 
Design Thinkers
Faculty
Instructional Support
Training Professionals
Technologists