← BACK TO LEARNING COMMONS PAGE
Centre for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
Centre for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
Centre for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
Do you have something to say (or an assignment due) and words typed into a textbox just won't do? Here are some tips to make Multimedia a successful online tool for communicating your ideas, focusing on best practices for multimedia production.
Many people at the college may be frequent social media followers, perhaps even a few influencers who have a good handle on how video and audio tools will enhance how you communicate your ideas. Others may have an aversion to the multiple setting involved, claiming not to have the technical skills required to film a video, share a screen recording, or make an audio-only podcast. These instructions will find a balance between the smartphone-savvy prosumer and the novice multimedia makers, starting with apps and Office 365 tools to make the process easier.
We will also include resources available through the Learning Commons that will assist with multimedia production that follow best practices. LinkedIn Learning offers a range of instructional courses on video and audio creation, available for staff and students at College of the Rockies. A good primer for instructors relating to their students' emerging multimedia practices come with this video on Building digital literacy skills.
As much as this page will present information about best practices in a general sense, it is important to consider what works best for you. Always consider whether a video will work or if there is another way to communicate. For instance, a hour-long lecture may be engaging for students in a face-to-face classroom where they can interact with the instructor, but watching a video recording of the same lecture somehow drags on and loses the audience's attention. Might an edited six-minute summary be able to capture highlights from the 60-minute lecture? The instructions below will help you plan the video using tools available online and through the Learning Commons.
For most of the options mentioned below, it will be good to separate the browser tab from other open tabs. Click and drag the browser tab away from the tab bar to make it a separate window. This way, anyone viewing your screencapture will only see the page in question, rather than all other tabs that remain at the top of the browser. if you are planning to share more than just one webpage, select a "screen" option instead of the "window" so that you can capture pop-up windows, navigation tools and other computer functions.
Several PC-supported tools will let you record your screen as well as web-cam video, including ScreenPal, Kaltura, Teams, Stream, PowerPoint. Most video created with these tools will create a MPG4 video file saved onto your desktop, but file format and location can be changed before you save. Icon in the ScreenCapture tool will guide you through the source for your video with other screen selection and audio settings.
Shorter screencapture video is also possible with Snipping Tool that will save as a MP4 recording in Gallery. Changes to the video clip can happen in the Snipping Tool window with the Trim feature or can be sent to Clipchamp video editing platform for more features discussed below.
Close up of the top bar of the Snipping Tool with Trim and Clipchamp features:
Some situations for creating a video go beyond the screen or webcam. Students required to film their practicum for a course, for instance, will have a couple of options for filming live events: using their own smartphone or borrowing video camera and other accessories available through the Learning Commons' audio/visual equipment. Smartphones have a variety of settings that make things easier to create and store videos, some with limited editing features such as trim or exposure changes. Become familiar with the main features of your own smartphone that will help you to complete your video of a live event.
One important step for filming is to plan what type of video you want to have uploaded onto a course page or shared with others at the college. As with many of the screencapture tools mentioned above, your video will be in a rectangular frame set in landscape mode with an aspect ratio of 16:9 frequently used by nearly all smartphones high definition (HD or 4k) video settings:
In contrast, filming in portrait mode cuts off two-thirds of the field of view by inverting the aspect ratio to 9:16 so that most video platforms will add black bars on either side of the frame:
You will be unable to recover anything outside the frame, so having video shot in landscape mode gives you more to work with. Cropping the Portrait image above to remove the black bars creates a much smaller field of vision, as indicated in the yellow inner frame:
Planning how you will film your video to include more coverage. Whether it involves mounting on a tripod with attachments to orientate your smartphone into landscape orientation, using stabilization features or proper exposure settings based on lighting, will help you with editing your video. Most smartphones now have tutorials on the video camera settings and its features. Be sure to test them out before filing your project.
Most desktop and laptop computers come with pre-loaded editing software: different PC have Clipchamp, ScreenPal, and Adobe Premiere; Mac computers are compatible with both iMovie and Final Cut Pro; there are also download for both types of computers such as DaVinci Resolve and CyberLink PowerDirector 365. The simplest way to find the editing program is to search your computer's apps for "video" or "editing" and using the software that gets recommended. Each editing program has its own unique features, but the basics are a follows:
Tips for video editing: Trim a clip either by click-dragging the brackets on either side of the Timeline clip and moving inward to the desired length, or choosing a point to cut in the middle of the clip and Split the video (often a scissor or razor blade icon) and choosing the part that you can delete. Most editing software has tutorials for all their features, often found in the Help section of their main menu.