Thread by @torstenkathke

Since my online teaching thread has gotten some traction, as promised here's one on the technical aspects of creating teaching content.

Note that this is from the point of view of someone with some technical knowledge regarding computers/cameras/audio/video, but not an expert.

https://twitter.com/torstenkathke/status/1283037060228579328

Apologies: this may get long…

I'll start with some general information regarding what I had to do and how I ended up doing it.

If this doesn't interest you and you're only looking for some tech tips, keep scrolling, they're towards the end.

My first question was: what kind of online experience must/should/can this class be? Your institution may have certain demands: how much of a class has to be taught synchronously (video calls, chats) or asynchronously (downloadable videos and other materials, forums, wikis…)

I was relatively free to decide how classes should look, but needed to heed university policy that I was not allowed to make synchronous parts of the class mandatory. Your mileage obviously may vary.

Looking at my classes, I realized that an introductory survey course (U.S. history until Reconstruction) lent itself to weekly lecture videos, while another class would only need a few supplemental videos and have regular discussions online.

(Skype for Business was what I used because of university policy, but generically “Zoom classes” is the term I'll use since that's what people are familiar with. In the end I just needed a way to connect with students, show slides, and have a chat window built into the program).

I'd planned on doing video meetings for both classes weekly, plus regular 90-minute office hours into which students could just “drop in” at a set time every week, using a link I posted to the top of the learning management site for each class (I used Moodle).

But even before classes started, I realized that the survey would have almost fifty students who expected mostly a lecture class. So out went the weekly Zoom meeting for that class. (Remember, JGU, my university, had decided that synchronous parts could only be used as optional.)

After four weeks of dutifully standing by during office hours, only one student had shown up, and only to test whether their video setup worked. I decided to keep the regular office hour time slot but require appointments, which was more successful.

That left one class relying on a weekly video meeting. To keep a regular schedule and assuming students had chosen the class in part for its time slot, I began the meeting when the regular face-to-face class would have started but left end time open. We averaged about 60–70 mins.

To both make this virtual class worthwhile for those who showed up, and still allow the others to participate, I told students they could answer questions in the chat. I created two threads on the class forum for every class and put kick-off questions there to start discussions.

This meant that, first: the students attending the weekly seminars could copy and paste their contributions into those threads (one for primary source discussions, one for secondary materials) after class and were done with that part of their participation, and

Second: other students who could not attend would find already-begun discussions on the discussion board and could contribute. It worked well, though not perfectly, but it did make it worth students' time to join the online meeting while not excluding others.

Whether this approach would work for you again depends on many factors, but for me it helped “square the circle” of preserving some semblance of substantive face-to-face interaction while not making it mandatory.

The second class relied much more heavily on prerecorded lectures and additional videos. This is where the technical aspects really come in. Again, this is just my own experience. While I think it can help others, some of the specific things I did probably wouldn't work for you.

I made two types of videos: A) full-on lectures with slides, recorded using the free OBS (obsproject.com) – @JamesBSumner made great video tutorials for how to use this - & B) quick videos of just me talking to explain how the seminar worked and address current issues.

Some of these were just me sitting down in front of the camera, talking, and uploading unedited. Others took much longer because I wanted them to be more concise, or add text to them, such as dates for exams.

This isn't comprehensive, but I've distilled down a few of the tech/organizational lessons I learned into these eight points:

1. Video: Use what you have, but upgrade when you need to. A built-in laptop webcam or smartphone on a tripod clamp (cf. <smartphonefilmpro.com/what-are-the-b…>) is good enough for teaching videos.

Importantly: Enough light (lamps and windows in front/side of you, never in the back) is more important than camera quality.

I eventually bought a dedicated vlogging camera to put on a tripod for quick “here's something I still needed to tell you” messages. But I only did this after getting annoyed that my phone kept draining its battery and my seven-year-old digital camera never focused on my face.

I had spent hours cursing and trying to work around it, and eventually gave up. The rule here should probably be: If you feel the need for something better or more convenient just in order to not waste days upon days of your time, then it's time to upgrade.

2. Audio: matters more than video. A built-in microphone is good enough. But if you feel like you need to (and have the means to) upgrade, your microphone should be first.

A cheap lavalier clip-on microphone like this (boya-mic.com/lavaliermicrop…) can already do an almost professional job. Just make sure your phone/laptop/device has the right kind of connector.

Adapters exist for all these things, including the missing headphone jack on newer phones, and getting the right one will save you a lot of troubleshooting. Most modern laptops, like the Apple and Lenovo models I have, have a TRRS connector, like the one on the linked microphone.

Once you start googling, there are millions of discussions which type of microphone, which connector, brand, etc. is best. It doesn't matter. Just make sure you understand how to use the one you have, i.e. which distance from your mouth it should be, which end to speak into, etc.

3. File size/quality. Video comes in all kinds of bit rates, frame rates, and resolutions. For teaching, the lowest normally used framerate (usually between 24 and 30 frames per second, sometimes even fewer) is enough. 720p or 1080p video is enough. Low bit rates are enough.

My “good” camera creates a 1 GB file for just a few minutes of video, while a software like OBS or Panopto will let you talk for an hour and the file is less than that. It's of course nowhere near the quality, but it fills the screen and gets the point across.

If you don't know what any of these things mean: use whatever is the standard setting. If it doesn't produce huge files and looks ok, that's fine. (NB: Thanks to @newmethos for helping me with some of this stuff at the beginning of the semester).

4. Length: The best length for a video is how long it needs to be. I tried very hard to keep my first lectures short, but a shortened semester required putting more things into some of them.

The shortest ran 25 or so minutes, the longest (which included an extra outlook, a wrap-up of the seminar, and an in-depth discussion of a text) was 75.

Up to 45 minutes I wouldn't worry too much about holding students' attention if you've prepared the material well and don't digress too much. (I know this is different than a lot of best practice, but I forgave myself for going long in favor of getting it done at all).

5. Avoid having to edit in postproduction. It is much better to create a script, or very detailed slides before you record, and correct yourself if you mess up, either while you're still shooting, or with a quick note to students in the LMS or via forum post, e-mail, etc.

Honestly, this is the big one:

Avoid having to edit as much as possible. It taxes computers, it always takes longer than you think, and editing software is notorious for crashing and messing things up in new and unforeseen ways. At least it was for me.

6. But do watch yourself lecturing.

I know many people don't like to do this, but nothing helped me more to understand what I needed to fix. (I'd also recommend looking to YouTubers for how to present content in an engaging manner with limited means.)

7. Good enough is good enough. As a perfectionist, this grates on me, but it's better to get things done than get them just so. This is true for content, speech tics that make you cringe at yourself, and technical issues such as drop-outs of picture and sound.

If people can still get the gist of what you're trying to tell them it's good enough. Be okay with just improving the next one. Never go back and try to fix the last one.

And, 8 - not technically technical, and kind of obvious, but still important: be yourself.

Personality, humor and your interests come through in classrooms, they can also come through in your content. Don't be afraid of jokes or especially stressing the things you care about.

And that's it. Sorry it got so long.

Once more: I do not profess to have all the answers, or even most of them, and your situation may be different. But I had some time to reflect on what I did wrong and right this past semester, and I thought I'd pass it along.

Addendum: If anyone would find this useful, I can also link to some of the gadgets/l equipment (software, cameras, external hard drives, etc.) that I used and why I ended up choosing them.

I spent way too much time researching this, so I'd be happy to share.