Technical Tips for Recording Effective Videos for Online Instruction

Published by Nicole Dhanraj

With the increasing use of online learning, trainers, teachers, professors, and now, parents turned educators, must understand how to facilitate learning from behind a screen. Online learning provides massive advantages to all parties involved and opens the doors to impactful and three-dimensional learning. . .when it is executed effectively. An educator must be aware of how to capitalize on both educational and technological resources to provide a good learning experience.

One of the key areas that impact a student's learning experience is their visual connection to the teacher. If they are listening to a disembodied voice, students will be bored and disengaged. However, if you have a smooth, clear video stream, your gesticulations and body movement can be part of the key to keeping them engaged. Below are some tips on how you can ensure a high-quality video feed that will help maintain engagement with your students.

First, be aware of your bandwidth limitations. Both as a host and as an attendee, you need a stable and sufficient internet connection to join sessions. Zoom, one of the most popular online conferencing applications, recommends at least an upload and download speed of 5MB/s to join one-on-one and group calls with a 1080p video stream. However, the amount of bandwidth you receive greatly varies on your Internet service provider, number of users in your house, and your location in relation to your router. It is always best to connect directly to the router via an ethernet connection to ensure you receive the greatest amount of bandwidth - the more bandwidth you have, the more smooth your video stream will be. If you fail to do this, there is a higher risk of your Internet connection becoming unstable, resulting in a feed that is pixelated and garbled.

The next step in ensuring your video feed is high definition is using the correct hardware. There are two key pieces of hardware that you will need: a 720p or 1080p webcam, and a high-quality microphone. These devices encompass nearly all your communication with your students, so it is critical that they are reliable and can be budget friendly, but quality shouldn’t be compromised. A Logitech C270 720p Webcam and a Blue Snowflake microphone are great options. These are portable and has served me well. Also, they are both relatively affordable, and provide you with good value without breaking the bank. In a pinch, most gaming headsets have decent microphones, and if you have a laptop, it is more than likely a webcam is built-in. However, if you are streaming live, you may not necessarily want a large gaming headset on your head.