Creating Digital Lectures

There are number of options available when it comes time to creating digital lectures for your online course. You may choose to record a brief segments that addresses individual learning objects, you may want to lecture using PowerPoints or you may want to tackle something more complex like recording video of a lab experiment.  Whichever approach that you chose we recommend working closely with our Instructional Video Services (IVS) department ivs@njit.edu 973-596-3005.

Enhanced PowerPoint - Using this method, it is possible to record audio that becomes synchronized with PowerPoint slides.  While there are many tools available to create these types of lectures there are two that IVS normally recommends:

  1. For PC users Camtasia (www.techsmith.com) is recommended. For tutorials on using Camtasia please see the Multimedia portion of the TLT’s tutorial site: http://www.njit.edu/tlt/resources/animations/index.php.   
  2. If you are using a Mac Profcast is recommended (www.profcast.com).

Both programs work with PowerPoint to provide an easy way for faculty to start producing lectures on their own at a convenient time and place.  One benefit to this method is that it is very easy to distribute these materials to students using tools such as NJIT on iTunes U (http://itunes.njit.edu).  

Audio Only Podcasts - Another popular way to create digital lectures is to produce audio only podcasts.  While these normally do not include pictures or images, they can be a great way to easily introduce concepts, learning objects or assignments.  One of the easiest ways to create podcasts is to use Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).  Audacity is shareware and is available for both the PC and Mac.  For tutorials on using Audacity please see the Multimedia portion of the TLT’s tutorial site: http://www.njit.edu/tlt/resources/animations/index.php.

Full Video – IVS runs a fully functional television studio http://media.njit.edu/IVS/pages/tvstudio.php, manages candid classrooms http://media.njit.edu/IVS/pages/candid.php and is capable of handling on-site video-recordings http://media.njit.edu/IVS/pages/services_video.php.  If you would like to incorporate full-video into your class please contact them to determine what your best options are.  They will be more than happy to work with you to identify the best solution based upon your needs.

Regardless of which approach you select, you will want to make sure that your end product is clear and meets certain minimum technical standards.  IVS will be able to work with you to determine what setting are best to ensure that all materials meet the students’ expectations. Similarly, we also recommend that you send them your early test segments for review.  This will make the best use of your time by catching and addressing any problems early-on in the recording process. 

Tips for PowerPoint – The following are some recommendations that you should keep in mind as you review your PowerPoint presentations:

  • Start every presentation with an information page.  This slide should contain the course name, a lecture designation (such as “Hydrodynamics”) as well as your  name.
  • Fonts should be of the Sans Serif nature: Arial, Tahoma and Verdana work well.  Font size for text & bulleted items should be a minimum of 26 points.
  • Use a consistent style for the background - the background should use a solid dark color. On slides that contain charts, tables and diagrams, use a one color solid background.
  • Although gradients can be attractive, they are made up of dots that often “flare” in some video applications.  Do not use pure black or any style of red and avoid patterned backgrounds.
  • Text should be of a lighter color such as off-white or pale yellow.
  • Keep the information on the page simple.  Remember, students will be looking at a much smaller window - six lines [i.e. 6 bullets or 3 bullets w/ a subtext] are fine for a slide.  Do not worry about having to add another slide to cover the information.  It is better to have two or three legible slides than one illegible slide.
  • Be aware that animations or reveals may not translate.  Therefore, do not make your presentation dependent of them. 
  • Avoid using “sounds” in animations.

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