So, it’s all well and good to not have to lecture, but what options are there for telling informative content that aren’t lecture? Here are just a few ideas:

• Use free or low-cost textbooks that include quizzing that is automatically graded and added to your gradebook. OpenStax offers plenty of introductory options including adaptive quizzing to help students that are struggling.
• Use a collaborative reading tool like Perusall for library-provided PDFs so you can see how much your students have read, engage in in-line discussion, and easily create grades from the reading they do.
• Using a tool like StudyMate, create flashcards of key terms, dates, or figures from the content in your course
• Use H5P widgets integrated into Pressbooks, so you can create any number of interactive elements to help your students prepare for class activities

After you have created all of your content in alternative tools, make sure to pull the primarily information-based material from your lecture, and consider if what you have leftover will constitute a good lecture or if other people have already created the video that you think would best address the needs of that particular part of your course. Also, feel free to get in touch with our Learning Experience Designers to see what options are available for help with designing your course. Their resources for alternatives are extensive.

Even though we know there are alternatives out there, the lecture (and video more broadly) is still a great option, when you consider why we all gravitate to film in the first place. Let’s think about it for a second. We often like video content because:

• It is personal
• It is emotionally engaging
• It is concrete and specific
• It allows us to peek into something previously unknown so we can be in awe of discovery
• It stimulates curiosity, inviting participants to learn more

You can think of many more reasons for why video is such an important part of our culture, and use them to make great videos of your own. In this way, we suggest to our partners that are considering the use of video to make sure that they shoot what they know and to consider the needs of their audience as well as the narrative flow of their course.

• Set your camera to record at the highest possible resolution.
• Position the camera at eye level: if you’re using a webcam or your laptop, use a box or stack books to raise the camera.
• Frame your head and shoulders in a comfortable medium bust shot: not a full body shot or extreme close up of your face.
• Follow the “rule of thirds”: the most appealing shot positions the subject on one side of the frame rather than centered.
• Allow for headroom: chopping off the top of your head would be distracting and too close
• Choose a simple background that will not distract your audience.
• Stand as far away from the background as possible: this will allow the background to fall out of focus.
• Always shoot landscape: if you are using your phone’s camera, never shoot portrait.
• More often than not, your phone will be the best camera around. If you’re using one for your recording, try to use it with a tripod, or even set up two phones to make edits and retakes easier later on. 
• Consider the level of intimacy the conversation calls for as you position the subject in the frame. An intimate, personal interview would suggest a tighter framing / closer shot than a less personal interview.
• If shooting an interview, the subject should speak to the interviewer and NOT to the camera. 
• The interviewer should sit as close to the camera lens as possible, so that the subject is looking just off to the side of the camera.
• If the interview is a conversation (if we hear the interviewer), it should probably be an over-the-shoulder shot so that both the interviewer and the subject are in the frame, or use two cameras.

• Shoot your video in a brightly lit area of your home or office.
• Stand facing or next to a window (not in front of it) to take advantage of the light: if you don’t have a lighting kit, position yourself and the camera to take advantage of the natural light in the space you are shooting.
• Don’t shoot into a window: a window in the shot during the day would be very overexposed and create far too much backlight.
• Place an extra light source in front of you, never behind.
• A shaded lamp placed close to your face, but still out of the frame, will provide a nice soft light.

• Practice, Practice, Practice: we find that in the studio the third or fourth take is usually the best. However, especially on longer pieces, it can sometimes take many more. Read through your script a few times before you even turn on the camera.
• Basic mechanics: 
• Make sure you drink plenty of water beforehand and have some close by so that your mouth doesn’t dry out and give you some smacking sounds.
• Jewel-tone colors without a complicated pattern often work best on camera.
• Jewelry that glitters can often be distracting on film.
• If filming with a greenscreen, limit fly-aways in your hair so that they don’t cause problems with editing.
• Blot away any oil on your face before you shoot footage to avoid shiny spots creating a visual distraction on your video.
• Imagine you are speaking to your favorite student or someone you are friends with or care about, instead of a room full of students – this will give your voice a more personal tone.
• Maintain an even, positive and excited energy throughout the video: most people’s energy tends to dip after a minute or two; stay focused.
• Ensuring good posture will help you to project and maintain high energy.
• Look into the lens when speaking: if your eyes wander, the audience’s attention will wander.
• When given the choice, it is always better to record one or two sentences at a time with enthusiasm and edit the pieces together with jump cuts, than it is to record the whole lecture in one take without making edits. For more on this idea, check out this video. 
• Remember to pause before and after your recording so that you have a small moment of time which you can cut off while editing. This allows you to get your face, body, and expressions in position before you start, and allows you to have a moment at the end where you can cut your video as well. As a bonus point, make sure you smile during these moments.

The first pass edit of your film is called a rough cut. The goal is to create the general layout of all of your scenes. It is important to focus on shot arrangement during this phase instead of color correction and filters. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but remember to keep moving forward. To build this version you will need:

• Trimmed clips to include in your film (usually can be achieved on your mobile device standard software or in some of the options we suggested above).
• Any images, graphics, charts, data, or supplementary materials that you want to include in the video.
• Any additional video clips to supplement your recorded video (usually called b-roll).
• Any appropriate quiz questions to be interspersed within your video, or discussion opportunities that will be added using PlayPosit.

To create your rough cut, you will compile all of your clips together, determine which of your items will be shown full-screen and which items will be shown in an overlay or full frame, and determine the transitions between your various clips. All of the editing tools that we have suggested will allow you to complete each of these items.

Once you have completed your rough cut, it’s important to have others who will give honest feedback an opportunity to watch the video and provide open criticism. Was it too long? How was your delivery? Were the graphics distracting or helpful?

Following this feedback, you’ll create your final cut, adding general polish to the entire product. You will ensure all audio levels are similar across the film, adjust color or light if needed, finalize your transitions, upload your media to Kaltura, add captions, and if including any interactive elements, add the file to PlayPosit so that it can be connected to your grade book.

The USG does offer a fair use checklist, which we highly recommend using for any supplemental materials you may use in your work. Every content creator has a right to have their content protected from someone else using it without permission. We understand this fully when we deal with our students and academic integrity and we should observe the same basic rules when it comes to our own content creation. 

To help in your own understanding of Fair use, download the guidelines for Best Practices in Fair Use to learn more about what you can use in your video and check out these following options for Creative Commons, Royalty-free and Public Domain content.

• Unsplash – A great assortment of modern photos that can be used with or without attribution.
• The Noun Project – Editable icons that are available with attribution to the original creator, unless you are willing to pay a small fee.
• Creative Commons – A search engine for content that can be used with attribution across the web
• Archive.org – Allows you to search for and download content classified as public domain. The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Therefore you can use this content without having to collect releases or credit anyone. Remember: Archival footage may have a different format than today’s 16:9 HD format. You can crop archival footage to match your composition, but you may lose some “information” from the frame.