Best Practices for Video

Before producing videos, learn about some of the basics.

Video is just like any other educational tool: it can either help or hinder learning. Creating videos that are maximally effective requires an understanding of how we, as humans, process visual and auditory information. In the articles listed below, you'll find helpful articles that will help you understand how best to create course videos, with special attention on how to design visual aids.

Multimedia Services Best Practices Articles

• Effective Course Videos: several categories of educational videos that are particularly good uses of the medium
• Improving Videos: what you can do with videos that you don't have time to re-shoot
• Instructor Visibility: how an instructor's visibility in a course video can impact learning.
• Module Introductions: why module introduction videos are an excellent addition to any course
• Multimedia Learning: a deep dive into the cognitive psychology research that informs our current understanding of how the brain processes words and pictures during learning
• Performance Tips: advice for instructors when they're on camera
• Presentation Design: a guide with concrete tips on how to design visual aids you intend to use in your course video (such as a PowerPoint presentation)
• Video Basics: three basic principles of filmmaking that will help you make good-looking videos
• Video Length: what contemporary research says about how long your video should be
• Video Quantity: an attempt to address the question of how many course videos you should make