I was searching for some materials for my lecture, and came across the video below, summarising an academic journal article that I use in my teaching, and which I blogged about here.
I really, really liked this video. The camera follows a woman walking in a busy high street, while a female voice-over talks about how bloggers influence her shopping decisions. Now and then, text appears on the screen to define a technical term (e.g., para-social interaction) or to capture the implication of what is being said (e.g., that the impact of a blogger’s message on the reader’s shopping behaviour is moderated by credibility).
It is a relatively simple video, but it is such an effective way of communicating research. On the one hand, they video is richer and more engaging than a slide presentation, or even videos based on slide presentations, which is all that I have managed to produce so far. On the other hand, it looks easier to create than an animated movie (like this one about Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion).
I wonder how difficult (and expensive!) it is to create a short video like this one. Do you have experience of creating short videos? What is your advice?
Ana Canhoto 
iMovie is really good for a full video experience. I also came across an app- Animoto – which uses pictures to tell a story along with background music/voice over if you have that pre recorded. You can put texts on the screen too as part of the production. I paid £39.99 for an annual subscription. You can get a monthly deal too but more expensive if you plan to use it often. Check it out and see what you think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for the tips, Kemi. I see that Animoto has a free trial period, so I will give it a go.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think Kemi is right: iMovie is a good place to start. However, it seems that you might be limited in terms of how you present text. But, it certainly is worth giving it a go and start with that, so you get the hang of it. The video you describe seems simple enough in terms of filming and editing. I think in that case, the biggest challenge is coming up with the brilliant idea to illustrate your topic in that way.
A while back, I ran into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwgGL0W3ATg
It provides some great tips about how to teach on camera.
What I learned from taking a couple of MOOCs: using a set of slides as the basis for your video will result in a boring video. I think you should more approach it as a blog post. The most compelling video-lectures I’ve seen were more about story telling, than about lecturing. And the best ones took more inspiration from tv than from powerpoint. As an example, I can recommend viewing a couple of videos (the ones with ‘Episode’ in the title) from the World101x YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqy2P0rrqfbvMTDUFwNBE5w – on that channel you can also see that they have shot quite some material, and then used chunks (of the interviews) for the lecture videos.
I guess it really depends on the subject, and on your personal style. But my one tip would be: think like a tv-journalist, not like a teacher.
LikeLike
Thank you for the great links, Arjan (though I must say that I was a bit intimidate by the World101x materials – e.g, they seem to have at least 2 cameras).
Something interesting about both cases is the inclusion of other materials within the videos – that adds variety and interest to the session.
I agree with you about the slides. It does feel like a lecture and it is a bit boring. I suppose that, for me, it was a not-so-scary way of having a go at producing videos. But I must up my game!
Thanks, again.
LikeLike