Here is a Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/953739633728290818 about recording videos for online courses and teaching online.
Thoughts on recording lectures: on the one hand you can do narrated PowerPoint with no view of the lecturer. The other way is recording yourself on webcam with no PowerPoint. I have been using Screencast-O-Matic and can toggle between PowerPoint with webcam small to webcam big.
I also am recording a copy on Audacity and exporting it as an MP3 so students have the option of just listening to the lecture rather than watching the YouTube version. Wow is it easy to cut off the beginning and end of a recording with Audacity.
A huge question of course is whether students will listen to your recorded lectures or watch your videos. Like most things, it probably depends on to what extent they're required for their success on the graded assignments.
Students would watch probably if the lectures were short and as good as a movie or as funny as Trevor Noah.
I changed my approach with PowerPoint to basically removing all words and quotes and summaries and just leaving photos. I am looking at my old PowerPoint with all of that stuff on another laptop as my notes while I record. So I advance 2 slides each time.
I tried to record my videos in different places that approximately fit the theme of the lecture in order to give the students some variety. The first priority is a quiet place so for example, church sanctuaries, offices, home dining room, church and university lobbies.
To film, I brought in a roller bag: two lamps to shine in my face https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YP4A1U6 …, extension cord, power bar, two laptops, Blue Snowball USB mic https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EOPQ7E/ … and pop filter / wind screen (to stop p b "pops"), shoeboxes for elevating laptops, and shirt change.
My school, Bethel University, has a professional studio and a full-time film-maker "Lead Media Designer" in Teaching & Learning Technology but there is a 4 month production wait and I'm needing videos for five different online courses during January and Spring this year.
In the past, I used 30-60 minute weekly online synchronous sessions via Adobe Connect or WebEx. I surveyed students via Doodle on time(s) that worked for everyone. If students missed a session, they had to write a response to the recording. I still think this is a good approach.
I have now moved to recording lectures with Screencast-O-matic and posting to YouTube. I use 30-min synchronous sessions via Adobe Connect or WebEx for discussion on webcams of a case study or poll that probes student learning. If they miss, they write response to the recording.
Other tips on online teaching: I recommend shorter more frequent papers rather than really long ones. I have students post their papers in a forum (on the course site) and require students to read and respond to the papers of two other people. Two replies are part of their grade.
I have students go interview a pastor they respect or a pastor of different denomination or a non-Christian or a missionary and report back with a post or video in the forum about what they learned instead of booking guest speakers or panels as I do in the face-to-face classroom.
By the way, the next stage after recording a course full of lectures is probably to write this stuff up as a book / booklet. That way, even if students don't watch your videos, it is accessible to those who are interested in what you have to say!
