Transforming lengthy lecture recordings into bite-sized, engaging content that actually keeps students watching.

In the world of online education, producing effective and captivating instructional videos requires creativity and attention to detail. This blog post provides a behind-the-scenes look at the steps I took to transform hours of lecture footage into concise and essential content designed to educate and engage pre-service students.

Embarking on this project, I was faced with the task of reviewing hours of video footage, each with its own unique recording quality. The challenge was to distil this extensive material into the core information that pre-service students truly needed to grasp about their future profession. This was no small feat. It required a deep understanding of the content and a keen eye for detail to ensure that no crucial information would be lost in the editing process. Drawing on my expertise as an educator proved to be instrumental here, as I was able to review the lecture recordings and guest presentations and recall from experience what information was crucial to the field.

Initially, sifting through the lengthy footage to identify key points was a time-consuming endeavour. However, the process was significantly expedited when my team lead provided transcripts of each of the required videos. These transcripts were instrumental in pinpointing the essential information, as they allowed me to quickly locate and review the crucial parts of the lecture without repeatedly watching the footage.

With the transcripts in hand, I meticulously highlighted each section deemed relevant for the students, noting the timestamps for each segment. This meticulous approach laid the groundwork for the next phase: editing. Armed with a clear roadmap, I dove into the editing process, removing extraneous sections and seamlessly stitching together the key points to create a coherent and focused narrative.

To elevate the quality and professionalism of the videos, I introduced transitions at the beginning and end of each segment. Additionally, I included opening and closing slides, complete with a brief sound effect, to provide a polished look and feel to the videos. These elements not only enhance the aesthetic appeal but also contribute to a more structured and engaging learning experience for the students. The same opening and closing slides, including sound effects, were used for all of the edited videos. The idea was to create a series of chunked content and to really highlight the difference between the edited videos and the remaining full-length lectures.

The final step in this transformative journey was to integrate the edited videos into the AI-powered Nolej program. This integration enabled us to develop a series of H5P interactive activities and features, further enriching the learning experience. By embedding these interactive elements, we hoped to transform passive video-watching into an active and engaging learning process, encouraging students to interact with the content and reinforce their understanding.

The process of condensing hours of lecture footage into digestible, impactful content was a challenging yet rewarding experience. It underscored the importance of precision, creativity, and strategic use of technology in crafting educational materials that resonate with students and facilitate deeper learning. As we continue to navigate the evolving landscape of online education, these experiences serve as valuable lessons in our ongoing quest to create meaningful and effective educational content.

Moving forward, this process has me contemplating how we could commence developing online video content from the very beginning. Does the standard lecture have a place in all online learning environments? Perhaps this is an opportunity for courses to re-evaluate the necessity and impact of long lecture and video recordings and to consider the important points/facts that we want students to grasp.

• Can these points be delivered in a shorter time frame, resulting in additional opportunities for interactive experiences and discussion?
• How do we even measure engagement with long recordings?
• Are students watching the entire video or skipping through to find sections they deem relevant- just like I did when I was first tasked with this editing process?

Whilst in a synchronous online learning environment, the online live lecture recording is deemed relevant and (hopefully) is an engaging experience, I wonder, does a full-length lecture featuring one or two people talking have the same impact on the asynchronous learner?

Join the Discussion

Have you made videos for your students before? Were they effective?