Record a Lecture with Zoom

Purpose of Recording with Zoom

If you want to record a PowerPoint lecture for your students to view online, you can record a Zoom meeting, share your screen, then post the recording. This also works with Google Meet (see more instructions for Google Meet).

Ideally, if you're creating content for an online class, you would record your lecture in a studio and have it professionally edited. However, if you don't have the time or resources to do that, you can record the lecture on your own at home or in your office. Again, ideally, you would use some screen capture and editing software like Camtasia or Snagit (from Techsmith) or Screenflow (from Telestream) for a Mac.

However, sometimes it's just easier and quicker to use what you already know. Many teachers are now familiar with conducting online Zoom meetings, and it can be used to record lectures.

Start the Meeting

Before you start your meeting, you should have your PowerPoint ready to go ahead of time so that once you start the recording, you can quickly get started with your lecture.

You can start a Zoom meeting even if no one else will be in the meeting. Open Zoom and click "New Meeting" (1). Click "Join with Computer Audio" (2) , then start the recording by clicking "Record" (3) then "Record on this Computer" (4). Next, click "Share Screen" (5) and choose to share the whole screen (6), then click the "Share" button (7).

As soon as you click "Record on this Computer," everything from that point on will be included in your recording.

Next, go to PowerPoint and start your presentation full-screen. Your lecture and your screen will be recorded just like you see it on your screen. It will record your PowerPoint plus a small window showing your face.

Stop Recording and End Meeting

When you are finished, at the top of the screen click the red Stop Share (8) then end the meeting by clicking End (9) and choose "End Meeting for All" (10). Zoom will then take a few minutes to convert your recording into a file on your computer (11).

Once the recording is finished converting, you Zoom will open the folder and the recording will be named something like "zoom_0" in that folder. Change the name to something more descriptive (like "Lecture September-25-2020").

Share the Video

There are several ways to share the video with students.

Using Google Drive is probably the easiest. Open Google Drive, find or create a folder for lecture recordings, and drag the file into that folder on Google Drive. It will take a few minutes to upload then process the file.

Once it's finished, you can "share" the file like this: (1) click the file to select it, then (2) click the sharing icon, and (3) click "Copy Link." Finally, paste that link into an announcement, and email, or a content page on Canvas for students.

Uploading to YouTube is another fairly easy option. You'll need to verify your account with an email address or phone in order to be approved to upload longer videos. We recommend posting it as "Unlisted" which means that only students with the link will be able to view the video.

Alternative: Upload to VidGrid. VidGrid is the video platform used at Biola for videos on Canvas. If you have a Biola VidGrid account, your Biola Zoom account will automatically upload your recordings directly to your VidGrid account if you choose "Record to the cloud" rather than "Record on this computer." See Zoom Recording on VidGrid for more details.

Some Additional Suggestions

Create shorter videos. It will be easier for you to record, and easier for students to watch, if you limit your video length to about ten minutes. Instead of doing one long lecture, split it up into several parts.

Learn some video editing software so you can trim the beginning and the end of the video, or cut parts of out of the middle. That way, if you say something incorrect, you can pause and start that part over, then later cut out the part you don't want. Editing software can be complex, but there are some easy-to-use option. In particular, if you upload your video to YouTube, there are some basic tools on YouTube that you can use to do some simple editing.

If you need access to Zoom, see Zoom Licensed Account Annoucement in the Biola Community News: https://my.biola.edu/employees/news/2020/zoom-licensed-account-announcement.php

Video Demonstration

Here is 3.3-minute video demonstrating how to do these steps: