Course Content

Don't create course content you can get from somewhere else. Think of where your discipline can use primary sources, databases, and other content already on the web. Speak with colleagues about this, here and elsewhere.

Bouwhuis Library is as helpful and relevant to us in our online or remote courses, as it is when we are on campus. At their Continuity Guide, you can find links to their databases, research guides, and how to work remotely with library staff.

Specifically, Bouwhuis library has created a guide to streaming video resources available through the library. These include a broad range of educational and primary source content.

If you are interested in teaching with published video (documentaries, feature-length hollywood movies, and so forth) be sure to watch this discussion of using video resources, intellectual property, and coursework, led by Bouwhuis Librarians.

The Library maintains a YouTube Channel with many tutorials that can help you find excellent course content resources.

Open Textbooks

The Open Textbook Library may be an excellent place to find free, online publications suitable for higher education courses. While you may be using a textbook in your course already, you may find additional content here.

Audio Recordings

You can record lectures and other information as audio files.

Using a Mac? You can record audio using QuickTime, or you can record and edit Audio using GarageBand. These are available free for Mac users from Apple.

Using a PC? Try Audacity. It’s free, has documentation, and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube.

Screencasting

Record Screencast Videos for your students. You can essentially salvage classroom lectures by creating or adapting a few slides, and adding your voice and slide-timings. Publish the video via Google Drive or D2L.

• Zoom is your simplest option. Simply start a meeting with (only) yourself, share your screen, and record. You can record to your local hard drive, or in the Zoom cloud.

• If you use PowerPoint for Windows, it is great for recording your slide-based lectures.

• Screencast-O-Matic is a favorite for Canisius faculty. This can record essentially anything on screen, for when you need to show or demonstrate things other than PowerPoint slides. Plus (and unlike Zoom) it has an easy-to-use editor.

• Quicktime and iMovie on the Mac are also a great combination for screencasting.

• Here's an example of a Screencast Course Orientation Video.

For more on Screencasting, see our Web-based Video for Teaching Guide.

Tips

Lots of video can be time-consuming for you to produce and for students to watch. Don't record lectures if you don't need to. Record what you absolutely need, and nothing more.

• Is it covered in text, or existing video resources already available on the web?

• In lecture, are you paralleling a textbook or other class readings, and can save time by just focusing on what is not otherwise available to them?

Write a script before recording.

• You will find it much easier to record a better video if you read from a script, either prose or a very strong outline.

• If you use Google Drive to host video, share the transcript with students as well, so they can read as well as watch.

Share your Slidedeck

• Make the slides available to students for download, in case they wish them into their notes.

• Visually-impaired students can use screen-reading software to read the slide content.

• Use YouTube, Screencast-O-Matic, Zoom, or other transcription toolsets to add closed captions. These will be a separate file (such as .vtt) that you can upload in the appropriate space in YouTube of Google Drive.

See below for how to to host video at YouTube or in Google Drive, and have it appear in D2L.