Procedural Video
Online Faculty Development Course
With video being cheap and easy to produce, you might consider video messages to your students, similar to what you've seen in the OFDC. Whether you show yourself on screen or just your course space in D2L, walking students through what will happen during the course, or each week of the course, can be a great way to both reinforce the syllabus and inject your voice in the class.
These videos can be installed in any content module in D2L, or in the course News Feed. In the past, we recommended Google Drive and Youtube, as seen below, to host course videos, but now we have a much nicer option in Panopto.
Here's an example of a course orientation video:
And here's a (much shorter) weekly procedural video for students in another history course:
D2L's Video Note
The above videos were produced using a screencaster, but the simplest way to produce any video is via your webcam and D2L's Video Note tool. This tool allows you to record videos of yourself, right in your D2L course space. So you need not locate and learn any other video development apps to get started.
Recording yourself is a quick way to add professor presence to your course. Take a look at this quick tutorial, and try creating a video note. After becoming comfortable with it you'll be ready to move onto other easy video creation tools.
In general, such quick webcam (and in a minute, we'll talk about screencast) recordings need not be the highest production value. Poor lighting, so-so sound, and less-than-professional delivery are all okay when you are just trying to tell your students a few things and, in the process, let them know there is a real person leading the class. Like more candid and less formal composition style in text, a less-polished video adds sincerity to your presence in the course.
But keep your videos short and clear by writing a script, or at least a few notes to guide you as you speak. Since the tutorial above was recorded, D2L has extended the allowed Video Note time to 30 minutes. But it pays to keep procedural announcements, reminders, and other commentary concise.