Adding your own audio and video to a subject site

In addition to providing students with lecture recordings, incorporating videos that you have created into your subject site helps students connect with their educator, fostering a learning experience that is both interactive and personal. Students are increasingly accustomed to engaging with video content for entertainment, news, and social connections. This approach aligns with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines, which emphasise the importance of providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression (CAST, 2024).

Potential use cases for video include:

• welcome messages
• describing assessment requirements and providing feedback
• explaining important or complex concepts
• sharing personal experiences
• prompting discussion questions
• clarifying or summarising previous discussions

Why?

Videos offer several advantages in online learning environments. They can be easily scaled, enabling educators to record explanations and feedback once, reaching numerous students across multiple groups in a cohort. This approach improves efficiency and ensures students receive consistent, high-quality instruction or feedback.

Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) highlight that teacher presence involves the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes to achieve meaningful learning outcomes. Videos can effectively establish this presence by allowing educators to communicate directly with students, thereby humanising the online learning experience (Borup, West, & Graham, 2012).

Research indicates that video can enhance student engagement, motivation, and understanding of complex concepts (Guo, Kim, & Rubin, 2014). Short, focused videos are particularly effective, as they align with students’ attention spans and help manage cognitive load (Brame, 2016).

Not all teacher-created videos require a "talking head" component; narrations over images or PowerPoint slides can be just as, or even more, beneficial for student learning in certain contexts (Brame, 2016).

How?

There are two recommended ways to record videos within the Learning Platform.

1. Record using EchoVideo

EchoVideo Universal Capture and Browser Capture, available to UOW staff, allows you to record audio and videos using your webcam and capture on-screen content. Once recorded, audio and videos can be edited before being added to your subject site.

EchoVideo will automatically transcribe your audio and videos using AI to provide students with a text-based transcript. For more details, see the L&T Hub article, Making videos accessible. 

2. Record using the built-in audio and video recorder in the text editor

The audio and video recorder in TinyMCE is best used for low-stakes recordings that do not require editing, as recordings have a maximum duration of two minutes and cannot be edited.

Suitable uses include:

• recording a welcome message
• explaining a concept or idea
• providing additional explanation on a task
• contributing to a forum discussion

To record and display an audio or video recording on your subject site:

1. Ensure Edit mode is on.
   
2. In the TinyMCE editor, place the cursor where you would like to embed the audio or video, then click the Record Audio or Record Video button.
   
3. The Record audio/video pop-up window will appear, with the option to Start recording.
   
   Note: You may be prompted by your browser to allow access to your computer’s microphone and camera. Click Allow.
4. Click Start recording to begin. A two-minute countdown timer will be displayed as you record. 
5. Once finished, click Stop recording. The recording will stop automatically once the two-minute timer has been exceeded.
6. You can now preview the recording. If you're unsatisfied, click Record again to re-record.
7. When you're happy with the recording, click Attach recording. 
8. Click the Save and Display button to capture changes. 

References