ETOM Fall 2018 Conference

Macomb Community College

Note: The process describe below requires you to have a Google account. Sign-up here or sign-in to confirm if you have an existing account.

Why mobile video?

When you free yourself from your webcam or a bulky video camera, you can take your students places! The world becomes a classroom -- can it get better than that? So the next time you stumble upon that real world example of a concept from your course, pull out your phone and start recording! The instructions below walk you through how to upload your mobile videos to YouTube and edit the auto-captions to ensure they are accessible to all students.

Step 1: Record Your Video on Your Phone

Tips:

  • Turn your phone. You want to record in landscape mode (rather than portrait mode) so your video fills the YouTube player.
  • Keep it short. The longer your video, the larger the file size. Uploading large files can be a problem if you are using a purely mobile workflow.  For videos longer than a few minutes, it is best to transfer them to your computer and then upload them to YouTube.
  • Light your face. That's right, we won't be able to see you if you are backlit. Be mindful of where your light source is before you record.
  • Look at the camera. I know it feels weird, but it feels even more weird to watch a video of a person who isn't looking at you.
  • Find a quiet spot. Background noise can be especially problematic in mobile recordings. If you are recording somewhere noisy, do a quick recording test and play it back. Use a simple pair of ear buds with a built-in mic to improve your audio quality.

Step 2: Upload Your Video from Your Phone to YouTube (be sure you're on WiFi)

The 4-minute video below walks you through the steps to upload a video to YouTube from your iOS or Android phone.

 

Step 3: Edit the Auto Captions

This 4-minute video walks you through editing the auto-captions on your YouTube video (in the YouTube Classic interface).

Step 4: Embed the Video in Your Course

Copy the embed code. The process for embedding videos differs depending on the LMS. However, the essential step is going to your video on YouTube, clicking the Share option, and then selecting "Embed." This presents you with the html embed code that you copy and paste into the html source code view of the Rich Content Editor in a page in your LMS.

Whoohoo! You have mastered creating mobile, accessible videos for your students!

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