Second time's a charm!

For the second offering of one of my courses, I've used my cellular phone to record the video welcome to students. The initial plan was to go to a professional recording studio during the final week in December 2016. However, while on the Christmas holiday, I decided to engage in my definition of fun and record the new message. This recording is a step up from my attempt earlier this year (February 7, 2016). The areas improved on in the new video include the lighting, audio, closed captions and background. I'm also mindful of the findings mentioned in an earlier posting which mentioned that learners spend more time viewing videos that have a personal feel than studio recordings.

The off-screen props involved a 6 feet step ladder, 2 LED desk lamps,1 small roll of scotch tape and 1 chair. The fourth step of the ladder was used as a tripod due to its availability (ease of access) and ability to stabilize and elevate the cell phone camera. The phone was strapped on to the ladder using scotch tape. One lamp was placed on the desk to the right of the computer and the second lamp was placed on a chair to the left of the presenter.

Here is a comparison of the picture quality of the two videos:

In the most recent video, I've placed a complementary picture on the computer screen, given that the white background in the video recorded in February 2016 appeared a bit bland, particularly in clips that did not include pictures nor text.

Additionally, this time around, I tried to let the text scroll or appear on the top right of the screen, so that the closed captions flowed without interference by other text. If you haven't read my earlier blogs, I'm trying to ensure that my recordings are more inclusive (I still have more work to do and I'm getting there slowly).

Another significant change in the video, is that the upload quality was improved from a maximum of 480p to 720p HD. It should be noted that an even higher quality of 1080p HD was available to export the recording from iMovie. However, the higher quality only allows learners to view the video from a computer, while the 720p allowed views from iPhone and iPad. In addition, the higher the quality setting, the longer the video takes to load.

One aspect that is missing from the new recording is music, hopefully, for the August 2017 course I will be able to include it...always something to look forward to :)