DRAFT FOR COPY Remote Teaching

• Current Resources
• Top Priorities
• Pre-Record Your Lectures (audio & video)
• Pre-Record Your Lectures (audio only)
• Shared Documents in Canvas "Collaborations"
• Discussion Boards
• Other Asynchronous Strategies

How to record a lecture for Asynchronous Teaching (audio only)

An audio-recorded lecture is essentially a podcast. Lectures can be recorded in advance and assigned for your students to listen to. Lectures recorded in advance can be less technologically fraught than synchronous sessions in which everyone in class is logged on at the same time, audio-only files require less robust technology to listen to, and can be listened to multiple times to allow for content review. 

Note: While audio-only recordings may work well for students with technological limitations, they are not accessible to students with hearing impairments for those who benefit from learning in multiple modalities (e.g., auditory & visual inputs). Because of this, it is best to extract the audio from a video capture (above) to provide audio-only to students as needed, while making more accessible materials available as well.

Step 1: Record your audio and video file as described above, saving to either the file to your computer (this makes it easier to extract the audio only file).

Step 2: After ending your recorded meeting, your recording will need to convert before it can save. Zoom will allow you to choose where you want to save your recording. It is best to save files to a location where you will be able to easily retrieve them.

Step 3: The file named audio_only.m4a is the audio track.

Step 4: Convert the .m4a file to an .mp3 audio file. There are numerous free tools that will do this, including https://online-audio-converter.com/, which does not need to be installed on your computer. Audacity is another free tool that will convert and edit audio files, but Audacity does need to be downloaded and installed on your computer..

Step 5: Upload and share the .mp3 audio file with your audience.

How to record a lecture for Asynchronous Teaching (audio & video)

A recorded lecture is also known as a screencast or as "lecture capture." Lectures can be recorded in advance and assigned for your students to watch. Lectures recorded in advance can be less technologically fraught than synchronous sessions in which everyone in class is logged on at the same time, can be viewed by students with less robust internet connections, and can be viewed multiple times to allow for content review. 

When recording lectures, remember that attention spans are short, and it may be better to assign multiple short lectures instead of one long recording. It is best to keep recordings under 10 minutes long. Learn how to Record Effective Microlectures.

Steps for Recording with Zoom or PowerPoint:

Step 1: Have the Recording Devices Ready

In addition to a computer and your PowerPoint file, you need a device to record your voice. The Library Information Desk has laptops, microphones and webcams for checkout

To Test the Recording System

On a PC:

1. Plug in the USB device if it is the device you use to capture your voice.
2. Locate or Search Sound in the Control Panel. Then select the tab ”Recording”.
3. Select the device (the plugged-in USB microphone, or the internal microphone), making sure it is checked.
4. Position the microphone about 12 inches away from you, try to project your voice and speak. In the meantime, see the Input Level indicator pushing up, with over half of the small bars turning green.
5. If no bar or only 1 to 2 bars turn green, click “Properties” button.
6. Then select “Levels” and increase the number.
7. Be sure to Save.

On a Mac:

1. Plug in the USB device if it is to be used to capture your voice. 
2. From the Apple Menu, select “System preferences …”, and press the icon “Sound” to see a pop-up screen as this screenshot. Then select the tab ”Input”.
3. Select a device for sound input: the plugged-in USB microphone, or the internal microphone
4. For Input Volume, move the slider toward near the maximum.
5. Place the microphone about 12” away from you, speak to the mic, and try to project your voice.
6. Meanwhile, see the Input Level indicator pushing right, with the left half of the small bars filled.

Step 2: Record your Lecture (voice and computer screen)

It is recommended you break a long lecture into segments, with each segment being less than 10 minutes when students view it. Learn how to Record Effective Microlectures.

• Using a PC computer: Record a PowerPoint presentation
  • Watch the tutorial
• Using a MAC: Record a PowerPoint presentation
  • Tutorial: QuickTime Player as recorder
  • If you use an older Mac OS than “Catalina”, refer to Apple Support. The older QuickTime Player has a different opening screen for the “Screen Recording” function.
• ​Using Zoom (video conferencing system) 
  • Watch the tutorial

It is recommended you break a long lecture into segments, and when converted to video-format (.mp4 or .mov) each segment is less than 10 minutes long. Name the video segments of the presentation in the form of "Topic X: Part 1", "Topic X: Part 2", etc.. Longer videos require you change a setting in your G-Suite Account (tutorial on accessing your R-MC G-Suite account).

Step 3: Upload the recorded lecture onto YouTube for easy access (watch the tutorial).

• YouTube will provide closed captioning for your audio recording, though it is not always accurate and may not be accurate enough if students in your class have accommodations from the Office of Disability Support requiring closed captioning. If that is the case, you will need to edit the closed captioning to ensure its accuracy.

The Collaborations feature in Canvas allows students to work together on a shared Google Document. You can start documents and add students to them, or individual students or student groups can also start collaborations with other students.

To set up a Collaborative document:

You can create a collaborative document directly within Canvas. Follow the steps below:

1. Login to Canvas and navigate to the course where you want students to do shared work
2. Go to Collaborations on the left side of the screen
3. Click Start a New Collaboration
4. At this point, you’ll be asked to Login to Google to authorize the connection between Canvas and Google. Any students logging into this document the first time will also need to login to Google with their R-MC accounts.
5. The page will default to "Collaborate with Google Docs”
6. Name the document and add a description or directions if desired
7. Invite participants by clicking their names. You can add all students enrolled in the course, or if you have set up groups in Canvas, you can have different groups work on different shared documents
8. Then click the blue “Start Collaborating” button at the bottom. All your students invited to the document will get an invitation to edit the document one once you being the collaboration. A Canvas video on Collaborations will help you visualize the process.

If recording video and/or audio to accompany your PowerPoint slides is not possible due to time or technological challenges, you can also:

• Annotate your slides with typed notes, and then share the presentation with students via Canvas or email.
• Share links to outside resources such as articles, ebook chapters, videos from YouTube or Films on Demand and follow up with quizzes or discussions questions. Learn more about how to Engage Students in Readings and Microlectures.