Recording lectures can provide benefits like allowing students to review material they missed or didn't understand the first time. However, it also has drawbacks such as not capturing student questions or whiteboard drawings. Simple and free software like Notepad, MSPaint, or Google Docs can be used to record lectures and replace a whiteboard. The teacher should remember to repeat student questions aloud for the recording. Pre-recording has the downside of preventing student participation and questions. Surveys found most students prefer live lectures with recording available later.

1. Recording lectures
Daníel B. Sigurgeirsson
dabs@ru.is

2. Recording lectures
● Why we should record lectures
● What are the pros/cons
● A few advises about the implementation
● What tools to use
● Tips/tricks

3. Benefits
● If a student misses a class, (s)he can still benefit from the
lecture by watching it later
○ there can be a million reasons why a student misses a
class, some of the because (s)he's lazy, but there are
also a lot of legitimate reasons
● Students don't always "get" things right away, and might
want to revisit some particular topic
○ watching the lecture again (or a part of it) can be very
useful
○ sometimes the teacher talks too fast, sometimes too
slow...

4. Drawbacks
● If we only record the screen:
○ we can't use the whiteboard!
○ various gestures won't be recorded
● Questions asked by the students won't be audible in the
recording
● If the teacher says something stupid, it can be played back
again and again!
● Setting up the recording environment requires practice

5. What about the equipment?
● Won't I need a cordless microphone plus some expensive
receiver?
○ Not necessarily
○ The only thing you need is a simple headset with a
microphone (and a cord). You aren't going to be walking
around the room anyway
○ Available here

6. Recording software
● The most common software for screen capture is Camtasia
(http://www.techsmith.com/)
● Other (open source) options are available (see here for
instance)

7. Questions from the students
● While lecturing, a question may be asked by a student
● The question will probably not be audible in the recording
● The teacher must take care of repeating the question after
the student has asked it
○ this is actually also useful for at least two other reasons:
■ other students might not have heard the question
■ it will help to prevent misunderstanding, as the
teacher will usually rephrase the question, and
therefore ensure he understood it correctly the first
time
● Start doing this right away, it will become second nature
very quickly

8. Tools that might replace the whiteboard
● Some computers have fancy screens which allow us to
draw directly to them, using a special pen
● This is fine where it is available, but not necessary at all
(and I don't recommend getting too attached to such a
device)
● Other tools can replace the whiteboard and/or a special
device in 95 - 99% cases:
○ Notepad
○ MSPaint
○ Google Docs
● Note: these tools are all preinstalled and don't need any
additional configuration

9. Notepad
● ... or whatever text editor you prefer
○ I use Notepad because it loads fast, and it is guaranteed
to be installed on all machines
● Very useful if all you do is write text
● Tip: to ensure students at the back of the room can read the
text, you should increase the font size!
○ 14 - 16 pixels is usually fine

10. Drawing programs
● Sometimes, writing text isn't enough
● MSPaint is a simple drawing program - and it turns out we
only need simple programs!
○ the whiteboard isn't that complicated is it?
● If you use Google Docs, there is a drawing application
there as well
○ easy to share images with students

11. Pre-recorded lectures
● Recording lectures beforehand without student participation
is also an option
● Drawbacks:
○ students cannot
ask questions!
● Benefits:
○ students cannot
ask questions!

12. What do students prefer?
● In a recent (very non-scientific) study, where 49 students
participated, 25 of them preferred the option of being able to
attend lectures, 18 preferred pre-recorded lectures, and 6
didn't care

13. Uploading lectures
● Making lectures available on the school website is one
option
● Another is to upload it to YouTube and/or iTunes
● If you use YouTube, you will need the following:
○ a Google account
○ many of your recordings will be too big for YouTube by
default, but you can request permission to upload bigger
recordings

14. Tips/tricks
● In drawing programs (MSPaint, Google drawings), holding
the shift key down will:
○ draw horizontal/vertical lines while drawing lines
○ draw a circle while drawing an ellipse
○ etc.
● In Google Docs, press Ctrl and + (the plus key) to get a list
of keyboard shortcuts
● Check out www.khanacademy.org which uses videos
exclusively

15. Questions?