Capturing video to use with your students is easy for everyone. Mobile phones can capture high quality, HD video, as can webcams.

Here are some hints and tips to use the video we all love in the most effective ways:

1. Keep it short – Instructional videos should range from 2 to 10 minutes. Research shows that students generally watch videos for an average of 4 minutes, so if you need a longer amount of time, consider breaking up your material into several shorter videos.
2. Use as part of a blended lesson of text, images, video, quizzes and live online sessions for questioning. Use the video for rich, visual ideas and content.
3. Use task lists to present and track the video alongside all the other learning content in the lesson.
4. Video of a teacher’s face is useful alongside the learning materials to help students engage but the focus should be on the learning materials.
5. Checkout your phone/webcam settings. It is not necessary to use the highest quality recording settings. HD video recorded at 1280×720 (also known as 720p) is great for seeing fine detail (this is the setting we use to record Fusion help videos). 1 minute of recording creates a file size of about 40Mb. Longer, high resolution videos are harder to store and edit.
6. Consider uploading your video to a video streaming service such as YouTube. List the video as ‘Unlisted’ in YouTube, it will then only be visible to anyone with the link. Create virtual YouTube files on Fusion to play these videos. There is no need for students to visit YouTube or other video websites. You can then attach the virtual files to homework and task lists as needed.

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