Bring your Friends to the Party: Incorporating Guest Speakers into

your Online Course!

Christopher Neidig & Daniel ShpakQuinnipiac University

Christopher Neidig

Daniel Shpak

Senor Instructional Designer & Project Manager Adjunct faculty in the School of Communications Over 8 years experience with online education in

the areas of instructional design and instructional technology

Junior Instructional Designer M.S. Interactive Communications Multimedia Specialist for QU Online

Discuss how to integrate guest speakers into your online course

Talk about what software and hardware you need

View some videos we created and discuss the process

Test record your own video

What are we doing today?

Poll How many online courses do you teach?

http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/2VplrLR3xpe3wpF

Why use guest speakers? Getting away from traditional online

lecture style with screen recordings and podcasts

Shows instructor presence in an online course

Video engages students It’s a nice way to hear real world

experience from professionals in the field

Approached by faculty member who was not a supporter of online learning

Said we couldn’t recreate an on ground class online. How could we do guest speakers?

Challenge accepted Here is an example of our first try. Your

basic talking head video Worked Well

How we got started

Faculty have high standards of online learning

We needed better production (sound, video, background ect…)

Not off to a bad start

Tried bringing the person to campus so we could control the elements

Background, camera angles, microphone ect…

We had the instructor introduce the guest speaker and then let the speaker talk

Better produced video

Let’s try planning a shoot

We were on the right track with planning a shoot

Let’s have more than a talking head How about interaction between the

instructor and the guest speaker This video came out very well

Interview Style

Now that we have the production side down let’s try giving a different format a shot

Webinars are very popular because they offer a live audience and audience interaction

Need web space, we use Adobe Connect Webinar video

Webinar

The interview style and Webinar videos worked well

We received great feedback from students as well as the instructor and guest speaker

Now we are getting there

Location, Location, Location You want a quiet place A nice clean background (nothing with

distracting items or people in the background)

A place that has a decent amount of lighting (turn on all lights in the room)

How did we do it? - Setup

1 Sony HD Camera (best if you can use 2 cameras, it helps with editing )

Kodak zi12 Under $200.00 and has microphone input (some lesser priced cameras do not have microphone input)

Lavaliere microphone (hide wires in persons clothing if possible)

Tripod – will help you capture those nice steady shots

How did we do it? - Hardware

Final Cut Pro (Adobe Premiere) - Editing Recommend Camtasia Studio – screen

capturing software but also a nice beginner video editing software (has advanced options)

Publish to Relay Server (Google Drive or any multimedia server)

You could also use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker

How did we do it? - Software

Let’s try recording video and audio without the proper tools

Take out your phone and try recording Dan and I for a few seconds

Fun Time

Are your shots steady? Do you hear background noise? How is the light? How does your arm feel?

What Did You See?

Using the proper equipment makes a big difference when filming and editing video

This is a process can be done by 1-2 people

Worth the work since you can re-use the video

Maybe share across disciplines

Wrapping up

Let’s discuss

Questions?

Christopher Neidig Christopher.Neidig@Quinnipiac.edu

Daniel Shpak Daniel.Shpak@Quinnipiac.edu