Recording PowerPoint Lectures

Learning objectives:

• Create recordings of PowerPoint presentations.

Teachers face increasing pressure to deliver their content online. For lecture recording, the difficultly is deciding the tool to use.

I’m a big believer in Kaizen - take the smallest, simplest step you can now to move towards your goal. That is why I recommend PowerPoint as your starting step into lecture-capture. This is because:

1. You will be familiar with PowerPoint.
2. You will have PowerPoint slides to present.

PowerPoint has the basic features you need to start your journey in lecture-capture: you only need a microphone. In this post, I will walk you through how to convert your PowerPoint into a video you can share with your students.

My advice before we start:

• Pick a short presentation. Your module introduction will do. If needs be, extract a topic from a longer presentation.
• Prepare what you will say. A script is useful, but notes are essential. You will make mistakes when you record and having notes will help.
• Listen to the presentation. You won’t be 100% happy - a few um’s and ah’s will be there. It won’t be perfect, but if you are content, that’s enough.

Step 1 - Open your PowerPoint Presentation

The most natural step is to open your slide show in PowerPoint.

Step 2 - Select the Slide Show Tab

Once your presentation is open, select the Slide Show tab.

Step 3 - Press the Record Button

You will see the “Record Slide Show” button in the ribbon as shown:

Click it to start recording.

Step 4 - When Ready, Press Record

But before we do that, let us review the controls. You should see the following window:

In the top-left are the main controls: record, stop and replay.

You can access your notes from the tab at the top.

At the bottom are drawing tools you can use to highlight items.

You will find slide transitions buttons on each side of the slide.

Once you are ready to start, press the Record button.

Step 5 - Run Through the Presentation as Normal

Run through the slides as normal. Speak to each slide and then move onto the next slide. Nothing fancy; slide-by-slide, speaking as if you were presenting to the class.

Step 6 - When Finished, End the Presentation

Once finished, either press Stop or transition past the end of the show to end recording. Press the cross in the top-right to exit the recording view.

Step 7 - Select File, Save

Step 8 - Save the MP4 File

Now save the video. Select where you want to save it and the filename. PowerPoint will spend a few seconds processing the video.

Step 9 - Play it Back

Once you save the video file, play it back to test the recording.

Step 10 - Share it With Students

You can place the MP4 file wherever you need. It will work via your VLE, your institution’s video server, or providers such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Well done, you have created a video of a lecture. Your first simple step in delivering content online.