• Today’s #Tech Talk on Moodle 2 begins at 2pm. Tune in at http://elonuniv.adobeconnect.com/techtalks
• Read the latest TLT Moodle Musings blog post on Moodle 2 Features. Moodle 2 coming May 21! http://fb.me/1tOkNGmy2
• Infograph: The Internet in 60 seconds http://fb.me/1Dej5OZ4H
• Evernote training available from Lynda training. Access it now at http://www.elon.edu/lynda. #elonuniversity #lyndadotcom http://fb.me/GM8N2dn5
• Interested in Teaching and Learning? Save the Date for Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Conference – Aug 16, 2012 #ElonTLC
• @evmaiden Glad you will be joining us at #ElonTLC. Webpage with information and registration will be launching soon. We will tweet the link.
• For Elon folks – Moodle upgrade brings new features: what you need to know #moodlemusings http://blogs.elon.edu/technology/teaching-and-learning/moodle-upgrade-brings-new-features-what-you-need-to-know/
• The Next Digital Revolution in Education? Grading. Web app offers a more nuanced way to grade. http://s.hbr.org/LePwV0
• Clear, helpful advice for academics on twitter: http://bit.ly/KNAgfM I’m breaking more than 1 of her 10 commandments now, so I’m a rebel?
• Join us for the 9th annual Teaching & Learning Conference at Elon University on Aug. 16. See the program and register. http://bit.ly/INPVeg

What you need to know about the upgrade

• Moodle will be unavailable 8am-5pm on May 21
• Courses already in Moodle will be automatically upgraded
• Content should not be affected; however, you should review your course(s) after the upgrade
• Upcoming Moodle training sessions can be found on the Technology website

New features in Moodle 2

• Easier navigation and file access
• Upload documents and images with drag and drop
• Private storage for universal file use
• Create and use rubrics
• Improved and simplified gradebook
• Specify time release of course materials

Important changes

• Journal will not be available – contact TLT if you need to archive previous journals
  • See alternatives and suggestions from TLT
• Peer review will not be available

Additional resources

• For more information on the upgrade, including video demos of the new features, visit the Technology wiki.
• Watch the Tech Talks @2 session where Elon’s Ben McFadyen talks about the new features in Moodle 2. (recorded on 5/8/12)
• Watch this brief video demo of one of the new features, adding files to your course by a simple drag and drop. (Note: joule 2 is Moodlerooms’ version of Moodle 2.)

Image by Flickr user Schlomo Rabinowitz / Creative Commons licensed BY-NC-ND 3.0

• #OneNote is part of Microsoft Office, which available for all faculty, staff, and students. Here’s 10 tips for… http://fb.me/11WTPbSkM
• New from Lynda Training – Up and Running with Evernote. Access training at http://www.elon.edu/lynda.
• RT @lyndadotcom: Harness the power of #Evernote, the cloud note-taking/sharing tool. Mac: http://ow.ly/aDoXX Windows: http://ow.ly/aDoVW
• RT @Chronicle: New partnership of Barnes & Noble and Microsoft will promote digital textbooks: http://chroni.cl/IHw5Ri
• RT @Moodlerooms: New Best Practices Blog: “4 Ways to Best Utilize joule Reports” http://fb.me/zjMJRfG0
• Latest Moodle Musings blog posted on adding Twitter to your course. http://fb.me/1jMlXqnf7
• Tech Blog: Record brief videos to introduce yourself or course content. http://fb.me/11VUbjA9J
• RT @cit_jmu: Next Generation of Online-Learning Systems Faces Barriers to Adoption: http://bit.ly/Ike6SK @wiredcampus
• RT @TLTGROUP: 1st try Building Community in Online Course Archive, Slides, Polls, & Chat Transcript #TLTGFrLv 20120427: http://bit.ly/KypXAE
• RT @educationweek: New study adds to the mounting evidence that being bilingual has tremendous advantages for the mind http://bit.ly/IFqgqZ
• RT @danreis01: Easily add current, course-relevant news to your Moodle courses http://blogs.elon.edu/technology/teaching-and-learning/easily-add-current-course-relevant-news-to-your-moodle-courses/ #MoodleMusings
• edX from MIT/Harvard with free courses. Retention is terrible but potential for research on learning is intriguing: http://nyti.ms/ImKYtZ
• Open Edu. Resources blog post: http://bit.ly/IoPqZk and great video RT@Edtweeps: Copyright & Creative Commons: http://bit.ly/J1DdMD

Educators can quickly record a video welcoming students to a course, introduce an assignment or important course concept, or make an announcement. These short videos are a simple way to build a connection with students, particularly for online classes. In this post, we’ll talk about what you need to record videos using YouTube, tips for recording talking-head videos and a detailed tutorial.

What you need

To record videos in YouTube, you need a webcam and a YouTube account. Mac owners are in luck because most Apple computers already have a webcam. If you don’t have a webcam, you can check one out from Elon’s Media Services, located in Belk Library. Call (336) 278-6598 for more information. If you don’t have a YouTube account (Gmail accounts also work), click here to create a Google account.

Tips for recording videos

• Content: This method of recording videos is recommended for broad concepts or ideas rather than specific details or facts on the course content. Use these videos to introduce a concept or an assignment, tell a story that ties to the course content or as a way to humanize yourself. Detailed lecture-like recordings are better when accompanied by visual aids. If you want to include visuals such as photographs, PowerPoint slides or other images, tools like Adobe Connect, PowerPoint, Jing or Screencast-O-Matic are better at combining video and visuals. Contact Teaching and Learning Technologies for more information about these tools.
• Script: If you don’t use a script in your classroom, don’t use one on video. Like in the classroom, your ideas should be outlined but a natural delivery is more important than a precise delivery. Try to have a conversation with your webcam.
• Practice: It’s not easy to talk to an inanimate object. The first few times you do it, it will feel awkward. Give yourself a few times to practice. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just comfortable.
• Be brief: Most talking-head web videos should be around five minutes. If you want to say more, record a few short videos.
• Look into the camera: Your instinct will be to look at your computer screen while you’re recording but try to look directly into the camera. This is the best way to simulate eye contact with the viewers.
• Backlight: Be careful not to have a window or any bright light behind you. If there is, the web camera will assume everything in the picture is that bright and will darken the entire picture and making it difficult to see you. Instead, have any bright lights in front of you, so the light is shining on your face, not your back.

Example

Here is an example I recorded in about 8 seconds on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI3H-NlZcQE

How-to record a video using YouTube

Step 1: Connect your webcam to your computer

Step 2: Go to www.youtube.com and login with your YouTube (or Gmail) account

Step 3: Click “Upload” at the top of the page

Step 4: Click “Record from webcam”

Step 5: In the popup box, click “Allow” to let YouTube use your webcam to record this video

Step 6: Click “Close.” You should see yourself on the page.

Step 7: Verify your webcam and microphone settings. Test your microphone and check to see audio is being heard (say a few words, you should see audio bars moving up and down). If audio is not being registered, change the webcam or microphone settings and choose the correct microphone.

Step 8: Click the record button in the center of the screen to start recording. Remember to try to look directly into the camera, and don’t worry if you make minor mistakes. The video will feel more natural if it isn’t 100% perfect.

Step 9: When you are done, click the stop icon. The video will process for a few seconds. Additional options should appear on your screen – you have the option to “Re-record” your video (erase what you have recorded so far and record another version), “Preview” (view what you just recorded) or “Publish” (post the video to YouTube). If you are happy with the video, click on “Publish.” If not, click on “Re-record.”

Step 10: Your video is now processing on YouTube – this typically takes a few minutes. In the meantime, fill in the video’s “Basic Info” at the bottom of the page. Include a “Title,” Description,” and “Tags.” If you want to limit the people who have access to your video, change the “Privacy and publish settings” to “Unlisted.” This means that only people who have the direct link to your video will be able to view it, rather than anyone searching or browsing on YouTube.  Below is a screenshot of the recommended settings.

Step 11: After you’ve added the necessary information, Click “Save changes.”

Step 12: Refresh your browser. If your video is done processing, it should appear on the screen. If it’s not ready, wait a few more minutes and refresh your browser again. Click on one of the images to set it as a thumbnail preview.

Step 13: That’s it! The only thing left is to share the video with your students. Click on the “View on video page” near the top of the page. This will take you to the YouTube page for this video.

To share your video, you can either email this link to your students or embed the video directly into Moodle. To embed the video in Moodle, follow the directions from our previous post, Reduce distractions and embed YouTube videos in Moodle (skip down to the “How-to” section of the post).

Do you have another way to record videos? Let us know in the comments. Or contact Teaching and Learning Technologies with your questions or for assistance with recording your videos.

Video Recording in Progress image by Flickr user Jeremy Brooks / Creative Commons licensed BY-NC 2.0

About the author

Dan Reis is an Instructional Technologist with Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Technologies.

Ideas for use

IDEA 1: Follow professional organizations and news sources relevant to your course to start classroom discussions

• Examples Twitter accounts of professional organizations or news sources: @AdAge (advertising/marketing), @ChemistryWorld (chemistry), @sociologically (sociology), @AIGAdesign (design), @GettyMuseum (art), @WSJBusiness (Business), @USPhysTherapy (physical therapy), @WWIIToday (history)

IDEA 2: Follow known professionals in the field and help students develop their professional social media network

• Find scholars, CEOs, writers, activists, and more. Go to www.wefollow.com and search for the discipline you want to find people. For example, for a list of people who post about “writing”,  search for writing.

IDEA 3: Find brands or marketing firms for examples of social media marketing and customer service

• Example Twitter accounts from well known companies: @BestBuy, @Zappos_Service, @comcastcares, @Starbucks, @SouthwestAir

IDEA 4: Find international organizations or native speakers who post in their native language

• Examples of Twitter accounts for foreign language courses: @spanishbot, @germanlanguage, @SPIEGEL_English, @frenchToday, @franceintheus

IDEA 5: Encourage students to write about course-relevant experiences they have outside of the classroom and label those tweets with a course-specific hashtag. Or, encourage students to retweet news they have found on Twitter and share it with the whole the class.

Twitter account

If you do not have a Twitter account, you will only be able to add one person, company, or search term to your course widget. If you have a Twitter account, you can add many more by creating lists with many people and companies. Read more information on how to create a list in Twitter and why you would want to.

How do I find people/companies to follow?

Websites like WeFollow.com can help find interesting accounts on Twitter. It works best to search by a topic, like chemistry or economics, rather than with a specific person or organization name. If you are looking for a specific person/organization, it is easiest to search at twitter.com/search.

How to embed Twitter into Moodle

Embedding Twitter into your Moodle course involves two steps:

1. Creating a Twitter widget
2. Pasting the code for your widget into Moodle

An example of a Twitter widget in Moodle

Create the Twitter widget

Step 1: To start creating a widget, click here.

Step 2: In the left-side menu, click on “My Website.”

Step 3: Chose what type of widget you want to use. If you do not have a Twitter account, select “Search Widget.” If you do have a Twitter account, you can create a widget with your Twitter posts, or a list of Twitter users or favorite tweets (faves). For this tutorial, we’re going to create a Search widget.

Step 4: In the “Search Query” box, enter either a Twitter username or a search term.

• Example: Twitter posts of Ad Age type – “from:adage”  (without the quotes)
• Example: Twitter posts about health care, type – “health care” (without the quotes)
• Warning: if you use a search term, you have no control over what will appear. If someone posts to Twitter using your search term and profanity, it will appear in your Moodle course.

Step 5: In the “Title” box, give the widget a title, and give it a caption in the “Caption” box. You should see a preview of your widget on the left-side of the screen. You can customize the “Preferences,” “Appearance,” and “Dimensions” if needed.

Step 6: Once you are ready, click “Finish & Grab Code.” Right-click inside the text box and chose “Copy.” Don’t be intimidated – this is HTML code that you will now paste into your Moodle course.

In Moodle

Step 7: Go to your Moodle page and go to the course to which you want to add the Twitter widget. Click on “Turn editing on” in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Step 8: In the right-side column of the screen, look for a heading called “Blocks.” In the drop-down menu, chose “HTML.”

Step 9: That should have added a new block the course page. By default, the new block is called “(new HTML block).” Click on the “Update” icon.

Step 10: In the next screen, click on the “Toggle HTML Source” icon.

Step 11: Within the text box, right-click and chose “Paste.”

Step 12: Click on “Save changes.” That’s it! Your Twitter widget should now appear in the left-side navigation of your Moodle course. If you prefer to have the widget near the top, you can move it anywhere in the sides of the screen (the block areas). To move it, click and drag the dark grey rectangle directly above the widget and move it to the location you prefer.

Note: If you need to make any changes to your widget, you’ll need to create a new widget and go through these steps again.

To delete the widget, click on the “Delete” icon right above the widget.

If you are interested in other ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning, contact Teaching and Learning Technologies. If you are new to Twitter, check out our guide to Getting started with Twitter.

Do you have other ideas for using Twitter in Moodle? Let us know about it in the comments.

Canary Wharf news ticker image by Wikimedia Commons user Senseiich / Creative Commons licensed BY-SA 3.0

About the author

Dan Reis is an Instructional Technologist with Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Technologies.