Producing Multimedia

Three lab students intently looking at a computer screen — Students interpretting a graph

Media content in courses adds a human touch, new layers to information, and can make your courses more engaging. What do we mean when we say media? It can be as simple as an image like the one here, or it can be a video that not only contains a person talking, but also images, moving graphics and layers of sound. Understanding the building blocks to media can be helpful and clarifying so you can find the right equipment, sofware, and help for what you want to create.

Media Planning and Considerations

Taking time to plan your media will make your process smoother and your timeline shorter. This is a great opportunity to consider what makes up your content - how interactive is it? How much visual information does it hold? Are your slides easy to read and view? How lengthy is it? How much of this content already exists somewhere else? Here are some considerations to think about as you plan your media:

Considerations

Your resources, time and budget - Some media types cost more money and take more time, and everyone has different resources available to them. You might have a graphic designer and not a camera person on your team. With creative planning, your content could rest on that resource, especially since visual design is a key element in your media. Some media types like animation take more time and in turn, more money to make. If you do have resources and are feeling overwhelmed a producer can help guide you to the appropriate media type. There are folks at UCSF with the expertise to guide you to create a strategic plan and connect you to other media professionals.

What students need from the content – If your students are going to need to reference your content, then you want to avoid putting it into a timeline-based format like a video or audio lecture. If interaction is important for understanding, you would want to have students reading and clicking, instead of watching and listening. If your students repeatedly stumble on this content or find it tedious, perhaps you can write a short script and bring it to life in a video in your own words! Make sure you think about the relationship of what you are making students engage with and what you see and communicate as their learning outcomes.

Type of lecture content – if you have a lot of graphs, charts, and images in your content, then you need a graphics-based media type like a robust moodle page, handout, a slide deck, a slide deck with voice over, or a motion graphic piece. If your content is conversational then you might want to do an interview or simply have an audio lecture or podcast.

Your comfort level and strengths – It's perfectly fine to choose some media types that help show your strengths. For instance, if you have a great speaking voice and confidence in your content but want to minimize time on camera (it’s an acquired skill), you could create a voice-over slide deck or audio lecture.

Variety and repetition - Some elements of your content should be repeated like the way you navigate through your course, where certain things are, and font types, but other aspects of your media could have variety to change things up. If you have a video in your first module, that does not mean you have to have one in other modules, students are adept at jumping from one media type to another.

Audio and Video Best Practices

Adding video and/or a human voice to your course adds warmth and a feeling of presence. When people listen to others, they want to hear a story. What is the story in your course, what is the story in that lecture? Even a scientific process has an arc and story in it. Are there any anecdotes you can add? our professional experiences as a content expert are what you bring to this, don’t forget to add those in. This article will get you started on creating video with tips on which tools to use, how to setup your space and how to prepare yourself for recording. There is a variety of help available to you here on campus if you are in an academic program.

Visual Design

Principles of visual design can be applied to all content in your materials including slide decks, videos, the CLE and handouts.

Elements of design include font choices and size, color, what kind of images and graphics you choose and where you put them. The choices you make affect meaning, legibility, understanding, and usability of your materials.

UCSF has developed their own look that is used throughout UCSF's materials and also created tools for you. The UCSF Brand Identity site has a wealth of information and resources that can help you design using correct fonts and logos and provide you with UCSF Powerpoint templates for your slide decks.

Slide Decks

If you like many educators are planning on building a slide deck for your lecture, we suggest starting with a UCSF Powerpoint template and checking out these Slide Deck Design Tips to make it as informative, well-designed and engaging as possible.

If you are planning on using your slide deck for a video recording, here are some additional suggestions:

Suggestions for building Slides that will appear in your Video

A good pace is 1-3 slides per minute of script/voice-over (approx. 180 words).
Each slide should contain new meaningful information. This does not include animation of bullet points. If you would like certain bullet points to appear individually, please create that as a separate slide rather than using built-in Powerpoint animations. This will save you time in the future if you want to make any edits to your video.
Try to incorporate meaningful images into your slides, if the image and text don't work together, it's perfectly fine to just show an image full screen.
Abbreviate your sentences and keep your bullet lists short.
Please use a UCSF template, they can be found on this site.

Images

Images can add meaning and delight to your materials. Here are some beginning considerations when Working with Images.

You can find free images of people, events, processes and research from UCSF in these Image Resources. It is also possible to find images online through browser searches or going on photo sites where you can purchase a single image or pay a monthly fee. If you do not pay for an image you found, you may need to give credit to the owner of the image. Read below about Fair Use and Copyright.

Collecting images for your slide deck, video and/or course requires organization and some knowledge of file types and resolution. Read this to learn about the process of collection whether you are workiing alone or collaborating.

Asset Collection Best Practices

Create a folder for each lecture labeled “assets”. Place all images in appropriate “assets” folder per lecture.
Use google tools to search images. Click “tools” at the sub-menu below the url (at right side). Then click “large”. Now you’re ready to search images that will be an acceptable resolution.
Get as high res images as possible.
There are TWO components to resolution:

a. Dimension (i.e. 500 x 1000 pixels) and
b. Size (dpi—dots per inch), (i.e. 72, 150, 300dpi).

Click image and hit command i (info) to show dimensions and size (dpi)
If an image has a lower size (ie. 72 dpi) but is large in dimension (2000 x 2000 pixels), that’s OK.
If any image looks blurry or pixelated—it is low resolution. Make sure you feel the image is high enough quality that you can visually understand the content (especially text or diagrams).
Acceptable file formats include .tiff, .jpeg, .png, .eps—NO .gif.

Graphics

What is a graphic? Graphics can be logos, charts, graphs, and icons, or can be combined to be an infographic. Usually a graphic is an element that is not photo-based unless you combine a graphic with a photo. With graphics you want to consider the colors and sizes you are using. If you would like to stay in the UCSF color scheme, here are your color options.

If you are designing you want to consider how accessible your choices are. Please read the Accessibility section on this page for more information.

Lastly, if you are thinking about using graphics in your video, we have some suggestions. Graphics can be used to add interest and meaning, and give you something to cut away to so you can cover flubs and give the viewer a break from the talking head.

Graphics in your Video

Graphics can appear to the side of a talking head or can be something to cut to and break up your video to make it more visually interesting. They can be still or animated.
Good graphic design principles are necessary for any kind of visual integration in video.
You want your font choices to be legible and consistent, as well as your backgrounds and color.
Your images need to be of decent resolution so that they don’t look pixelated and you shouldn’t stretch your images vertically or horizontally but rather find a way to integrate them into the frame in their original aspect ratio.
Lastly, when adding text to your video or slides: It’s best to avoid putting text over an image as it makes it hard to read. If you want an image and text to appear together then you should think about where in the image there is room for text or how to put them next to each other instead of on top of each other.
If you’d like text to appear next to you, then record yourself on a background that is one color (could be a wall) and leave room to the side of you.

Accessibility

The University of California is committed to providing an electronic environment that is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities.

UCSF has a Digital Accessibility Program. UC policy and US law require our web delivered services and content be accessible by people with disabilities. At the heart of the UCSF accessibility statement is the concept that accessible websites benefit every site visitor with well-designed, easy-to-navigate sites.

How you plan and design your media content will also impact how accessible it is. If you don't know much about the topic, here are Ten Tips for Building an Accessible Course.

If you would like some training, sign up at the Siteimprove Training Academy. It has free accessibility training for all UC locations. Check out the course “Virtual Classroom Accessibility Fundamentals” with checklists for multimedia, image, and color accessibility.

Fair Use and Copyright

Copyright law gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to distribute and reproduce their work. One exception to this is called the “fair use exception” which allows for limited use of copyrighted works. The purpose of this is to allow students, scholars, critics and others the right to reference these works in their own scholarship, teaching and critiques.

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